The No. 17 Texas A&M men’s tennis team faced off against the No. 18 San Diego Toreros at the Mitchell Tennis Center in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 4. The Aggies managed to weather through the lightning delay midway through the match and defeat the Toreros 4-2.
The Aggies earned the right to play the Toreros after defeating the Rice Owls in a perfect sweep on May 3. The win also saw the Maroon and White move to the second round of play for the 17th year in a row.
A&M continued its doubles success from the first round, as it won the first match in lopsided fashion when the Frenchman combination of senior Raphael Perot and freshman Tiago Pires squashed San Diego’s team of graduate Savriyan Danilov and sophomore Lambert Ruland, 6-1.
Equalizing the score in doubles play, the San Diego duo of sophomore Oliver Tarvet and redshirt sophomore Stian Klaassen defeated the team of junior JC Roddick and freshman Lathan Skrobarcek at a rather fast pace, 6-1.
Then, earning the doubles point for the Aggies, the Turkish and the Italian were to the rescue. The No. 14 duo of junior Giulio Perego and sophomore Togan Tokac defeated the Toreros’ No. 90 duo of redshirt senior Sacchitt Sharrma and junior Iiro Vasa, 6-3.
With a 1-0 lead, the Fightin’ Farmers kept the momentum rolling as junior Luke Casper secured the victory in two sets over San Diego’s Sharma, 6-3, 6-1.
Down 2-0, the Toreros proceeded to turn the tables, winning the next two matches. Klaasen was the first to put his name in the win column after taking down Pires in two sets, 6-4, 6-1. Tying things up at 2 for the Toreros, Danilov defeated Tokac in two sets, 6-2, 6-4.
With things looking up for San Diego, a lightning delay stopped both teams in their tracks. A&M benefited from the stop of play, as Perego proceeded to come out and make the score 3-2 after defeating Ruland in three sets, 7-3, 7-6 (10-8).
With the duel and a ticket to the Super Regional on the line, No. 42 Roddick clutched up for the Aggies. He came back after losing the first set to San Diego’s No. 85 Vasa, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
A&M came out fast and did not let a stubborn San Diego squad stop it from coming away with the win. A&M will now move onto the Super Regional and compete on May 10 or 11 against Texas in Austin.
