ARLINGTON, Texas -- Top-seeded Midwestern State was stunned in the semifinals of the LSC Women's Tennis Championship as fourth-seeded Dallas Baptist eliminated the Mustangs with a 4-0 win on its home courts at Arlington Tennis Center on a rainy Friday in the Metroplex.
Dallas Baptist took two of three tightly-contested matches to win the doubles point. Sarah Castleberry and Jenna Payne upended
Sydney Williams and
Sarah Mazaraki at No. 3 doubles, 6-4.
Jessica Binzari and
Anda Ghinga outlasted the talented tandem of Arana Rios and Teran Sofia at No. 1 doubles, 7-6 (5). But Caroline Hudson and Madalyn Smelley pulled out a 7-6 (3) victory over
Hannah Yip and
Shreya Chakraborty at No. 2 doubles.
Williams and Mazaraki had won their first six matches together for the Mustangs, and the duo of Yip and Chakraborty had a four-match winning streak with a 6-2 record in conference play. Hudson and Smelley of Dallas Baptist were the last pairing to win No. 2 doubles against Midwestern State.
Williams saw a 12-match winning streak in singles end with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Emily Buchanan, who gave DBU an early 2-0 advantage in the dual match. Buchanan, a freshman from Jackson, Mississippi, received an honorable mention on the All-Conference team, and won for the fifth time in six matches. Buchanan improved to 18-4 in dual matches with a 12-4 record at No. 6 singles. Williams fell to 12-2 after going 9-0 during the conference campaign.
Leonie Schondelmaier, who was second-team All-Conference, knocked off 26th-ranked
Anda Ghinga at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-2. Ghinga suffered just her second loss of the season in singles and had won 16 consecutive sets since losing a three-set battle to Eva Schwartz of Angelo State. The junior from Romania is 20-2 for the Mustangs this season.
The Patriots secured a berth in the finals when Isabella Arana Rios defeated
Sofia Giraldo, 6-2, 7-5, at No. 4 singles. Rios had been alternating wins and losses since March 29 but has won back-to-back matches in the LSC Women's Tennis Championship after defeating Alessia Terlizzi of St. Mary's in a 4-1 quarterfinal victory on Thursday.
Giraldo has lost back-to-back completed matches for the first time this season. The freshman from Colombia was leading Paige Bott of UT Permian Basin when the quarterfinal dual ended on Thursday, but she lost at Cameron in the regular season finale to Anastasia Uspenskaia in straight sets.
Midwestern State is 19-4 overall this season and will learn its matchup for the NCAA South Central Regional on Monday, May 6 with the selection show scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Dallas Baptist improved to 21-6 and faces Cameron in the LSC Women's Tennis Championship final at Arlington Tennis Center on Saturday morning after the third-seeded Aggies defeated second-seeded Angelo State in the semifinals, 4-1.
-- MSUMustangs.com --
