No. 8 Texas A&M men’s tennis lost a big road match to No. 10 Georgia by a score of 4-2, falling to 14-6 on the season.
After winning three straight matches, the Aggies are now 1-2 in their last three affairs. Two recent losses to top 10 teams, Texas and Georgia, now plague the Aggies’ past as they look ahead to their match against No. 5 Tennessee. They face off in Knoxville, Tenn., at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 9.
Matchplay began with doubles, and the first court to fall was court 3 where sophomores Pranav Kumar and Noah Schachter lost 6-4. With their backs against the wall, the Aggies on courts 2 and 1 survived close calls with ranked duos. Senior Valentin Vacherot and sophomore Pierce Rollins won 7-6(5) against Georgia’s No. 48 tandem of Blake Croyder and Billy Rowe. The doubles point was clinched by A&M’s No. 8 ranked duo of senior Carlos Aguilar and graduate student Bjorn Thomson, who took down No. 6 Trent Bryde and Tyler Zink in a close 7-6(4) battle.
Prior to this matchup, the Aggies were 14-1 when leading 1-0 to start the match. The Aggies were up one point as they headed into singles competition.
Singles play started off cold for the Aggies, who won only one of the first sets across the six courts. Playing from behind early, the team needed to push multiple matches to three sets in order to come back. The Bulldogs struck first; No. 21 Bryde took down A&M’s No. 5 Vacherot 6-3, 6-3, tying things up.
No. 78 Rollins, the lone Aggie to win his first set, pulled out a 6-4, 6-2 victory to put the Aggies back on top. Georgia’s No. 25 Henning answered back soon after and tied it all up again after beating No. 64 Aguilar 6-3, 6-4.
The Aggies on the last three courts managed to push all their matches to three sets, but were not able to get the job done. No. 77 Schachter and No. 2 Hady Habib, who made his return after a month-long hiatus, lost tight matches to Croyder and No. 89 Zink. Freshman Raphael Perot’s match on court 6 was called unfinished after it was tied 5-5 in the third set.
This was the first match the team had lost after winning the doubles point since they faced No. 4 Baylor in the first week of February. A&M dropped to 6-4 against conference opponents. This loss could potentially be big for the Aggies as they fight for seeding in the SEC Tournament that is less than two weeks away.
A&M will have a quick turnaround with a match on Sunday, April 11. The team travels to No. 5 Tennessee as they will attempt to make a statement and gain momentum for the rapidly approaching postseason.