The women’s tennis team (12-8. 1-2 WAC) secured its first conference victory of the year by delivering an Easter Sunday goose egg to the University of Texas-El Paso (5-9, 1-2 WAC), 7-0, at Brookhaven Country Club.

Doubles pair Svetlana Kouzmenko and Lynsie Jones put the Mustangs ahead early, edging the Miners’ Weronika Bloczynska and Kendall Exelby by a score of 8-6.

Strong play from the Mustangs helped them take the final two doubles matches by a combined score of 16-5, and SMU easily charged to a 1-0 lead.

UTEP’s Exelby, suffering from a nagging foot injury, defaulted against the Mustangs’ Halley Rambally at the No. 6 position to put the Ponies ahead by two.

Down but not out, the Miners did battle to force tiebreakers in three of the final five singles matches.

Bloczynska, a freshman out of Elblag, Poland, forced SMU’s Kouzmenko into three sets at the No. 1 position before falling, 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 (10-5).

Tiebreakers were also drawn by Jones and senior Allison Leuszler, who went on to defeat opponents Danielle King and Katherine Palider, respectively.

Though members of the UTEP women’s tennis team hail from as far as Australia, England and Yugoslavia, homegrown freshman Teri Wilkerson did make a homecoming of sorts over the weekend.

A native of San Antonio, Wilkerson was defeated in straight sets by the Mustangs’ Jennifer Chay, 6-3 and 6-2, and SMU strolled to a 7-0 win.

The victory was the fourth in a row for the Mustangs, who are now 4-1 in their last five home contests.

The women look to continue their winning ways when they host the University of South Alabama (14-4) this weekend. Game time against the Jaguars is set for 2 p.m. at Haggar Tennis Stadium.