By MATT DEARMAN

Sports Writer

The Tech tennis team (3-8) had its two-match winning streak ended Monday with a 6-0 loss to Southern Methodist University.

No doubles matches were played in the contest, as the nationally ranked Mustangs swept through singles competition to improve to 11-7 on the year.

The match was the first time for SMU assistant coach Lauren Longbotham, who graduated from Tech in 2003, to go up against the Techsters.

The best performance for Tech on the day came from the No. 5 match, where Anabella Duque won four games in the first set and two in the second before losing to Lynsie Jones.

Avril Martinez also grabbed three wins in the first set and one in the second in her loss to Nadia Vaughan in the No. 4 game.

"It was a tough loss," Tech interim coach Terrence De Jongh.

"Even with the loss it gave us a good chance to face a conference opponent we could face in the WAC tournament. You only get better by playing good teams, and SMU is ranked 42nd in the country."

Going into the match with SMU, Tech was coming off of a 5-2 victory over Centenary College (5-12) on Saturday, as well as a 4-3 win over Lamar University (4-11) on March 12.

To start the match with Centenary, the Lady Techsters came out strong, winning two of the three doubles matches and gaining the doubles point for Tech.

The Techster's No. 1 doubles team of Monica Kelly and Holly Ready was defeated 8-5 to start the day, but the No. 2 team of Martinez and Sahari Uriarte answered back with an 8-5 win for Tech, followed by an 8-0 victory by Katie Westbrook and Duque to secure Tech the doubles point.

"Winning that doubles point gave us important momentum," De Jongh said.

"That helped set the tone for the rest of the match."

In singles competition, Kelly won the No. 3 match 6-1, 6-1 to give the Techsters their first singles point of the day.

Martinez and Duque then won 6-0, 6-0 commanding victories in the No. 4 and 5 spots, respectively, and Westbrook ended the day in the No. 6 match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory to give Tech their second-consecutive victory.

The No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches went to Centenary, as Uriarte was defeated 6-2, 6-2, followed by a 6-4, 6-2 loss by Ready.

The Techsters will resume action on April 2 when they take on The University of Texas-San Antonio at 11 a.m. in Ruston.