Lady Raiders down Horned Frogs

Thursday, March 28

Lubbock, Texas

5 PM

Texas Tech Athletics

TCU

March 28, 2024 | Women's Tennis

Box Score Box Score

By: Andrew Fostvelt

LUBBOCK, Texas – Down 2-3 with their backs against the wall, the Lady Raiders proved their toughness in a 4-3 heart pounding finish over the Horned Frogs.

Texas Tech (14-5, 7-1) was off to a hot start in their doubles matches against TCU (10-5, 6-3). On court two, Cristina Tiglea and Mariya Polishchuk jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a pair of broken serves going against the Horned Frogs Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual. After coming back from a 15-40 deficit in their fifth set, the pair would go on to win their doubles match, 6-1.

On court one, the No. 6-ranked tandem of Avelina Sayfetdinova and Metka Komac lost their first game with a tight 30-40 score before going on a five game run to gain a 5-1 advantage over TCU's Yu-Chin Tsai and Chiho Mushika. Sayfetdinova and Komac would quell the attempted comeback by TCU to win their match, 6-3, and clinch the doubles point for Tech, the 15th doubles win of the year.

TCU would be able to grab their first point of the contest with Narmont posting a 6-1, 6-3 win over Jerrmine Sherif. Lila would be able to regain the lead for Tech on court five. After splitting the first four games, Lila grabbed the lead against Caballero after breaking serve to gain a 3-2 advantage. The sophomore would win three of her next four to win the set, 6-3, and gain a 3-1 lead in the second set. Callabero wouldn't be able to complete her comeback attempt with Lila overpowering her to a 6-3, 6-3, straight set victory to regain the lead for Tech, 2-1.

The Horned Frogs tied up the match on court two with Polishchuk quickly falling behind, 2-4, to No. 121 Destinee Martins who would end up winning the set 6-3. Polishchuk once again found herself down to Martins and didn't go down without a fight forcing a 4-4 tie. Martins would win the match 6-3, 6-4, and captured the Horned Frogs second point.

Court three was a match of swinging momentum with Katerina Dmitrichenko falling into a 1-4 deficit against Pascual. After falling 3-6 in the first set, Dmitrichenko came back swinging to win the first five games of the second set with ease. Pascual would be able to take a game from Dmitrichenko but ultimately the sophomore would win the set 6-1. The third set tiebreaker. The set was tied 3-3 before an injury ultimately derailed Dmitrichenko's momentum and ended with TCU securing a 2-3 lead after a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory.

Komac match against Tsai showcased the senior's toughness and resilience. Twice in her 6-3 first set victory she was able to come back in back-to-back games from down 0-40. In the third set tiebreaker between the two, Komac was down 1-4. With her back against the wall, she rattled off five straight and won the match on court four, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, and tied the match at three all.

Court one featured the Lady Raider's No. 55 Tiglea up against TCU's Otway where it was a battle throughout. Tiglea and Otway split their way into a 4-4 tie in the first set until Otway was able to pull away to win the first set. Down 4-5 in the second set and needing a win, Tiglea showed poise and captured the next two sets to capture lead 6-5. Otway would be able to force a tiebreaker game that Tiglea would be able to dominate to win the second set 7-6 (2). The third set was a back-and-forth affair that went into another tiebreaking game. Tiglea was able to capture the first two games of the tiebreaker. Otway would be able to capture the next six of eight before Tiglea came back to tie it up six all. After splitting the next six games to tie it up nine all, Tiglea would be able to break serve and finish off TCU, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (9).

The Texas Tech Lady Raiders will welcome the No. 31 Baylor Bears to the McLeod Tennis Complex on Saturday, March 30 at 11 AM.