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Mississippi State
No. 14 Women’s Tennis sweeps No. 73 Mississippi State, 4-0
04.06.2025 | Women's Tennis
The Longhorns earned their third-straight win and second-straight sweep after a 4-0 victory over No. 33 Alabama on Friday, moving them to 7-6 in SEC play.
Starkville, Miss. – No. 14 Texas Women's Tennis swept No. 73 Mississippi State, 4-0, on Sunday in Starkville. The Longhorns earned their third-straight win and second-straight sweep after a 4-0 victory over No. 33 Alabama on Friday, moving them to 7-6 in SEC play.
In a match that moved indoors to weather, Texas secured a dramatic doubles point with a 6-2 win at No. 2, followed by a 7-6 (6) tiebreaker win in the deciding match at No. 3. The Longhorns then claimed singles victories from freshmen Salma Drugdova at No. 6, No. 91 Ashton Bowers at No. 2, and No. 33 Carmen Herea at No. 1 for the clinch.
After doubles, Drugdova posted an efficient 6-1, 6-1 win over Athina Pitta for a 2-0 overall lead. Pitta held her opening serve, but Drugdova won consecutive deuce points to start a 9-0 run to take the first set and establish a 3-0 lead in the second. Pitta picked up one more hold, but Drugdova closed it out from there with a 3-0 run to compile 12 of the last 13 games.
Bowers extended to overall lead to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Carolina Troiano at No. 2. After both players held their initial serves, four-straight breaks made it 3-3, including one at deuce for Troiano for 3-2. Bowers then held for a 4-3 lead, and three more breaks provided her a 6-4 win. In the second set, Troiano used a deuce point to again break first for a 2-1 lead, and this time she consolidated it for 3-1. Bowers got the break back on a deuce point for 3-3 as part of a 4-0 run for a 5-3 advantage. The last game of that run would again be the beginning of a stretch of three-straight breaks for her win.
The clinch then came from Herea who posted a 7-6 (8), 6-4 win over Gianna Oboniye at No. 1. After Herea held and broke to begin the match, the players exchanged 3-0 runs both made up of a break, a hold and a deuce-point break, resulting in a 5-3 lead for Herea. Oboniye then put together another 3-0 run, this time starting with a deuce-point break, for a 6-5 lead. She had a set point in the next game, but Herea kept it going with a deuce-point break to head to a tiebreaker. The theme of 3-0 runs continued there, as Oboniye used a mini-break on the opening point to start with one. That would be the first of four that alternated between the players for 6-6, including Oboniye having set points at 6-4 and 6-5. She would later have two more at 7-6 and 8-7, but Herea denied them all until Herea collected one more 3-0 run for the 10-8 win. In the second set, Herea broke first on a deuce point for a 2-1 lead and the first of four-straight breaks. Oboniye broke the string by holding for a 4-3 lead, but Herea also held at deuce to start one last 3-0 run for the clinch.
That left three matches unfinished, most notably at No. 3 where freshman No. 76 Eszter Meri had match points in front of her with a 6-1, 5-2 (0-40) lead over Jayna Clemens. The first three games of the match all reached deuce and were all won by Meri as she opened on a 4-0 run. She later finished the set with one more deuce-point win for a break. Clemens finally won a deuce point to break in the first game of the second set, but Meri responded with a 3-0 run as part of winning five of the last six games, including one more deuce point for 5-2. She then had a 0-40 lead in the last game when play stopped.
No. 80 Anazagasty-Pursoo had also been in sight of a win, leading Alessia Tagliente, 6-3, 4-6, 4-1 at No. 4. Anazagasty-Pursoo bookended the first set with breaks for a 6-2 win. Tagliente broke and held on a deuce point to start the second set, and although Anazagasty-Pursoo put herself in good position with a 4-0 run, Tagliente answered it to take the set. Anazagasty-Pursoo made it three-straight 4-0 runs by opening the third set with one, and Tagliente got one game back on a deuce-point break before play halted.
The final singles match at No. 5 was then even between freshman Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Chiara Di Genova, 4-6, 6-3, 2-2. Despite two deuce points on service games by Kempenaers-Pocz, the first six games of the match stayed on serve until Di Genova broke for a 4-3 lead. Although Kempenaers-Pocz broke right back, Di Genova broke again and served out the first set. Di Genova was again the first to break in the second set for a 3-2 lead, and again Kempenaers-Pocz broke back, however this time it started a 4-0 run for her 6-3 win. The third set then stayed on serve through its four games before play stopped.
Earlier in doubles, the matches at Nos. 1 and 2 ended almost simultaneously with the No. 26 duo of Bowers and Anazagasty-Pursoo first falling to the No. 71 pair of Oboniye and Pitta, 6-4, at No. 1. In a match that featured no deuce points, the Bulldogs broke in the opening game and made it stand up the rest of the way to their win.
Kempenaers-Pocz and Drugdova then provided an immediate answer with a 6-2 win over Troiano and Emma Cohen at No. 2. That match did not have a game reach deuce until the last one when the Longhorns held it to complete a 5-0 run for their win.
That turned all attention to No. 3 where Herea and junior Vivian Ovrootsky clinched with a 7-6 (6) tiebreaker victory over Clemens and Di Genova. The Bulldogs broke first in the match for a 3-2 lead, but the Longhorns later got the break back for 4-4 and held for a 5-4 lead of their own. In the next game, Texas had two match points leading, 30-40, but Mississippi State managed to hold the only deuce point of the match. The Bulldogs then broke for the lead, but the Longhorns broke back to send it to the tiebreaker. There, Texas pushed out to a 5-1 lead, but Mississippi State rallied to tie it, 6-6. However, the Longhorns rebounded to hold for 7-6 and capture the mini-break they needed for 8-6 and the match.
Texas (13-9, 7-6 SEC) will next close the regular season with a pair of top-20 matches at home, starting with No. 1 Georgia on Friday, April 11, at 2 p.m. CT, followed by No. 18 South Carolina on Sunday, April 13, at 12 p.m. CT.
#14 Texas 4, #73 Mississippi State 0
Singles – Order of Finish (6,2,1)
1. #33 Carmen Herea (TEXAS) def. Gianna Oboniye (MSU) 7-6 (8), 6-4
2. #91 Ashton Bowers (TEXAS) def. Carolina Troiano (MSU) 6-4, 6-4
3. Jayna Clemens (MSU) vs. #76 Eszter Meri (TEXAS) 1-6, 2-5, unf.
4. Alessia Tagliente (MSU) vs. #80 Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo (TEXAS) 3-6, 6-4, 1-4, unf.
5. Chiara Di Genova (MSU) vs. Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz (TEXAS) 6-4, 3-6, 2-2, unf.
6. Salma Drugdova (TEXAS) def. Athina Pitta (MSU) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2,3)
1. #71 Gianna Oboniye/Athina Pitta (MSU) def. #26 Ariana Anazagasty-Pursoo/Ashton Bowers (TEXAS) 6-4
2. Salma Drugdova/Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz (TEXAS) def. Emma Cohen/Carolina Troiano (MSU) 6-2
3. Carmen Herea/Vivian Ovrootsky (TEXAS) def. Jayna Clemens/Chiara Di Genova (MSU) 7-6 (6)
Players Mentioned
