Although the No. 9 Texas A&M men’s tennis team had to wait an extra day to take on unranked Lamar University, it didn’t wait long to hand the Cardinals a 7-0 loss.
The Aggies (7-3) were originally scheduled to play Lamar (0-4) Saturday afternoon, but chilly and wet weather forced the match to be moved to Sunday. The wait rewarded the teams with sunny skies and mild temperatures.
“The weather was awesome,” said Texas A&M head coach Tim Cass. “You couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
With the national No. 1 A&M doubles team sitting out and getting rest, doubles matches would prove to be the toughest spot for the Aggies all day. Lamar would get its only win of the day in doubles, as Cardinal juniors Juan Alatorre and Emilio Kirby scratched out a narrow 9-8 (7-4) tie break win against the A&M combo of junior Zack Malmgren and sophomore John Nallon. The other two A&M doubles teams would come through, squeaking by with wins over the Cardinals, 8-6 and 8-3 respectively.
Lamar head coach David Wong said he was surprised but pleased by the performance of his doubles teams.
“I think this is the best I’ve seen these teams play this year,” Wong said.
“They played hard and they played intense.”
Cass said doubles matches have seemed to be the soft spot for the Aggies this year, and today was no different.
“It’s been a bit frustrating why we haven’t been getting better in doubles as the year goes on,” Cass said. “We just haven’t figured out the right combinations yet.”
The Aggies didn’t hesitate to show their true power on the singles side, dropping only 11 games out of the 72 played. The most intense match of the day was between A&M sophomore Matt Loucks and Lamar junior Ignacio Melus. The match would also be the longest on the day, lasting just more than 40 minutes.
Loucks, playing in his first match this spring, cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win despite the strong competition.
Loucks said the competition during the match helped him play on a higher level, which he thought to be true for the rest of the Aggies.
“Our intensity in singles is really hard to match,” Loucks said. “We yell for each other and that adds that much more.”
Lamar junior Jonathan Capps, who is from College Station, had a woeful homecoming in a 6-0, 6-1 loss to A&M freshman Bryan Wooten. Capps said the strangest part during the match was seeing his parents in the stands.”It was real weird for me to see my parents rooting for me to win while wearing a lot of A&M clothing,” Capps said.Aggie fans responded to the pleasant weather, filling a good portion of the seats. It was also the first time since Jan. 19 that the Aggies had played outdoors. A&M senior Mohamed Dakki, who won 6-2, 6-0, said he was happy to get the chance to play outside in front of the crowd.
“Playing inside or outside doesn’t matter that much, because we’re pretty good,” Dakki said. “But I certainly was pumped up to play at home and even more pumped up to play outside.”
Cass said he hoped the crowd saw A&M’s talent on the court and left the stadium in good spirits.
“What we wear on the front of our jersey means a lot to us,” Cass said.
“We want our crowd to be proud of us.”