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University of Houston Athletics
Making a Racquet - Vol. 9
3/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
(Editor's Note: "Making a Racquet" is written by senior women's tennis player Charlotte Phillips, who is interning with the Houston Athletics Communications department this semester. Throughout the season, Charlotte will provide a behind-the-scenes look into the Cougar tennis program, including practice stories, match recaps, interesting anecdotes and notes from the road. Today's entry looks back on Houston's trip to the East Coast, and the team's victories over Brown and UConn.)
VOLUME IX - MARCH 4, 2015
 | COUGARS HEAT THINGS UP IN THE EAST |
It was a great weekend to be a Cougar, as we brought home two wins, not just in the same weekend but also on the same day.
Our weekend started on Friday, when we landed in Boston and were greeted by freezing temperatures and piles of snow; not a familiar sight coming from sunny Houston!
We then had an hour-long journey to Providence, R.I., where we were thankful for the warm indoor courts, and we had a short light practice to get ready for the match the following day. Following on from practice, we headed out for some good pre-match carbohydrates at an Italian restaurant and chilled out for the rest of the evening.
After a restful night, we were up early on Saturday to go up against the Bears from Brown, at 10 a.m. EST. With our standard warm up just before the match, we were ready to start with the doubles point. With all three courts off to a great start, it was Elena and Debbie who won first followed by a win from Rocio and Mina to give us the valuable doubles point.
It was then on to the singles, although the momentum soon started to shift away from us. Brown began to take control, earning the top three singles matches. The score was now 3-1, Brown, and things weren't looking promising for the Cougars. However, a determined Rocio got the scores rolling again with a win on court four, now making the score 3-2 to Brown.
Maria and Mina then stepped in to turn things around. You could feel the tension in the atmosphere, and more and more Brown fans started to appear as the match soon started to get a lot closer. Mina fought hard on her court to come back from 5-6 down in the third set to take the tiebreak to win her match.
With the overall score now levelled at 3-3, it was down to Maria to come up with a ferocious win to earn us the match. It was the exact same situation as the previous week, when Maria clinched the fourth point in a nail-biting third set tiebreak against Utah, and it was about to happen again. Although this time, having come back from 3-1 it seemed even more nerve-wracking.
Maria was also 5-6 down and with all seven of us girls cheering hard, Maria came back to win the tiebreak to clinch the match for the Cougars!
It was a heck of a comeback, although the day wasn't over just yet as we then had to drive to Connecticut to face American Athletic Conference rivals, UConn.
We picked up some lunch on the way and tried our best to recover and reenergize for our evening match at 6 p.m. EST. As soon as we arrived in an even colder Connecticut, we took to the practice courts to get prepared and warm again for round number two.
The Cougars played aggressive doubles again to take the point, with a win from Elena and Debbie and another win from Rocio and Mina. Now it was into the second singles matches for the day, and it was Debbie who got the first win, followed by Rocio winning her match, making the score 3-0.
UConn earned a point on court five, but it was then myself on court six who clinched the match, making it 4-1.
It was celebrations all around and after a double dose of victories we ended the day with a nice meal in Connecticut before we had to drive back to Boston for our flight the next day.
Sunday was an unusual relaxing and sight-seeing day, something that we do not usually get the time for when we are on the road. Although, with the freezing temperatures and snow falling down, there wasn't much sightseeing and we headed inside to the Aquarium in Boston for a fun afternoon away from the cold!
Luckily, our flight wasn't delayed from the snow, and we headed back to Houston with smiles on our faces and our heads held high!
This week is going to be a busy one, as we have host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday and have a huge match on Saturday against Texas. We're especially excited for another chance at the Longhorns after they knocked us out of the NCAA Tournament last season.
Hope you can make it, and for our fans in the rest of the world, hope you follow along
Charlotte
Players Mentioned
