Bouncing back from a loss against Arkansas, No. 12 Texas A&M men’s tennis traveled to Norman, Oklahoma to secure a win 4-3 over No. 26 Oklahoma. This leaves the Aggies 3-2 in Southeastern Conference play heading into the rest of their spring season.
The Aggies started with doubles play but swiftly dropped two matches to the Sooners. Oklahoma freshman Oscar Lacides and junior Bruno Nhavene first defeated the No. 24 duo of senior Giulio Perego and junior Togan Tokac, 7-5. Next, Sooners sophomore Kholo Montsi and junior Luis Alvarez defeated Aggies senior Alan Magadan and junior Tomás Pinho, 6-4. Last, in an unfinished match, Oklahoma freshman Alejandro Melero and sophomore Asahi Harazaki played A&M sophomore Tiago Pires and senior JC Roddick.
Down a point from the doubles play, the Aggies fought a hard battle against the Sooners until the end to turn the scores around.
“Our guys were refusing to give in and kept fighting,” coach Steve Denton said.
The first to score for the Aggies was graduate Matthis Ross, who defeated Melero on Court 6, 7-5, 6-3. The England native has had a winning singles season so far, with no losses to his name this year.
Next to strike for the Maroon and White was Magadan on Court 2, where he played against Montsi, winning 6-4, 6-4. This helped the Aggies gain momentum as they gained their first lead of the match, 2-1.
The next two matches didn’t go the Aggies’ way, as No. 37 Roddick lost to No. 123 Lacides, 6-4, 7-5, and senior Luke Casper lost, 6-4, 6-3, to freshman Orel Kimhi.
Things began to look up for the Sooners with their newfound 3-2 lead over the Aggies, but this did not last long. On Court 3, Pires fought through a tiebreaker to dominate Alvarez and bring the Aggies to a 3-3 tie.
In the final match-up on Court 5, all the pressure was on Turkey native Tokac to secure a victory for the Aggies. Tokac had to go into a third set against Oklahoma senior Jordan Hasson after splitting the first two, with an end score of 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, clinching the win for the Fightin’ Farmers.
“Togan, with all the pressure on, came up with some really good tennis there in the third set to get us the win,” Denton said.
Looking ahead, Denton feels the win was just what the team needed to get back into some strong games of tennis for their next two weeks of gameplay at home, he said.
The Aggies are back on the courts at Mitchell Tennis Center Thursday, March 6, at 6 p.m., looking for another SEC win against the Auburn Tigers.
