By Brandon Burke, UT Martin Sports Information Intern
MARTIN, Tenn. – In a storybook ending for the stellar collegiate career of senior Sina Albersmeier in her final appearance at Skyhawk Tennis Complex, the University of Tennessee at Martin tennis team’s home farewell concluded with a fist-pumping victory over close rival Murray State on Saturday afternoon, knocking off the Racers in a 4-3 thriller for the program’s second Ohio Valley Conference win ahead of the last stop on the schedule next week.
All cylinders were clicking for UTM in the adrenaline-boosting triumph, capped off in storybook fashion with a match-clinching singles W from Albersmeier, which came after the senior and doubles teammate Jule Streif grabbed their sixth tag-team victory of the season earlier in the day. Add in another duo’s win from the reliable Jillian Niedzialowski/Lia Espinal combo and two other one-on-one victories by Espinal and Aziza Aubin, and the Skyhawks mixed enough ingredients to pull out the one-point decision over the Racers to a high amount of fanfare.
Quickly putting Murray State away in two-on-two action behind a 6-2 decision from Espinal/Niedzialowski and a 6-3 final behind Albersmeier/Streif, the Skyhawks wasted no time ramping up their season-total to 28 doubles victories, giving them a distinct advantage over their league foe approaching singles play. Together, the Skyhawks’ two victorious tandems have made up for 12 of those 28 W’s since late January.
Keeping her momentum rolling by improving to 6-3 over her last 10 series, Aubin pushed UTM’s lead further on a singles win atop Paola Campigotto by the margin of 6-2 repeated. Continuing her fantastic freshman year with an 11th victory in a one-on-one setting to lead all teammates, Espinal’s identical W over Gabrielle Geolier maneuvered the Skyhawks one step closer to a huge league victory, one which was cemented by the senior Albersmeier with the spotlight shining brightest.
Battling to a third set but ultimately coming up empty against Austin Peay the previous day, the same theme lingered over Albersmeier’s duel versus Sarah Bureau, although the UTM stalwart prevailed this time by successfully climbing out of an opening set loss to take the next two rallies and therefore the match as a whole.
Outscoring her counterpart 12-5 throughout the last two sets to reward the Skyhawks with their third outright win of the semester and second inside of OVC territory, Albersmeier’s euphoric outcome alongside friends and family on her Senior Day served as a fitting close to UT Martin’s home schedule as they prepare for the league tournament at the end of April.
Altogether, the Albersmeier/Aubin/Espinal trio has amounted to 29 of the team’s 47 singles victories with one match still remaining on the regular season, outgunning Murray by a combined sum of 39-19 between those three players’ individual series.
Now possessing a cavalcade of momentum awaiting the 2022 finale next Saturday at Tennessee State, the Skyhawks will search for their third conference W in the last stop before the postseason stage against the Tigers in one week. With this afternoon’s showstopper over the Racers, UTM has clinched at least the sixth-seed in the OVC tourney at Evansville by virtue of the tiebreaker with Eastern Illinois, counting down the days until another postseason berth.
Before thinking about the conference bracket, however, the Skyhawks must first deal with TSU in the Volunteer State capitol, going head-to-head with the Tigers at 10:00 a.m. seven days from now in the regular season curtain call.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information