The Texas A&M men’s tennis team snagged its biggest win of the season as the Aggies took down the No. 2 Baylor Bears 4-3 at home.
The Aggies fell from No. 11 to No. 12 in the ITA national rankings on Wednesday, but on Thursday, they earned their highest ranked win of the season over the Baylor Bears. With Thursday’s win, the Aggies rise to 10-3 on the season, and the Bears move to 16-3. The two teams are now 1-1 against each other this year.
Match play started off with two straight A&M victories in doubles play. Sophomore Pierce Rollins and senior Valentin Vacherot started the Aggies off right with a 6-3 victory on court 2. Senior Hady Habib, the typical doubles partner of Noah Schachter, did not compete. This did not slow the team down though as the junior duo of Pranav Kumar and Schachter earned a 6-4 win to secure the doubles point for the Aggies. This was the first time all year that Kumar and Schachter had competed in doubles as partners.
The ranked matchup between A&M’s No. 48 duo of senior Carlos Aguilar and grad student Bjorn Thomson and Baylor’s No. 10 Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen went unfinished on court 1. The Aggies led 1-0 heading into singles play.
With No. 13 Habib out, Baylor held a 5-3 advantage in ranked singles players. Despite this, the singles matches between the Aggies and the Bears were back and forth throughout play. Out of the six courts, each team would win three of the first sets and the two teams would eventually split 3-3 as the Aggies won 4-1.
A&M’s No. 33 Aguilar started singles play off with a win over Baylor’s No. 46 Adrian Boitan. Thomson, who mostly competes for the Aggies in doubles, replaced Habib in singles play. Thomson would win 6-1, 7-6 on court 6 to give the Aggies a 3-0 lead.
The Bears had not yet lost. Baylor roared back with two quick wins on courts 4 and 5 from their No. 74 and 103 ranked players, but the comeback attempt was soon halted. A&M’s No. 4 Vacherot secured an Aggie victory on court 1 in three sets against No. 56 Soto. Baylor would get one more win on court 3, but the match had already been clinched by the Aggies.
“Baylor is one of the best teams in the country in singles,” A&M coach Steve Denton told 12thman.com, “and we knew that it would be a fight to get to four.”
After the big time win, the Aggies look ahead to a matchup against Arkansas. They will face off in Fayetteville, Ark., against the Razorbacks on Sunday, March 14 at 1 p.m.