Sunday afternoon was the sight of a big matchup between two top-25 teams, No. 18 Texas A&M and No. 4 Georgia. The Bulldogs women’s tennis team came into the Mitchell Tennis Center with a dominating SEC record at 9-1, while the Aggies put their one game over .500 SEC record on the line.
Georgia took off running for the first point in doubles against A&M. The Bulldogs defeated two Aggie doubles groups where neither team was able to get closer than three games of Georgia. This left the scores at 6-3 and 6-0. Georgia controlled the match first, 1-0.
The Bulldogs continued their control through singles as well. Georgia claimed the match win after a tie-breaker set victory over senior Aggie, Ines Deheza 3-6, 6-6, (5-6). After that victory, the final on the day was 5-2 Bulldogs.
First year head coach Mark Weaver had a couple thoughts over the match following Sunday’s loss.
“The disappointing side is we — I’m not going to say ‘we should have won,’ but we definitely could’ve won,” Weaver said. “It was a high quality match-up today.”
The Aggies fell to 6-6 in the SEC and now wait to take on LSU to finish out the season.
“That was one of the big talks in the locker room,” Weaver said. “Don’t let this match get us down because we really are playing some good tennis right now. LSU is a very strong team but they are not on the level of Georgia.”
On the road, the No. 10 Aggie men’s tennis team traveled to Tennessee and took on the Volunteers. Texas A&M left its mark on Sunday afternoon as they claimed its fifth road match win of the season.
The Aggies went into doubles play and were very effectively able to claim the doubles point. In this part of the match, the first court was the only one abandoned after the Aggies claimed wins of 6-3 and 6-1.
Tennessee was not able to get themselves on the board until Texas A&M had already clinched the match win at 4-0. Sophomore Arthur Rinderknech sealed the deal for A&M with his singles win.
The wins in the rest of the courts began to move back and forth as they continued to be played out. Tennessee claimed one, followed by an Aggie win, and then there was a last victory for the Vols. Despite all the back-and-forth action, the Aggies earned the win with a final at 5-2.
The A&M men will now have a couple of days off to get back into College Station before taking on non-conference opponent Abilene Christian, followed by SEC foe LSU in a double-header April 15. These are the last two matches for the men’s tennis team before the SEC Tournament arrives. That tournament is set be played in Columbia, South Carolina, running from April 21st through 24th.
