With the season already in full swing, Texas women’s tennis is continuing its early season success, currently sitting among the top teams in the Big 12. 

To start off Big 12 Conference play, the Longhorns faced off against then No. 15 Oklahoma, which gave them a hard fought battle, but Texas prevailed to win 4-3. The match was a back and forth affair, with the Sooners taking the first point of the day, then Texas coming back to even it up. This trend continued until junior Sabina Zeynalova was able to defeat Oklahoma senior Dana Guzman two sets, 7-5, 6-1, to win the overall match. 

This win laid the groundwork for the next several matchups, with the Longhorns going on a tear to sweep their next four opponents for a combined score of 22-0. The first of these matches was against West Virginia, where Texas won 7-0, with senior Malaika Rapolu giving the Longhorns their first singles win with a two-set 6-0 sweep of West Virginia graduate Love-Star Alexis. The next game against Cincinnati proved to end in the same fashion, with Texas winning the overall match 7-0. 

Despite the next two matches being on the road, Texas didn’t slow its momentum, and captured 4-0 sweeps of both Houston and the University of Central Florida. This display of dominance would be put to the test against their next opponent in No.1 Oklahoma State. 

Texas opened the match with senior Taisiya Pachkaleva and freshman Shachf Lieberman winning their doubles match and then graduate Tanya Sasnouskaya and Rapolu capturing the doubles point in their 6-4 match, puttign the Longhorns up 1-0. After moving on to the singles matches, the Cowboys would rally back and hand Pachkaleva, Rapolu and Liberman losses to go up 3-1. With the game on the line, Texas mounted a comeback supplied by wins by redshirt sophomore Vivian Ovrootsky and senior Charlotte Chavatipon, evening the score 3-3 going into the final singles match. In the deciding match, Sasnouskaya pushed it into the third set, but came up just short. Texas lost 4-3 for their first Big 12 loss of the season.

The Longhorns would soon shake off this defeat in the next matches and defeat Kansas State 4-0 and Kansas on the road 4-2. Texas would play again on the road facing Iowa State, conceding only the second singles match to win 4-1.

The Longhorns would return home against Texas Tech and conquer the Red Raiders to a 4-0 sweep, extending their win streak to four.

This win pushed the Longhorns to 16—4, 9—1 in conference play, with just three matches left before the start of the Big 12 tournament.