The Texas A&M men’s tennis team kicked off its weekend by upsetting the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners Friday night by a score of 4-3.
The Aggies secured the doubles point behind an effort from freshmen AJ Catanzariti and Arthur Rinderknech.
The performance of the freshmen carried over into the singles matches, where Catanzariti and Rinderknech both won key matches. Catanzariti, after being down 2-5 in the first set tiebreak, battled back to win the first and proceeded to win the second by only giving up one game to his Sooner opponent (7-6, 6-1).
All eyes turned to Rinderknech down the stretch to see if the freshmen could overcome his first set loss and seal a win for the Aggies late Friday evening. Arthur won his deciding match, (6-7, 6-3, 6-1), catching fire in the final set.
“He’s done it now in three matches where he is the last guy standing and he has come through for us in a major way,” head coach Steven Denton said.
Texas A&M improved to 4-1 on the season with a win Sunday over the University of Incarnate Word and will open SEC play at 6 p.m. Friday against Kentucky.