After losing to Vanderbilt the previous week, the No. 7 Aggie men’s tennis team looked to jump back into the winning column. The team hosted a doubleheader Monday afternoon and beat Incarnate Word but fell to No. 3 TCU.
In doubles, court one was the first to finish followed by a win from the group of Aggies consisting of Jordi Arconada and Shane Vinsant. Texas A&M got ahead early 1-0.
The Aggies used the two early victories as momentum and continued to get farther ahead of UIW. Every court was played out and the Aggies won in all but one of them only dropping a loss in the second. It was Incarnate Word’s Joey Vatandilok who defeated Aggie freshman Oscar Janglin. After the first match, it was an easy win for the Aggies 6-1.
“We got a lot of guys out there that got to play that normally don’t get to play a lot of matches, and I felt like they did a really good job. They competed hard today. I was very pleased,” head coach Steve Denton said regarding the first match of the day.
It got closer to sunset Monday afternoon, but the Mitchell Tennis Center had a top-10 Big 12-SEC matchup between the No. 7 Aggies and the No. 3 Horned Frogs..
Doubles play was tedious as Texas A&M swung first winning on the third court. TCU then responded with a victory on the fifth, winning 7-5. It later came down to the wire in court one as Aleksandre Bakshi and Jackson Withrow defeated TCU 7-6. The Aggies again claimed the doubles point first and captured an early 1-0 lead.
After making it a 3-3 tie in singles, the crowd gathered around court five to watch junior Max Lunkin and his opponent Jerry Lopez from TCU. They had to play until the twelfth point to finally decide the outcome. Lunkin ultimately fell short 12-10.
In total, TCU defeated A&M 4-3 to finish Monday off.
Head coach Steve Denton was not happy with the results but looked at it in a different direction.
“I have a lot of confidence in the fact that this is a team that can win the national championship,” Denton said. “Obviously the way we fought them tonight, if they can, why can’t we. That’s my message to them.”
The Aggie men’s tennis team fell to 20-6 with the loss on the year and now wait to compete against Georgia on April 1st at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
