The Texas A&M men’s tennis team will host Rice on Friday afternoon. The last match-up between Texas A&M and Rice was in 2017, which the Aggies won 4-3.
Aggies’ Hady Habib and Valentin Vacherot are among those that faced the Owl’s Eric Rutledge in their last encounter a few seasons ago.
The No. 10 Aggies are 5-3 overall, but have a perfect record playing at home so far this season. They were able to secure wins against South Alabama and Georgia Tech, dominating them each 4-0.
There are currently three ranked singles athletes, including No. 34 Habib, No. 31 Carlos Aguilar and No. 3 Vacherot.
The Aggies were last seen in action this past weekend at the ITA Indoor Championships in which they went 1-2 overall. The maroon and white were able to defeat No. 26 UCLA in Madison, Wisconsin, but were unsuccessful against No. 13 Michigan and No. 11 TCU.
At the ITA tournament, A&M’s Vacherot and Noah Schachter managed to beat the Wolverines’ Ondrej Styler and Connor Johnston. The Aggies were unable to secure a doubles point, but Guido Matson earned his fifth straight win as he defeated Harrison Brown.
A&M’s Aguilar and Barnaby Smith had a 6-3 win over the Bruins. Stefan Storch and Pierce Rollins were also victorious over Michigan and won their doubles match 6-4. The 4-1 victory over UCLA was the first win over the Bruins in the Aggies’ program history.
On the last day of the tournament, the Aggies struggled collectively as a team and ultimately fell 4-0 to TCU, ending their tournament play.
The maroon and white will play at home this Friday and will remain in College Station for the next three weekends. During this time, the team will be preparing for and perfecting their craft as SEC play begins at the end of the month. Their first conference match will be against Kentucky on Feb. 28. 
Friday’s matchup with Rice is slated for 4 p.m., earlier than its original start time of 6 p.m. due to the predicted low temperatures.