WACO, Texas ââ'¬" The Louisiana Tech women's tennis team opened the Under Armour/HEB Invitational with two quick singles victories, but had a tough time winning the close matches beyond that against a highly competitive field this weekend at the Hurd Tennis Center.

LA Tech wanted to face stiff competition ââ'¬" five programs ranked in the top 30 in the country at the end of last season ââ'¬" in preparation for its next fall tournament which is the ITA Southern Regionals.

"I'm so proud of the heart we showed this weekend," head coach Amanda Stone said. "We faced some of the top teams in the country and put up a terrific effort. Although we didn't convert a lot of wins, we had our opportunities against TCU, Mississippi State and LSU.

"We still have a lot of improving to do and we know that, but we proved to ourselves we can play with anyone. This weekend gives us great motivation in preparing for the ITA."

In the singles round of 64, junior Sonia Chen and freshman Paulina Cota pulled out close matches. Chen upended Laura Bernardos of Houston 7-5, 7-5, while Cota outlasted Mekeila Erspamer of NJCAA National Champions Tyler Junior College 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Freshman Karla De La Luz Montalvo had the toughest draw, having to go up against the No. 1 seed Ryann Foster who came in ranked No. 64 in the nation in singles. The freshman was able to take five games off the LSU player, but fell 6-3, 6-2.

Two other close matches that did not go the way of the Lady Techsters were that of senior Angela Lorenzo who lost a heartbreaker to Sveva Mazzari (Houston) 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 and sophomore Nadja Manjon who fell to Elizabeth Tedford (TCU) 7-5, 6-4.

Two LA Tech players took their matches to a third super breaker in the singles back draw, but were not able to come away with wins.

Montalvo had another tough draw, going up against Krystyna Vozniak of Mississippi State. After taking the first set 6-4, she dropped the second set in a tiebreaker and lost 10-3 in the super breaker.

LA Tech will have two weeks to prepare for the annual ITA Southern Regionals which will take place on Oct. 19-22 in Auburn, Alabama.

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