Weaver's Ags captured third straight SEC regular-season title on Sunday

With a 4-0 sweep of Alabama on Sunday, the 11th-ranked Texas A&M women's tennis team captured its third consecutive SEC regular-season championship. On Tuesday, head coach Mark Weaver joined TexAgs Radio to discuss the three-peat as postseason play begins Friday.

Key notes from Mark Weaver interview

• I appreciate you playing my song “Dream Weaver” there. That’s my jam.
   
• Every championship takes on its own story. When we did it in 2022, there was more excitement because it was the first time we did it. We were on a roll in 2023. We swept the season, so we expected it to happen. That was a similar feel to 2022 and 2023. This season took on a life of its own. To start the year, we scheduled very aggressively. We lost some heartbreakers. The season started in a hard way. We had to prove a lot throughout the season through our hard work. We closed out the SEC season on a roll. We are playing our best tennis at the right time of the year.
   
• We were striving for the title. We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves. Our culture clicked several weeks back, and we said our prior play just wasn’t good enough. We knew we were playing the best teams, but we had a meeting in the locker room and said we were better and bigger than this. We wanted more.
   
• We had played good tennis all season. Our top three had hardly dropped matches. With Lucciana Perez at four, she has taken it to another level in the midseason. She was down 6-3 in the third-set tiebreaker vs. Tennessee and turned it around. College tennis brings pressure in so many forms. We are playing really good tennis now. Jeanette Mireles is playing the best tennis of her career right now too. We have made big improvements. We made some doubles changes in the midseason too.
   
• Mary Stoiana is the real deal in every way. She has been ranked No. 1 in the nation. She plays with so much confidence. She gives our group a lot of confidence and is very intimidating to the opponent, too. She’s such a leader for us. We would not be doing what we’re doing without her.
   
• I don’t like the who double-bye in the SEC Tournament because the other team has played another match. We’re getting Carson Branstine back, so she’ll join us for the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Championships. She’s playing the best tennis of her life, and she has the highest rating of anyone in college tennis. She should take an already really good team to another level.
   
• Branstine’s return is a bolt of energy and some confidence to give us some extra swagger to our step. She is one of the best to ever play at A&M. She didn’t like how her story at A&M ended with her hip surgery. We would’ve had a great shot to win the national title, but the injury hurt her. She knew playing was too much and needed to take care of her health. She had surgery in late April and had a speedy recovery. She has come back stronger than ever. She has been playing tournaments on her own and is playing at an unbelievable level right now. She started practicing with us a couple of days ago. We just added an All-American singles and doubles player to our lineup. There is a lot of excitement around our program right now.
   
• We did the tough scheduling for a reason. We want to get every angle we can to win the national title. We love our SEC titles, but ultimately, we want to win the national title. In the previous two seasons, perhaps the schedule wasn’t as tough as it could have been. We’ve learned from our losses, and we have more than we’re usually used to. I think it has made us stronger, tougher and better. We like how things have gone this season, and I’m not sure we’d be where we are today if we had an easier schedule. You have to play the best to be the best.