Following two tough road losses against No. 18 USC and No. 25 Vanderbilt, the Hurricanes struck back in Coral Gables to defeat No. 9 Texas A&M, bringing their record back to .500 (2-2).
Starting off the day with doubles, Miami’s Alexa Noel and Audrey Boch Collins were dominant in a 6-1 victory over A&M’s Sydney Fitch and Daria Smetannikov. The Aggies took the following two doubles matches, as A&M’s Nicole Khirin and Lucciana Pérez outplayed UM’s Antonia Balzert and Leonie Schuknecht in a 6-3 defeat.
Miami’s Xinyi Nong and Isabella Pfennig took the court for the final doubles match of the day and just fell short to the country’s No. 3 ranked duo of Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres in a gritty 6-4 loss.
The Aggies led coming out of the doubles pairings, but Miami was able to form a comeback during the singles matches. A&M grabbed the first match, as No. 26 Kupres played a near-perfect match against UM’s Balzert (6-0, 6-1). No. 81 Boch Collins returned to the court following her doubles victory and came out on top again, defeating A&M’s Smetannikov (6-4,6-0). Nong pulled out a single’s victory in a back-and-forth battle with A&M’s Jeanette Mireles (6-4, 6-4).
The Aggies bounced back and were able to tie things up again as Perez took down Schuknecht in 3 sets (3-6, 6-1, 7-5). With two matches remaining, No. 25 Noel pulled off a huge upset against 2023 SEC player of the year and top-ranked Stoiana with a beautiful game-winning slice (6-2, 6-7, 6-3). To cap off the day, No. 90 Pfennig defeated No. 31 Khirin in a relentless battle (7-6, 4-6, 7-6).
The Hurricanes stormed the court following Khirin’s win to seal the 4-3 victory. The ‘Canes will return on Feb. 23, as they take on Duke and North Carolina.