The Alabama women’s tennis team defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders 4-3 in a come from behind victory on Feb. 22 at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility.
“I knew Texas Tech was a tenacious and hungry team,” head coach Jenny Mainz said. “I knew this was going to be a dog fight and it was.”
In the doubles portion of the match, the Crimson Tide was only able to win one of the three matches. The Tide’s second doubles team consisted of senior Antonia Foeshe and freshman Maya Jansen. They defeated their opponents from Texas Tech eight games to six. Texas Tech led 1-0 headed into the singles portion of the match.
Trailing 1-0, the Tide needed to win four out of the six singles matches to win the overall match. Senior Mary Anne Macfarlane, sophomore Emily Zabor and Jansen all won their matches in straight sets. Macfarlane won 6-1 and 6-2, Zabor and Jansen both won their matches 6-3 and 7-5. With Foeshe’s match being the only match still in play, Alabama and Texas Tech were all tied up 3-3.
After losing her first set 4-6, Foeshe came back to win the second set 6-3 which sent the match into a tiebreaking third set. Foeshe won the tiebreaking third set 6-4 to capture the win and the comeback for the Tide.
“I loved how the match came down to me,” Foeshe said. “I’m a senior and have been here for four years and that’s the situation I want to be in. I was a little nervous but I just wanted to take one point at a time play my game and be aggressive.”
Before the singles portion of the match started Mainz said she challenged the team to go out and respond to challenge.
“The response after the doubles was the most impressive part of the match,” Mainz said. “We came out and answered the call. I tested them in the locker room and that’s what they did, they responded.”
Foeshe said it’s not how you start the match but how you finish it and if you keep pushing good things will happen.
“This match shows that we can win the match without winning the doubles point,” Foeshe said. “If you fight and fight for every single ball, your never out you can always turn it around and that was huge for us tonight.”
This was the Tide’s final nonconference match of the year. Alabama will open SEC play on March 1 when it travels to Ole Miss. Mainz said a match like this will help prepare the team for the rest of the season.
“We are going to be better down the road because of the match against this match. This makes us better for SECs,” Mainz said.
The Texas Tech match was a big win for the Tide as it increases its record to 8-1. The Red Raiders drop to 6-3.
“This was one of the best college matches I’ve ever been a part of,” Mainz said. “This was a good win. I could not be prouder of the team; this was a big one.”
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