Tennis sneaks past Tulsa (Photo By John Schreiber The Daily Campus)

The SMU women’s tennis team earned its first hometown win of the season Thursday afternoon. The Mustangs took on the women from Tulsa University in the first conference match for both teams. It was a tough competition, resulting in long matches in almost every singles position.

“[Tulsa] is our conference rival; it’s always a tight match when we play them,” head coach Rob Howarth said.

SMU prevailed 4-3 in the late afternoon. Singles match wins included senior Svetlana Kouzmenko at the No. 2 position, junior Georgiana Marta at the No. 4 spot and senior Brooke Rambally at No. 6.

Kouzmenko played a solid match against the offensively aggressive Santie Delport. Her consistent serve and strong defense kept her in the match, despite a loss in the second set. Kouzmenko’s win over Tulsa was SMU’s only win in the top three singles positions.

At No. 4, Marta had a difficult match that went three sets with Tulsa’s Tiffany Smith. After losing the first set to the hard-hitting Smith, Marta rallied back in the second with 7-5 – she literally knocked Smith off her feet with a strong cross-court winner late in the second set. Her determination carried her through to the third set, where she finally ended the match at 6-3. The weather wasn’t the only thing that was cold at Haggar Tennis Stadium yesterday. Quite a few of the Mustangs couldn’t get fired up enough to close their matches. Both SMU’s No. 1 and No. 3 singles suffered losses versus Tulsa. Freshman Natalia Bubien fell to Daniela Muscolino in a three set battle for the No. 1 match. Bubien was her own worst enemy in the first set, making numerous errors and rarely delivering a strong first serve.

Despite being visibly ill, Tulsa’s Muscolino was extremely quick and returned almost everything Bubien threw at her. The third set forced each player to get more creative and get off the baseline.

Bubien spent more time at the net, winning the majority of those points. In the end her comeback was not enough and Muscolino closed the match 6-2, 1-6, 7-5.

Junior Jennifer Chay attempted to defend the No. 3 singles spot against Thalia Dias-Barriga of Tulsa. A strong start in the first set quickly turned into a two-set loss for Chay. A string of unforced errors visibly shook the usually solid Chay, ending in a victory for Dias-Barriga at 7-6, 7-6.

The doubles matches went a little better for SMU with victories in the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. Natalia Bubien and Svetlana Kouzmenko teamed up to defeat Tulsa’s Santie Delport and Thalia Dias-Barriga 8-1. SMU sisters and team co-captains Brooke and Halley Ramblay took on Agostina Santoro and Tiffany Smith from Tulsa. Howarth was happy to see such great doubles play.

“We had awesome play at the doubles No. 1 and No. 3,” he said.

The SMU women’s team plays Prairie View A & M at home this Saturday at noon.