SMU Falls To No. 13 Texas A&M At NCAA Championship

[Mustangs35SMU]

A day after capturing its biggest win of the 2004 season, the SMU women's tennis team nearly repeated the feat Sunday, dropping a 4-1 decision to No. 13 Texas A&M in second round action of the NCAA Women's Tennis Championship in College Station, Texas. The Mustangs were making their first appearance in the round of 32 since 1988. The Mustangs defeated No. 25 TCU on Saturday, 4-2, to advance to Sunday's showdown with the Aggies.

SMU opened play up in dramatic fashion for the second consecutive day, capturing the doubles point. Kit Carson and Jenny Langer were the first Pony duo to complete play in doubles action, winning at No. 1 doubles, 8-5. The Aggies answered with a 8-6 victory at No. 3 doubles, setting the stage for the point to be settled at the No. 2 position. The SMU No. 2 squad of Nadia Vaughan and Lynsie Jones staved off several match points and came from behind to defeat Roberta Spencer and Helga Vieira, 9-7, to give SMU the 1-0 lead.

In singles, though, the Aggies showed their teeth winning four straight matches at No. 4, No. 5, No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Texas A&M's Lauren Walker defeated SMU's Nadia Vaughan to even the score at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles. Nicki Mechem followed with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Lynsie Jones, giving Texas A&M the lead 2-1. No. 20 ranked Jessica Roland defeated SMU's No. 79 Svetlana Kouzmenko at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-4, giving the Aggies a 3-1 lead. Texas A&M clinched the win after No. 119 Helga Vieira defeated SMU's Kit Carson, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 2 singles.

“On the day, A&M was just too deep, too strong all around," SMU head coach Rob Howarth said. "Our girls played well and fought hard, and I am proud of the way they played."

With the loss, SMU ends its season at 18-11, marking the end of a year that saw the Ponies advance to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1996 and the round of 32 for the first time since 1988. The A&M loss was also the last action for departing seniors Kit Carson and Nadia Vaughan. Carson ends her SMU career with 67 career singles victories, ranking her eighth on SMU's all-time list.

SMU sophomore Svetlana Kouzmenko is a first alternate for the NCAA Individual Singles Championship, held May 24-29 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga

[centexstang]

The women played great matches against both TCU and A&M at the NCAA tournament. With Kit and Jenny shocking the aggies at #1 and Nadia and Lyndsey coming from behind to win at #2 to take the doubles point, the Mustangs showed A&M a spirit and toughness they did not expect. Even with the evential loss, the parents,players and fans felt pride in the quality of the Sunday afternoon match. A tennis sportswriter from Austin came to the College Station Regional on Sat. instead of the one in Austin because he figured the best regional match on Sat. would be the SMU-TCU match-up. He left with the same feeling and was very complentary of the Mustangs.