Women's Tennis . February 26, 2021

Gamecocks Drop 4-2 Decision to No. 22 Texas A&M

South Carolina Looks to Rebound Sunday Hosting No. 19 LSU

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina women’s tennis team dropped a 4-2 decision to No. 22 Texas A&M on Friday at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C.

The Gamecocks fell to 4-6 on the year with the loss and 1-2 in SEC play, while the Aggies improved to 9-2 and 1-0 in league play.

Doubles Recap

The Gamecocks managed to take the doubles point for the fourth match in a row, securing the point with victories on courts one and three. At three, Allie Gretkowski and Ana Cruz continued their hot play this spring by coasting to a 6-1 victory over Jessica Anzo and Riley McQuaid. Gretkowski and Cruz are now 5-0 at No. 3 doubles.

South Carolina’s No. 29-ranked duo clinched the doubles on court one by downing No. 39 Jayci Goldsmith and Tatiana Makarova 6-4. The Gamecocks jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but Goldsmith and Makarova managed a break of serve and then held to cut the Gamecocks’ lead to 5-4. With Davies serving the next game, the Aggies won the first point, but Horvit and Davies dominated from there by winning the next four rallies to propel Carolina to a 1-0 lead.

On court two, play was suspended once the point had been decided. The Aggies’ Dorthea Faa-Hviding and Renee McBryde led No. 20 Emma Shelton and Silvia Chinellato 5-4 with the match on serve. Shelton and Chinellato trailed 5-2 before winning two games to close the gap.

Singles Recap

Texas A&M came out strong in the singles by winning the first sets on four of the six courts. Katya Townsend wasted no time getting the match back to 1-all, as she raced to a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over No. 93 Emma Shelton at the No. 3 position. Thanks to No. 34 Mia Horvit, though, the Gamecocks regained the lead 2-1 after she defeated Jayci Goldsmith 6-2, 6-4 at the top position to improve to 3-0 in the SEC. The Aggies then followed with a 7-5, 6-4 win from Dorthea Faa-Hviding at the No. 4 position to tie the match up again at 2-all.

The remaining matches on courts two, five and six saw No. 64 Tatiana Makarova leading No. 30 Megan Davies 7-6(2), 4-2, Renee McBryde was up in the third on Allie Gretkowski 3-2, and Ana Cruz and Riley McQuaid were tied 1-all in the third. It did not take long for one of those matches to finish with Makarova going on to take down Davies 6-2 in the second set to put Texas A&M back on top.

South Carolina needed to pull out a pair of three-set matches to get the win, but it was not to be as McBryde went on to win 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 against Gretkowski on court five to give A&M the victory. Cruz and McQuaid were tied in the third set 2-all when play was suspended due to the team outcome being decided.

Notes

Today’s match was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. but was rescheduled to a 9 a.m. start because of the weather forecast. Rain delayed the match with doubles underway for around four hours and play restarted at 1:30 p.m.
South Carolina has won the doubles point seven times in 10 matches this season and won it four times in a row.
Ana Cruz and Allie Gretkowski improved to 5-0 together this spring at No. 3 doubles.
Mia Horvit is off to a 3-0 start in SEC singles play at the No. 1 position.
Mia Horvit now has 93 career singles victories and is tied with Tamara Sutton for seventh place on the Gamecocks’ all-time singles wins list.
Texas A&M snapped a four-match losing streak to South Carolina and is now 5-4 against the Gamecocks since joining the SEC. South Carolina leads the all-time series 11-6.