Box Score EDMOND, OKLAHOMA – UT Tyler opened their season on Friday night with a tough opponent in #9 Central Oklahoma, and it was the Bronchos who came away with a 6-1 win.
In the doubles portion of the match, the pair of
Chloe Dix and
Tanvikhaa Saravanan battled it out in the #3 slot, but fell by a score of 6-0 to put the Bronchos just one victory away from earning the doubles point.
Allison Schwartz and
Kanika Sivaraman came up in the #2 slot and took the first game in their match. The pair of Tizia Brocks and Karina Yurchenko for Central Oklahoma rattled off five straight game wins to make it 5-1 in their favor, but Schwartz and Siviraman refused to go away, winning a pair of games to make it 5-4. However, the Central Oklahoma pair would close out the match at 6-4 to earn the doubles point.
In the #1 doubles slot,
Brooklyn Ross and
Akshaya Suresh would give the #1 group from Central Oklahoma almost all they could handle early on. After an early 1-0 lead from the pair of Blythe Buntrock and Nikki Boyar, Ross and Suresh won three of the next four games to hold a 3-2 advantage. Buntrock and Boyar would halt all momentum from the Patriots, and came away with a 6-3 win.
Over in singles, the Bronchos looked to keep up the solid momentum. The Patriots would fight tough, but Central Oklahoma picked up a win in singles match #6 as Dix would fall 6-1, 6-3 after a comeback attempt in set two came up just short.
The second singles win came in slot #2, as Saravanan would fall by scores of 6-2, 6-2. Singles slot #3 saw Suresh battle it out, and after a 6-1 defeat in the first set, she battled back valiantly and tied up the second set at 4-4 before Central Oklahoma took the final two games to win the set.
In singles slot #5, Siviraman battled it out with Yurchenko. After Yurchenko rank out to a 3-0 lead, Siviraman battled her way right back into the set by winning three of the next four games to make it 4-3, but Yurchenko would close out the set by winning the next two games. Another run from Yurchenko opened up the second set with another 3-0 run, but Siviraman responded with another 3-1 run. However, Yurchenko would close out the set and the match with two game wins.
In the #1 slot,
Brooklyn Ross took on Pete Kamada and battled it out in a close contest that had to see a tiebreaker to determine a winner. After going down 2-1 early, Ross rolled on a 3-1 run to take a 4- lead. That lead would fall as Kamada took a 5-4 lead thanks to two straight game wins.
Facing a first set loss, Ross came up strong with three straight game wins to earn a 7-5 win in the first set. In set two, Kamada came out firing to a 4-1 lead. That lead kept rolling and she would take the set by a score of 6-3.
That led to a tiebreaker, and the pair battled to a 2-2 tie early on, but Kamada would go on a quick 4-0 run before closing out the tiebreaker at 10-4 to earn the victory.
The lone match win of the afternoon came from newcomer
Allison Schwartz as she fought it out tough against Nikki Boyar in the #4 slot. In the first set the two came to a 3-3 draw, but Schwartz rolled with three straight wins to earn a first set win.
The two would not be separated by more than a game in the second set at any point up until the final game of the set as Boyar took a slim 7-5 win to even up the match at one set each. That tough competition continued in the tiebreaker, both players tied at four and five points each before Boyar ran out to an 8-5 lead. Undeterred, Schwartz answered with her own five point run to earn a 10-8 tiebreaker win and earn the lone Patriots point.
Next up for UT Tyler will be a matchup on Saturday afternoon as they take on Northwest Missouri State in a neutral site contest in Edmond, Oklahoma.
