ARLINGTON, Texas – No. 9 Cameron's semifinal match at the Lone Star Conference Championship against the 5-seed Texas A&M-Kingsville came down to the very last set as junior
Vasilisa Polunova and freshman
Kateryna Rudenko earned CU's final points to punch their ticket to the final.
The Aggie women opened the conference tournament with an easy 4-0 win over the 8-seed UT Permian Basin on Thursday morning. Friday's semifinal started at 9:30 a.m. at the Arlington Tennis Center but was not decided until well after noon.
Doubles did not go how Aggie head coach
Josh Cobble probably expected as it was his duo at three, Rudenko and
Lea Manga, that earned a quick 6-0 win before his 10th ranked No. 1 pair of
Anastasia Uspenskaia and
Magda Wawrowska lost 6-3.
To decide the doubles point,
Vasilisa Polunova and
Karolina Glowinska battled to a 6-6 tie before the Javs duo of Noemi Sante and Milou Ter Morsche won the tiebreak 7-4 to give their team a 1-0 lead.
Despite the early deficit, the Aggies knew they could come back in singles as they swept the Hogs 7-0 during the regular season. Wawrowska tied the match up early with a 6-0, 6-1 win at five, but TAMUK answered with a 6-2, 6-3 win by Alessa Maier of Uspenskaia at two.
Pilar Jaurena tied the match back up with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win at six.
The Javelinas took back the lead 3-2 with a 3-set win by Sante over Manga at three to take a 3-2 lead. Polunova came back from a 6-3 set one loss to win set two 6-1. She battled to a 6-6 tie in the third and then won the tiebreak 7-2 to tie the match at three. Rudenko also came back, falling 7-6 in the first set and then winning set two 6-3. The freshman then secured the win with 6-4 victory in three, punching CU's ticket to the final.
With the win, the Aggies improve to 20-4 overall and will now face St. Mary's, who they beat 5-2 earlier this season. The two teams were tied in the league standings with an 8-1 record during the LSC season.
Cameron will battle for their second LSC Tournament Championship on Saturday morning with the match starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Arlington Tennis Center. The last and only other time CU won the league tournament was back in 2016.
