COLLEGE STATION, Texas – After losing the doubles point, the No. 73 University of South Alabama women's tennis team fell to No. 61 Minnesota 4-1 Sunday afternoon at the Texas A&M Intramural Courts in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event.

"Credit to the team for fighting hard, but the number one thing in tennis is to learn how not to beat yourself up and then focus on a game plan to beat your opponent," USA head coach Jaco Keyser said. "Today we just made some elementary mistakes two to three times a game, and you can't do that in this sport and at this level."

The loss dropped the Jaguars to a 1-3 record, while the Gophers improved to 3-1.

Minnesota took the first doubles contest with a 6-1 victory from Caroline Ryba and Julia Courter over Paula Sanchez and Monica Mitta at No. 3, but the Jags fought back with a 6-4 win from Alexandria Stiteler and Cinta Maria Papke over Jessika Mozia and Caitlyn Merzbacher at No. 2.

To clinch the doubles point for Minnesota, Paula Rincon-Otero and AnneMarie Emme defeated Laura Valkova and Michaela Meszarosova 7-6 (7-3) at No. 1.

In singles, the Gophers took the first two decisions to take a 3-0 lead. Mehvish Safdar bested Papke 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6, followed by Emme over Meszarosova 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4.

Valkova took the only point for USA with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Courter at No. 2 to narrow the gap to 3-1.

Finally, Mozia defeated Laura Matuskova 7-5, 7-5 at No. 5 to secure the win for the Gophers.

"Winning tennis matches is hard," said Keyser. "You have to do the right thing for a long period of time. Most matches are lost and not won. I feel pretty strongly that we gave that match away today. It was definitely a gut check early in this season but great motivation to start getting it right on the practice courts."

The Jaguars return home to play Jackson State Friday at 10 a.m.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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