By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Athens, Georgia is known for its night-time activities, particulary in its downtown bars that earned the town the title as “America’s Greatest College Town.”
But the Texas A&M women’s tennis team chose the confines of the Dan Magill Tennis complex after dark to get in their fun while at the University of Georgia.
The Lady Aggies won all three of its matches under the Georgia’s lighted courts once donated by actress Kim Basinger in its quarterfinal, semifinal and final-round wins to earn the 2026 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship.
It was a 4-1 decision in the championship match over Auburn that gave Texas A&M its second NCAA title in three years.
In Thursday night’s quarterfinals, Texas A&M played until after midnight to defeat North Carolina 4-3 (Violeta Martinez of Port St. Lucie, Florida winning a 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (5) decisive match at No. 5 singles). Turning around the next night, the Lady Aggies then fended off top-seeded Georgia – and their legion of thousands of loud and boisterous fan – on their home courts by a 4-3 margin, also finishing after midnight. Texas A&M’s 21-year-old junior Lucciana Perez of Peru, the nation’s No. 1 ranked college player (ranked No. 377 on the WTA Tour rankings), clinched the win over Georgia in dramatic fashion overcoming cramps – and a cramping Anastasiia Lopata – winning the last five games of the match after trailing 3-1 in the final set.
In the final against Auburn, Texas A&M only needed until 11:30 pm to win the final. Malboro, New Jersey’s Daria Semetannikov clinched the win for Texas A&M at No. 6 singles winning a sudden-death deuce point on the final point in her 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Lady Aggie Ava Esposito of Branford, Connecticut.
