The Wildcats are coming off a 4-0 loss at SMU

FORT WORTH Abilene Christian won one set and led the other in two open games, but dropped its season opener at SMU 4-0 on Thursday.

“I think we were a little nervous in doubles at first, but once we got the rust off we played well,” said ACU head coach Bryan Rainwater. “It was the first time outside of this semester. Sometimes when we’ve played some of these bigger schools, we see the name on the chest and we dare to go after them. I thought we went after them. singles.”

Olivia Sears won the first set at No. 3 singles 6-1 and lost 3-2 in the second after SMU closed out the match.

“I told the team not to get nervous and Olivia just ate it up and went after her opponent,” Rainwater said.

Mary Crisologo and Masha Vrsalovic fell to a pair of ranked opponents ranked 1 and 2, and Andrea Guerrero dropped to No. 4 to complete the singles play, each having two games.

“MJ and Masha both played tough matches against some top class opponents,” said Rainwater. “They were two tough games to open the season.”

Maria Cascos fell 6-4, 4-1 in row 5 and Eva Arranz had rallied from a 6-2 deficit and led 5-2 in the second set at the end of the sixth inning.

“Maria really struggled in the first set and was down, but she had chances to win the set,” Rainwater said. “Eva had a really tough first set, but she started to turn a corner. When the second set started, she was all in. I think she would have won there.”

Andrea Guerrero and Arranz were only down 4-3 in the third doubles as SMU had reached a team point. Crisologo and Cascos lost 6-3.

“Our doubles and triples played with a little confidence today and finished really well,” Rainwater said.

The Wildcats open the home schedule Saturday by hosting Texas-San Antonio at 1:00 PM at the Teague Special Event Center.