The TCU women’s tennis team picked up its second win of the season after beating Lamar, 5-2, at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center Wednesday afternoon.

With the win, the Frogs improved to 2-5 and handed Lamar (8-1) its first loss of the season.

Going into the match, TCU was led by the tandem of sophomore Federica Denti and senior Katariina Tuohimaa, which had been 4-2 in doubles action this season.

It was Denti and Tuohimaa who led the way again for the Frogs Wednesday, beating Lamar’s No. 1 doubles team of Mariaryeni Gutierrez and Kaltrina Harbuzi to help give TCU a 1-0 overall advantage heading into singles action.

“I just wanted [Denti] to step up and play inside the court, and I actually got a little mad at her and said “Look, I don’t care if you win or lose but you’ve got to compete and play to win this match,'” head tennis coach Dave Borelli said. “She just kind of stepped up and got it together and did a good job.”

Lamar would respond, though, by picking up the first singles win of the match after Diana Mendez beat TCU sophomore Molly Welsh in two sets 6-0, 6-0.

But TCU bounced back quickly after its No. 4 player, senior Idunn Hertzberg, and No. 5 player, junior Shalini Sahoo, each picked up victories in straight sets.

Hertzberg beat Natalia Mayagoitia 6-3 and 6-1 just before Sahoo finished off Alessandra Pennesi 6-2 and 6-1 to give the Frogs a 3-1 advantage.

Lamar would cut the lead to one after Gutierrez beat Tuohimaa, 6-4, 6-4.

The key match of the day happened one court over between TCU’s Denti and Lamar’s Alicia Porte.

Denti dominated the first set 6-1 but couldn’t finish off Porte in the second set, losing 6-2.

It would come down to the third set and Denti would deliver, beating Porte 6-4.

That would give TCU a 4-2 advantage and put the match out of reach for Lamar.

TCU freshman Olivia Smith beat Harbuzi in the final match of the day to give the Frogs a 5-2 final advantage.

The win was TCU’s first since beating UT-Pan American in the season opener. Borelli said beating a quality team like Lamar was refreshing after losing five matches in a row all to ranked teams.

“It’s nice to win again,” Borelli said. “I think one of our problems over the last couple years is we’ve just played too many tough teams. You want to play the best competition but it’s hard when you’re always playing a top level team. Sometimes, you forget how to win.”

Up next

The Frogs will be back in action this Saturday at home when they host the University of Miami at 12:00 p.m.