The No. 12 Texas A&M men’s tennis team defeated South Carolina 6-1 on Friday at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies clinched their third consecutive SEC win to improve to 10-3 for the season, while South Carolina dropped its second SEC match and fell to 8-5 on the season.
“That was an exciting and energetic match tonight,” A&M coach Steve Denton told 12thman.com. “We played really well in the doubles and that transitioned nicely into the singles matches. I thought our team loosened up after we got that doubles win in our pocket. We knew this was going to be a huge fight, they are a really good team and we were going to have to play really well to get that win.”
The Aggies claimed the doubles point for the fifth straight match to open the scoring. A&M’s Noah Schachter and Valentin Vacherot earned the first doubles win by defeating Connor Thomson and Phillip Jordan 6-3 on court two. No. 33 Carlos Aguilar and Barnaby Smith then sealed the doubles point by overcoming the South Carolina pair of Jubb and Raphael Lambling 6-3 on court one.
A&M started the singles matches in a dominating fashion by clinching the first set in five of six matches to push South Carolina on the backfoot. No. 28 Hady Habib made it 2-0 for the Aggies with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 victory over No. 46 Daniel Rodrigues on court two. No. 111 Bernaby Smith then secured the third point for A&M with an equally impressive 6-2, 6-4 win over Thomas Brown on court five. No. 34 Juan Carlos Aguilar clinched the tie for A&M by defeating No. 45 Raphael Lambling 6-4, 6-2 on court three.
Guido Marson continued the dominating display for the maroon and white by defeating South Carolina’s Phillip Jordan 6-4, 7-6(5) on court six and increasing the lead to 5-0. No. 3 Valentin Vacherot continued his imperious form of the season and bagged his 11th consecutive win by defeating 2019 NCAA Singles Champion, Paul Jubb in a match tie-break. This victory was the 68th singles dual win of his career tying him for eighth on the A&M all-time list. South Carolina’s Connor Thomson secured a consolation win over Noah Schachter 4-6,6-3,6-3 in the last singles match.
The Aggies will now prepare for a sterner test against No. 6 Florida at home on Sunday.