The Texas A&M men’s tennis team couldn’t sustain an early lead against the University of San Diego in its first match of the spring season, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Toreros on Wednesday, Jan. 18, in San Diego.
The Aggies took the doubles point, starting with a 6-3 victory by the duo of sophomores Giulio Perego and J.C. Roddick, who proceeded to cap it off with a tiebreaking 7-6 win by the No. 33-ranked tandem of seniors Trey Hilderbrand and Noah Schachter.
Schachter kept the maroon and white’s momentum going with a 6-1, 6-2 triumph to begin singles play. However, A&M dropped its following four matches as San Diego secured the overall win. No. 88 junior Raphael Perot was able to end the match on a high note, taking down No. 68 sophomore Iiro Vasa 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 in a three-set duel.
“We played a lot of great tennis coming into today and had some good performances from a lot of guys,” coach Steve Denton said. “San Diego is a good team, and it was a good test for us early in the season. I think we battled well in the doubles and did a good job closing it out with Noah [Schachter] and Trey [Hilderbrand] on court one. In the singles, I was proud of the way our guys competed, we just need to make some smarter decisions on shot selection.”
The Aggies will return to action at noon on Sunday, Jan. 29, as they take on Pepperdine in the first matchup of the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Palo Alto, Calif. They’ll go on to face either Stanford or Georgia Tech the following day.