BOX SCORE

FORT WORTH, Texas -- SMU Women's Tennis dropped a hard-fought rivalry match, 5-2, against TCU on Tuesday afternoon from the Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth.
 
TCU started off the contest with a win in doubles as their 27th-ranked pairing took down Liza Buss and Vivienne Kulicke on No. 1. The Frogs also defeated Sarai Monarrez Yesaki and Ana Perez-Lopez on No. 2.  
 
In singles, the Mustangs were able to take three of the opening sets coutesy of Vivienne Kulicke, Ana Perez-Lopez and Katherine Jakeway. But, the Mustangs were quickly in a 2-0 hole after a loss on No. 1, Buss falling to No. 112 Ellie Douglass. The first Mustang point came from Perez-Lopez who won her match 6-4, 6-1 on No. 5. With TCU ahead 2-1,  Anzhelika Shapovalova subsequent loss on No. 3 forced the Mustangs to win the remainder of the lines to keep their hopes alive. 
 
Kulicke kept the Mustangs in it with a win in a deciding third set on No. 2. The final two courts were in third sets as the all attention moved towards them. With 4-4 scores on both courts, SMU had pulled to within striking distance of a win. The Mustangs hopes were dashed as TCU was able to clinch when Kate Paulus won against Karina Traxler. After dropping set one in a tough tiebreaker, Traxler took the match to the brink before a close third-set defeat. Jakeway fended off a match point on No. 6 to force a deciding tiebreaker. She would survive a few more match points before dropping the tiebreaker, 7-5 in a grueling affair.
 
The Mustangs move to 7-10 on the season while the Horned Frogs improve to 11-5 on the season including 10-1 from their home venue.
 
The Mustangs returns to the SMU Tennis Complex on Sunday for a noon matchup against Tulsa.