The Texas A&M men’s tennis team started its weekend homestay by defending its home court against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Friday was the seventh consecutive home match in which the Aggies came away with a victory. After dropping the doubles point for only the second time on the year, the Aggies caught fire and ran away with a 4-1 victory.
Coach Steve Denton commented on his team’s performance.
“Obviously the night did not start like we wanted to with the doubles, but a win like this when the guys have to gut it out and come from behind is good for their character as a team,” Denton said. “Wins like this are good for our confidence that they can comeback against a quality opponent like Vanderbilt. Give Vanderbilt a lot of credit tonight, they played very well in the doubles and took it to us early.”
No. 65 Jeremy Efferding secured the clinching match with a (6-3, 6-4) win over his line one, Vanderbilt opponent.
A&M then hosted a doubleheader Sunday against No. 4 Illinois and ACU.
The Fighting Illini came into College Station riding a seven match win streak, having most recently taken down the Texas Longhorns.
The Aggies got back to their normal routine of capturing the doubles point, but unfortunately only went on to capture one singles point on their way to a 4-2 loss.
No. 89 AJ Catanzariti was the lone singles winner in the Illinois match and also won his match later in the day versus his ACU opponent. His second win on the day came in impressive fashion as he captured straight sets (6-0, 6-1). It took him less than an hour to knock off his Wildcat opponent.
Catanzariti wasn’t the only one with an impressive performance Sunday afternoon. Four of his teammates also recorded singles wins, all of which came in straight sets.
The No. 9 Aggies came away from the weekend with a record of 9-3,improving to 4-1 in SEC play.
The A&M men’s team takes to the road next weekend to face off against two conference opponents with stops in Starkville and Tuscaloosa.
The Texas A&M women’s team spent its Friday in Baton Rouge, where they took on the LSU Tigers.
The Aggies leaned on No. 46 Rachel Pierson down the stretch when the match was all tied up at three points apiece. After falling behind by a set, Pierson finished strong by first taking her opponent to a tiebreak point, then closing her out with a final set rout (6-0).
A&M improved its record to a strong 5-3, three of its wins being in conference. The Aggies look ahead to Thursday when they will host the No. 8 Baylor Bears.