by Andrew J. Ferraro
Staff Writer
For the University of Houston women's tennis team, it could not have ended in a better way.
In their last home match of the season, the Cougars defeated the University of Texas-San Antonio Miners 6-3 at the UH Varsity tennis complex and walked away with their best regular season record since 1990 at 18-4.
After splitting the singles matches at three wins apiece, Houston needed to win two of three doubles matches from a UTEP team that had nothing to lose.
Down 2-6 in the No. 1 doubles pairing, sophomore Luciane Kelbert and senior Julie Stone loosened up their game and put together a comeback to win 9-7.
"I changed my tactics a little bit and started to put a better angle on my returns," Kelbert said. "I practiced (my returns) all yesterday and today until it worked."
After losing her singles match 3-6, 7-5, 5-7 to UTEP's top seed Tania Magoc, junior Susanne Andersson and senior teammate Kristen Paris quickly disposed of Miners Erika Wentz and Shanna Matthews 8-4.
"This was our last home match and it's an awesome feeling to go out with a win," Paris said. "It just goes to show you how good we are and how we always seem to battle back."
Also getting a win in doubles was the UH No. 3 tandem of freshman Jane Brown and sophomore Sarah Bolle, who defeated Elena Madjarova and Adriana Delgado 8-5 to clinch the match for the Cougars.
"Sarah and I complement each other very well as a doubles team," Brown said. "I'm probably the more stable of the two, but she is more aggressive.
"The win today was very big because it just goes to show how well we can adapt."
The Cougars will be in Tampa, Fla., this weekend for the C-USA Championships, and after a first round bye, they will play the winner of the Alabama-Birmingham and Cincinnati match 9 a.m. Friday.