The No. 45 women’s tennis team shut out crosstown rival SMU 7-0 Wednesday night for the first time in the last four meetings between the two teams at Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.

TCU earned its third-straight win after defeating conference foes Air Force and Boise State last weekend.

“This was the best focus we’ve had all year,” head coach Dave Borelli said. “This is also the healthiest we’ve been all year, and I’m very proud of how they went out there, and they really concentrated and played up to the level I know they can play.”

Freshman Stefanie Tan said momentum has played a role in the team’s recent success. 

“There definitely has been [momentum] because we didn’t do so well at the start of last week, but we started winning matches when we got into conference matches, and we’ve been doing really well so far. We’ve been beating teams convincingly,” Tan said. 

The Lady Frogs improved their record 10-5 on the season while the Mustangs lost their sixth straight match, falling to 1-12 on the season. 

“We’ve had enough time now with everybody on the team playing and being healthy where our level of tennis is getting back to where I think we should be with this team,” Borelli said. 

TCU picked up wins on all three of the courts in doubles play. 

The No. 1 duo of Millie Nichols and Olivia Smith marked an 8-1 over Edyta Cieplucha and Heather Steinbauer. Federica Denti and Kelsey Sundaram won 8-3 over Elena Fayner and Kris Roberts on court No. 2.

Gaby Mastromarino and Simona Parajova defeated Perri Anderson and Ashley Turpin 8-1, improving their record to 4-0. 

In singles play, Denti clinched the match for TCU after taking down Turpin 6-1, 6-0 on court No. 4. Denti eared her third-straight win. Parajova won 6-0, 6-3 over Fayner at No. 2 court, continuing her winning streak to four. 

Although the Lady Frogs already won the match, the last point came down to the No. 1 singles court where both women were ranked in the top 70 in the nation. 

No. 67 Tan won the first set 6-2 but dropped the second set 6-1 to No. 52 Cieplucha. In the third-set super tiebreaker, Tan won 10-6. 

It marked Tan’s eighth-straight win at the top singles court and gave the Horned Frogs the 7-0 win over the Mustangs.

“I’ve been working on trying to step forward on the court, be more aggressive and end points at the net compared to just rallying,” Tan said. “Me and Coach Borelli have been doing a lot of drills and working on the specifics.”

Borelli said Tan listened, competed well and didn’t get flustered.

“She’s tennis smart. She looks at the game very logically, she plays logically,” Borelli said. “I think that’s what good players do. They don’t stress or panic.”

He said the future was bright for the program when there were freshmen like Tan and Parajova who walked through the door and played well their first season.

“I think we feel a sense of urgency now, and it’s the time we have to really settle down and play to our ability,” Borelli said. “I really feel comfortable how we’ve played the last couple of matches and get ready for this weekend.”

The Lady Frogs will hit the road to return to Mountain West action with two matches in Las Vegas this weekend. TCU will face San Diego State on Saturday and UNLV on Sunday.