The Longhorn women’s tennis team members have been on the go this past week.
Some members of the team have been competing in Pacific Palisades, California, at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships and others in Waco at the H-E-B Invitational hosted by Baylor.
The women playing in California started off successful only to later face defeat in the final days of the tournament.
UT junior Petra Granic beat Harvard’s Erica Oosterhout 7-5, 7-6 (8-6), which allowed her to advance to the main singles draw, where she fell to Melissa Lord of Stanford 6-3, 6-4, on Thursday. Granic continued to play Friday in a consolation match against Stanford’s Michaela Gordon. She lost the match 6-2, 6-1.
Prior to the losses, Granic won three qualifying matches, making her the first Longhorn to qualify for the main draw since Breaunna Addison in 2015.
The action in California continued as Granic partnered with Bojana Markovic in doubles play. The duo lost to Oklahoma State’s 24th-ranked pair, Sofia Blanco and Lisa Marie Rioux, 8-3, in the first round of the doubles main draw.
The pair continued to play Friday only to fall to Lauren Proctor and Megan Kauffman of Winthrop, 8-4, in a consolation doubles first-round match.
Other downfalls in the tournament included an early loss by freshman Tijana Spasojevic who fell 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) to Florida State’s Emmanuelle Salas in the first round of qualifying. Anna Turati also dropped a tough three-set match (3-6, 6-1, 6-4) to Alexa Graham of North Carolina after defeating Mississippi State’s Magda Adologlou 6-1, 6-0, in the first round of qualifying.
The women proved to be more victorious in Waco at the H-E-B Invitational. On Friday, the first day of the tournament, the Longhorns secured eight victories.
Katie Poluta and Fernanda Labraña both won singles matches and advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinal round. The pair also proved formidable as a team, capturing two victories as doubles partners to move on to the doubles semifinals.
Marta Perez-Mur added to the Longhorn victories Friday by defeating Minying Liang of North Texas 6-1, 6-3. She later fell 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to Tyler Junior College’s Maria Genovese. In doubles, she paired with Julia Deming of Kansas and won 6-3 against Yamalapalli and Petra Kaszas of Sam Houston State.
Saturday brought in more wins for Texas women’s tennis. Labraña won her singles match against Jessica Hinojosa of Baylor in three sets (6-2, 1-6, 6-3) in the singles quarterfinals. She ended the day on a high note defeating Kansas’ Maria Toran Ribes 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the semifinals.
The doubles tandem of Labraña and Poluta again looked impressive in Saturday’s doubles competition, winning 6-2 against Luba Vasilyuk and Paris Corley of LSU.
Labraña finished the weekend in a disappointing fashion on the singles side, falling to Maria Genovese of Tyler Junior College 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 in a back and forth match for the singles championship.
Still, Labraña still was able to clutch a championship title. Labraña and her partner Poluta captured the doubles title by defeating Maria Toran Ribes and Malkia Ngounoue of Kansas 7-6 (7-2).
