Courtesy of LA Tech Athletics
Down 3-1 and on the brink of defeat, Louisiana Tech stormed back to take down North Texas 4-3 on Monday afternoon at the Waranch Tennis Complex.
It was a similar situation last season in Ruston when LA Tech (5-2) trailed North Texas (3-4) who needed just one more point to capture the win and multiple matches were still on court. And for a second straight year, the Bulldogs dug deep, claiming four singles victories to sweep their road trip in Texas.
“Today was a hard-fought win and those are the ones that build us,” said head coach Amy Sargeant. “We came out too slow in doubles. Too many unforced errors. Too reactive instead of dictating. That is not our standard and we know it. In singles, it took time to settle in. We had to adjust to the wind, manage momentum swings, and recommit to our individual game plans. Once we locked in and trusted our work, thing shifted.”
The Mean Green came out swinging, jumping on top on all three doubles courts to eventually take the 1-0 lead with wins on courts one and two, each by a score of 6-3.
North Texas secured the first singles point as well, taking it in straight sets at the No. 2 position to go up 2-0, but Maria Tsironi quickly responded with a complete performance at No. 4, dismantling Marina Adati 6-1, 6-1 to put LA Tech on the scoreboard.
The Bulldogs suddenly had their backs against the wall after the Mean Green secured a straight sets victory at No. 5 to get them one point away from the win.
The tide started to turn with Zoie Epps. Cruising up 6-1, 5-3, her opponent Carolina Laydner fought back to ultimately force a tiebreaker on court one. With Epps down 3-1 in the breaker, the junior reeled off six straight points to take it 6-1, 7-6 (3).
Then came the comeback effort of the two newest Bulldogs, Diana Starodubtseva and Isabella Walker. Starodubtseva got down 3-0 in the first set and came back to win 7-5. The senior trailed in the second set too but pulled that one out 7-5 as well to tie the team match up at 3-all.
The match would come down to court six between a pair of freshmen in LA Tech’s Walker and UNT’s Giulianna Ciangherot. Walker dropped the first set but took complete control from then on, dropping just three more games to secure the 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory to stun the Mean Green.
“It was not pretty,” said Sargeant. “It was not perfect. But toughness rarely is. What separates us is our heart and our grit. We train to be fitter and stronger. We train to outlast and outcompete and today, that showed. When things were not going smoothly, we leaned into resilience.”
