Friday, October 28
San Antonio, TX
All Day
University of North Texas
vs
UIW Tournament
Photo by: Zach Del Bello
Women’s Tennis Wins Three Titles at UIW Tournament
10/30/2022 5:30:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Mean Green win two singles championships, one doubles title
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The North Texas women's tennis team had a phenomenal weekend in San Antonio, winning a total of three titles in the UIW Tournament over the weekend.
The Mean Green had a pair of student-athletes, Matilde Morais and Kexuan Zhou, win their respective singles brackets while the combination of Zhou and Olivia Halvorsen took home the main doubles bracket championship.
"It's really awesome to go to San Antonio and check all the boxes for everything we were looking for," assistant coach Rodrigo de Almeida "It was awesome to see Mati play the best tennis she has played thus far in her young career. Olivia continued to build her confidence and believe in herself a lot more as the tournament progressed. When she trusts her game, she can be a dominant player against any opponent. And then Kexuan did a great job leading as the senior with a pair of freshmen. At the end of the day, everything went extremely well and I was pleased with how we played."
In total, three of the four competitors (three singles, one doubles) won the championship in their respective brackets.
The first of the titles for UNT was the doubles as Zhou and Halvorsen opened the competition with a 6-3 win on Friday and followed it up with a thrilling 7-6 (7-3) victory over Pinaieva and Zhu of New Mexico St. in the semifinal to clinch their spot in the championship. Zhou and Halvorsen trailed 1-4 in the match and found themselves down 15-40 but fought off three consecutive match points to come all the way from behind to grab the win.
In the title bout, the freshman-senior duo put on a dominant effort as they took down Karren and Rosenberger from UTRGV 6-1 to take home gold.
Morais was the lone UNT player to compete in the A singles bracket and the freshman made the most of her opportunity. After opening things up with a thrilling 6-4, 5-7 (10-5) win, she was nearly perfect in her final two matches, winning both her semifinal and final bouts in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1.
"This weekend was really positive, both individual and team wise," Morais said. "I felt really good inside the court. I think that, for the first time in the past few months, I was playing my best tennis again. My teammates, Olivia and Kexuan, did an amazing job too and I'm really proud of them. This tournament made us get to know each other even better and I believe we did a really good job supporting one another."
Zhou, meanwhile, coupled her doubles championship with a first-place finish in the singles B bracket. The senior did not drop a set in her three matches en route to her title.
Zhou opened the tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win and took home a 6-1, 7-6 (8) victory in her semifinal matchup. She then took down Kateryna Rublevska from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6-1, 7-6 in the championship to give UNT their third trophy.
Halvorsen also had a strong performance in the singles B bracket, winning 7-5, 7-5 in her initial matchup. Although she dropped her semifinal contest to Rublevska, Halvorsen was able to bounce back and take down Amelie Montalvo of host UIW 6-1, 6-1 in the consolation bracket to close out the competition.
The Mean Green had a pair of student-athletes, Matilde Morais and Kexuan Zhou, win their respective singles brackets while the combination of Zhou and Olivia Halvorsen took home the main doubles bracket championship.
"It's really awesome to go to San Antonio and check all the boxes for everything we were looking for," assistant coach Rodrigo de Almeida "It was awesome to see Mati play the best tennis she has played thus far in her young career. Olivia continued to build her confidence and believe in herself a lot more as the tournament progressed. When she trusts her game, she can be a dominant player against any opponent. And then Kexuan did a great job leading as the senior with a pair of freshmen. At the end of the day, everything went extremely well and I was pleased with how we played."
In total, three of the four competitors (three singles, one doubles) won the championship in their respective brackets.
The first of the titles for UNT was the doubles as Zhou and Halvorsen opened the competition with a 6-3 win on Friday and followed it up with a thrilling 7-6 (7-3) victory over Pinaieva and Zhu of New Mexico St. in the semifinal to clinch their spot in the championship. Zhou and Halvorsen trailed 1-4 in the match and found themselves down 15-40 but fought off three consecutive match points to come all the way from behind to grab the win.
In the title bout, the freshman-senior duo put on a dominant effort as they took down Karren and Rosenberger from UTRGV 6-1 to take home gold.
Morais was the lone UNT player to compete in the A singles bracket and the freshman made the most of her opportunity. After opening things up with a thrilling 6-4, 5-7 (10-5) win, she was nearly perfect in her final two matches, winning both her semifinal and final bouts in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-1.
"This weekend was really positive, both individual and team wise," Morais said. "I felt really good inside the court. I think that, for the first time in the past few months, I was playing my best tennis again. My teammates, Olivia and Kexuan, did an amazing job too and I'm really proud of them. This tournament made us get to know each other even better and I believe we did a really good job supporting one another."
Zhou, meanwhile, coupled her doubles championship with a first-place finish in the singles B bracket. The senior did not drop a set in her three matches en route to her title.
Zhou opened the tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win and took home a 6-1, 7-6 (8) victory in her semifinal matchup. She then took down Kateryna Rublevska from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6-1, 7-6 in the championship to give UNT their third trophy.
Halvorsen also had a strong performance in the singles B bracket, winning 7-5, 7-5 in her initial matchup. Although she dropped her semifinal contest to Rublevska, Halvorsen was able to bounce back and take down Amelie Montalvo of host UIW 6-1, 6-1 in the consolation bracket to close out the competition.
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