The No. 29 Texas A&M mens tennis team finish their regular season below .500 as they lose to No. 27 Baylor, 4-3, in front of 399 people in attendance at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. This marks the Aggies fourth straight 4-3 loss of the season.
Before the match, seniors Alexis Klegou, Colin Hoover, and John Lewis were honored as it was senior night for the three players. Baylor would strike early by edging out the Aggies in doubles play and then win three of the first four singles matches to beat A&M on the road.
Head coach Steve Denton, his sixth year at Texas A&M, said that he felt bad for the players losing on senior night.
Were struggling right now to win four points, Denton said. The doubles have gotten away from us these past couple of matches, and it was key again tonight. I knew this match was going to be a 4-3 match. Our guys are just not getting it done in a couple of courts. We just got to keep competing.
In doubles competition, junior Niall Angus and Lewis played in court two where they got to a good start winning the first two points and then fell into a 6-1 funk against junior Roberto Maytin and senior Kike Grangeiro. Although Angus and Lewis managed to put up two more points on the board to rally back, they were eventually defeated 8-5.
In court one, sophomore Junior Ore and freshman Jackson Withrow played some of the most dominating group tennis for the Aggies this season. After losing the first point, Ore and Withrow managed to go on an 8-1 run finishing the match by winning the last five points in order to tie doubles play at one apiece, 8-2.
By the time Ore and Withrow clinched their victory for the Aggies, doubles play came down to court three where Klegou and Hoover faced off against senior Julian Bley and freshman Marko Krickovic. After each group tied the match up at seven points apiece, Klegou and Hoover werent able to capitalize as they dropped the last two points and fell to Bley and Krickovic, 9-7, in order to give Baylor the early lead.
In singles competition, after dropping the first point in court two, Klegou regrouped himself by winning six straight points in order to edge Krickovic in the first set, 6-1. He then propelled his momentum forward as he was able to oust Krickovic easily to win the second set, 6-2 tying the game at 1-1.
Losing his ITA rank as of Tuesday, Lewis would falter in court five as he lost to Grangeiro in two sets, 6-3 and 6-4, letting Baylor regain the lead 2-1. Lewis finishes the regular season off by losing three of his last four singles matches.
In court six, Angus had difficulty with his serve throughout his matchup against Bley. Losing his first set early, 6-4, Angus tried to recover back toward playing a third set. After being ahead 3-2 in the second set, Angus dropped four straight points in order to lose the second set, 6-3.
After the Aggies lost in court six to give Baylor a 3-1 lead with three courts left to play, it came down to court one where Ore was given the challenge to face No. 16 freshman Mate Zsiga. In the first set, after Ore caught Zsiga off guard in the first point, Ore couldnt keep the momentum going by losing six of the next eight points giving Zsiga the first set, 6-3. The second set was all Ore as he bounced back from a shaky first set, and winning 6-1. In the third set, Ore couldnt keep pace with Zsigas intensity early on and lost 6-2, giving Baylor their 15th win of the season.
Despite losing the overall match, there were still two matches to be played. In court four, freshman Jeremy Effereding played a lengthy first set winning 7-6. In the second set, it was nothing less than fast-paced as he finished off freshman Diego Galeano quickly in a 6-1 victory.
The last match of the night featured Hoover and No. 98 Maytin on court three. After Hoover got to a great start by winning the first set 6-4, he easily dropped the second set 6-1. Going into the third set, Hoover and Maytin were neck-and-neck as they managed to tie the set at five points apiece. In the final moments of the set, Hoover swiftly grasped the final two points in order to give the Aggies the win in court three, 7-5.
After the Aggies finished Wednesday night with a 12-13 record this season, including 1-4 in Big 12 play, coach Denton has high hopes for the Aggies to come back strong in the Big 12 Tournament starting April 27-29.
We get a fresh start next week, Denton said. Everybodys 0-0 and were just as good as any other team in this tournament. If we get right at the right time, we could win the whole thing. We just have to put this [loss] behind us, work hard and get ready for the tournament. Its in our home courts and we got some extra incentive.