ABILENE – Abilene Christian ground out a pair of shutout wins on Saturday, taking down Trinity and Lubbock Christian by matching 7-0 scores.
The Wildcats had some tight matches but prevailed against Division III's No. 16 team.
ACU got the doubles point and took all three matches, fighting off the Tigers for a pair of 6-4 wins and a 6-3 victory.
Olivia Sears made quick work of her opponent at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-2, and
Andrea Guerrero took over that court and put the Wildcats up 3-0 with a No. 4 singles win, 6-02, 6-0.
Masha Vrsalovic clinched the team victory in No. 2 singles, battling back from a 2-6 opening set for the 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 win.
Maria Cascos cruised past her opponent in straight shutout sets.
Maryjoe Crisologo battled back from down 5-3 in the first set and won the first-set tiebreaker, 12-10. She lost the second set before getting the win at No. 1 singles with a 6-3 win.
Eva Arranz had a long slog at No. 6 singles, claiming a two-set win against Trinity with a second-set tiebreaker and a three-set victory to end the day against Lubbock Christian.
"Really slow start this morning but really good stuff from Olivia, who is basically our heart and soul right now," said ACU Head Coach Bryan Rainwater. "But everybody really toughed it out. Trinity is a good DIII team. This was their Super Bowl so give credit to them for playing hard but also credit to my team for toughing it out. Really dominated LCU throughout and those were big wins of Eva in those close, tight matches. That's the story for me this week – us not playing our best and still getting the 7-0 wins."
The 3-2 Wildcats get back to the mid-major schedule next week, visiting Wichita State on Friday and Oral Roberts on Saturday.
"I think next week is our first real test against our peers," said Rainwater. "We got some stamina and some confidence in these wins today.
