No. 7 Women's Tennis Prevails Over Houston, 4-3

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No. 7 Women's Tennis Prevails Over Houston, 4-3

March 12, 2016 | Women's Tennis

Alex Valenstein dominated the third set, and Texas Tech moved its winning streak to eight with a 4-3 road comeback win over Houston.

March 12, 2016

Final Stats

Written by Brock McKee, Athletics Communications Student Assistant

HOUSTON, Texas -- The No. 7 Texas Tech women's tennis team began its two-match weekend road trip with a 4-3 comeback win over Houston Saturday at the Houston Country Club.

The Lady Raiders (12-1) relied heavily on the bottom of their singles lineup and a pair of freshmen in Felicity Maltby and Alex Valenstein to wipe away a 3-2 deficit. Texas Tech increased its winning to eight matches in a row and sent Houston (4-10) to only its second loss in their last six matches.

"Give credit to Houston, they played us very hard today," Texas Tech head coach Todd Petty said. "Character is a big thing to this program, and today we played a team with more fight and energy. We will see if this makes an impact in tomorrow's match against Rice. Hopefully, this match is something we can grow from."

After Houston pieced together three consecutive singles from the top three spots of the lineup, the Lady Raiders answered with an impressive rally of their own. Maltby grinded out a 6-3, 7-6 (5) triumph over Angela Lorenzo in the No. 5 spot to remain undefeated in dual match singles play.

Shortly after, Valenstein took down Tina Rupert by a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 decision on court four to clinch the hard-fought victory for Tech.

Texas Tech debuted three new doubles pairings, and the Lady Raiders started the contest with a solid showing from Lynn Kiro and Maltby at the No. 3 spot. The tandem posted an impressive 6-1 victory over Houston's Mina Markovic and Marnie Stokes.

The Cougars evened the doubles tally when Rocio Martin and Despoina Vogasari handed Tech's Gabriela Talaba and Valenstein a 6-2 setback at the top of the lineup. Tech regrouped to clinch the doubles point as Sarah Dvorak and Sabrina Federici defeated Lorenzo and Rupert on court two by a 6-2 decision.

Ahead 1-0, the Lady Raiders began singles play with a dazzling performance from Federici on court six. Federici coasted in straight sets to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Stokes to extend the Tech advantage to 2-0.

However, Houston would respond with three straight victories on courts one, two and three to snatch a 3-2 lead. Vogasari upended Talaba by a 6-4, 6-1 margin in a matchup of two ranked players followed by Markovic's 6-2, 6-4 win over Dvorak which was only Dvorak's second defeat in dual match action. The Cougars went up 3-2 compliments of Martin's 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kiro.

Texas Tech will complete its two-match weekend road swing Sunday versus No. 55 Rice. First serve is slated for 11 a.m. CT from the George R. Brown Tennis Center in Houston, Texas.

Visit www.TexasTech.com for the latest news and information on the women's tennis program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/TechWomensTennis and @TexasTechTennis on Twitter.

No. 7 Texas Tech 4, Houston 3
03/12/16 at Houston, Texas (Houston Country Club)

Doubles
1. Rocio Martin/Despoina Vogasari (UH) defeats Gabriela Talaba/Alex Valenstein (TTU): 6-2
2. Sarah Dvorak/Sabrina Federici (TTU) defeats Angela Lorenzo/Tina Rupert (UH): 6-2
3. Lynn Kiro/Felicity Maltby (TTU) defeats Mina Markovic/Marnie Stokes (UH): 6-1

Singles
1. No. 107 Despoina Vogasari (UH) defeats No. 100 Gabriela Talaba (TTU): 6-4, 6-1
2. Mina Markovic (UH) defeats Sarah Dvorak (TTU): 6-2, 6-4
3. Rocio Martin (UH) defeats Lynn Kiro (TTU): 6-2, 6-3
4. Alex Valenstein (TTU) defeats Tina Rupert (UH): 6-0, 2-6, 6-0
5. Felicity Maltby (TTU) defeats Angela Lorenzo (UH): 6-3, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Sabrina Federici (TTU) defeats Marnie Stokes (UH): 6-0, 6-0