Match 1 – Auburn
Looking to bounce back from a 4-1 loss to South Carolina, the 24th-ranked Texas A&M men’s tennis team hosted the 17th-ranked Auburn Tigers at the Mitchell Tennis Center on Sunday, April 16. The Tigers came into College Station looking to rebound from a two-match losing streak including losses to No. 46 LSU and No. 56 Alabama.
In the last SEC matchup before the conference tournament, the maroon and white looked to take the early lead over Auburn in doubles play. The junior pairing of Raphael Perot and Kenner Taylor gave the Aggies the early advantage by convincingly beating senior Tyler Stice and freshman Alejandro Moreno 6-2 on Court 5.
The Aggies looked to secure the doubles point, needing one win in the last two matches.
Senior Trey Hilderbrand and sophomore Giulio Perego were losing a close match 5-4 on Court 3 to the Tigers’ senior Jan Galka and freshman Billy Blaydes, but the match was called off as the Aggies secured the second doubles win thanks to juniors Pierce Rollins and Matthis Ross beating the senior pairing of Raul Dobai and Finn Murgett 6-4 on Court 1.
Up 1-0 going into singles play, the Aggies needed just three wins to secure the victory. The Tigers were able to bring the score back to 1-1 after Stice beat Perot 6-2 in two straight sets on Court 1.
The win was short-lived for the Tigers as the maroon and white quickly bounced back.
On Court 5, Hilderbrand matched up against Blaydes to settle the score from their doubles match that did not finish. Blaydes kept the first set close, but Hilderbrand was able to take it 6-4. Hilderbrand did not let the match go to a third set as he beat Blaydes in the second with a score of 6-4 to bring the Aggie lead to 2-1.
On Court 6, sophomore Luke Casper made quick work in the first set, beating Auburn sophomore Will Nolan 6-0. Nolan was able to bounce back and had Casper on the ropes in the second set, at one point tying the set 3-3. Casper wasn’t affected, as he won three straight games to win the set 6-3, winning the match and giving the Aggies a 3-1 lead.
The opportunity to close out the Tigers came down to senior Guido Marson facing off against Galka on Court 4.
Marson dominated the first set, beating Galka 6-2. With the chance to finish off Auburn, Marson led Garka 4-3 in the second set before winning two straight games to win the set 6-3. With this, the Aggies went on to beat the Tigers 4-1.
The matches between Rollins versus Moreno and Perego versus Murgett ended up being cut short due to the Aggie wins on Courts 4 and 6.
At the time, Rollins was trailing Moreno after an intense first set that came down to a tiebreaker. Perego was behind Murgett after losing the first set 6-4, but the second ended early with Perego leading 4-3.
Match 2 – Incarnate Word
The Aggies wanted to maintain momentum in the last regular season matchup of the season with Incarnate Word coming into town.
The maroon and white took an early 1-0 lead over the Cardinals by claiming the doubles point thanks to the duos of Rollins and Ross and Taylor and sophomore Stefan Storch.
On Court 1, Rollins and Ross dominated the Cardinals’ junior duo of Antoine Martin-Thiriat and Pietro Perego, taking the match 6-1.
On Court 5, Storch and Taylor comfortably beat the Cardinals 6-3. Although this was enough to claim the doubles point for the Aggies, the decision was made to play out the remaining duos match. The last match saw Hilderbrand and Casper win 6-3 on Court 3.
Leading 1-0 going into singles play, the Aggies didn’t look back as they won all six matches to claim a 7-0 victory.
Perot beat Perego in two sets on Court 1, winning the first 6-1 and winning the second 7-6(3). Perot brought the second set to a tiebreaker after being down 4-1.
On Court 2, the Aggies’ Perego beat junior Joao Sasso in two sets with scores 6-3 and 7-5.
Court 3 saw three sets with Ross claiming the win over freshman Jose Garmendia. Ross rebounded from losing the first set 6-4 by winning the second 6-4. The third set was a super tiebreaker that Ross won 10-4.
On Court 4, sophomore JC Roddick took only two sets to beat junior Arnau Miralles. Roddick won the first set 6-2 and beat Miralles 6-4 to win the match.
Taylor and Storch made quick work of their opponents on Courts 5 and 6, respectively.
Taylor beat junior Marwin Kralemann in two sets with scores of 6-2 and 6-1. Storch also only took two sets to beat junior Noah De Luna. Storch easily beat De Luna 6-0 in the first set and then convincingly won the second 6-2.
A&M leaves the doubleheader victorious with a sweep and improves its record to 16 wins and 10 losses.
The Aggies will look to continue their momentum when they travel to Auburn, Alabama to play in the SEC Tournament from Thursday, April 20, to Sunday, April 23. On Thursday, they’ll face the winner of Arkansas and Vanderbilt in the second round at 6 p.m.