Tribe Falls at No. 27 Texas

Senior Megan Moulton-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic both recorded singles and doubles victories on the day.

02/22/08 5:30PM

Austin, Texas - The No. 16 William and Mary women’s tennis team dropped the opening contest of a six-match road swing against highly ranked opponents, falling, 5-2, at No. 27 Texas on Friday afternoon. The loss snapped a four-match winning streak for the Tribe as the Green and Gold fell to 8-4 overall on the season.

The Tribe dropped the initial point of the match as the Longhorns claimed the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions by 8-5 scores. The pair of senior Megan Moulton-Levy and junior Katarina Zoricic notched their third win over a nationally ranked opponent this season with an 8-5 victory over the No. 29-ranked team of Vanja Corovic and Marija Milic at the top tandem’s spot. Moulton-Levy and Zoricic improved to 17-5 overall on the season and recorded their 80th career win as a team.

The College pulled even as Moulton-Levy won the No. 1 singles position to tie the contest at one. The Tribe All-American defeated Corovic, 6-2, 6-2, for her third straight victory. Moulton-Levy, who is ranked No.8 in the country, notched the ninth win in her last 10 tries as she upped her overall ledger to 18-4.

Texas, though, would clinch the match with straight-set victories at the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles positions and a three-set super tiebreaker win at the No. 6 slot. Zoricic claimed the Tribe’s only other singles win of the day with a victory at the No. 2 position. The Etobicoke, Ontario, native fell behind a break early in the opening set, but rallied to take it in a tiebreaker, 7-6. She claimed her fifth straight win with a 6-3 victory in the second, improving to 15-11 overall on the season.

The Tribe will continue its three-match trip in Texas when it battles No. 8 Baylor at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23. The College will wrap up the trek to the Lone Star State when it faces No. 33 TCU on Sunday, Feb. 24, at 11 a.m. The Green and Gold’s six-match road trip against top-33 competition will continue during the first week of March with a trio of matches against top-15 teams in California. The College will meet No. 3 Stanford on Tuesday, March 4, before traveling to No. 11 California on Wednesday, March 5. The Tribe will complete the difficult stretch of road matches at No. 14 Fresno State on Friday, March 7.

#27 Texas 5, #16 William and Mary 2
Singles
No. 1 - #8 Megan Moulton-Levy (W&M) def. Vanja Corovic (Texas) – 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 – Katarina Zoricic (W&M) def. Stephanie Davison (Texas) - 7-6, 6-2
No. 3 – Courtney Zauft (Texas) def. Ragini Acharya (W&M) – 6-2, 6-1
No. 4 – Caroline Larsson (Texas) def. Klaudyna Kasztelaniec (W&M) – 6-2, 6-3
No. 5 – Maggie Mello (Texas) def. Lauren Sabacinski (W&M) – 6-2, 6-2
No. 6 – Sarah Lancaster (Texas) def. Carmen Pop (W&M) – 6-7 (3), 6-2, 10-4
Finishing Order: 1, 3, 5, 4*, 6, 2

Doubles
No. 1 - #26 Moulton-Levy/Zoricic (W&M) def. #29 Corovic/ Marija Milic (Texas) – 8-5
No. 2 – Mello/Zauft (Texas) def. Acharya/Sabacinski (W&M) – 8-5
No. 3 – Davidson/Larsson (Texas) def. Kasztelaniec/Pop (W&M) – 8-5
Finishing Order: 2, 3*, 1