Returning home after a winning road trip, the Aggies kept their momentum from a shutout win in Baton Rouge, La., alive. With a quick doubleheader before finishing the regular season away from home, the maroon and white collected two dominant victories.
No. 24 Texas A&M men’s tennis played host to No. 35 Ole Miss and UTRGV at Mitchell Tennis Center on Sunday, April 10. In a top-35 SEC showdown in the first match of the doubleheader, the Aggies narrowly missed back-to-back shutout wins.
Match 1
A&M took care of business in doubles to grab an early 1-0 lead. The No. 61 duo of sophomore Kenner Taylor and junior Noah Schachter upset the Rebels’ No. 17 duo of senior Finn Reynolds and junior Lukas Engelhardt with an impressive 6-2 set win. The Aggie duo of freshman Stefan Storch and junior Austin Abbrat secured the match point with a 6-4 set win. The third doubles matchup on Court 2 went unfinished.
The Aggies started singles play with a straight-sets victory by sophomore Raphael Perot, 6-3, 7-5. A&M junior and No. 104 Guido Marson followed with a straight-sets win of his own — 6-1, 7-5 — to give the maroon and white a commanding 3-0 lead.
On the precipice of locking up the match victory, the Aggies wasted no time. On Court 4, freshman Giulio Perego defeated Engelhardt with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 set win to put A&M up 4-0.
No. 80 Schachter pulled off another upset, this time in singles over Ole Miss junior and No. 32 Nikola Slavic. Schachter’s 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 set win made it a 5-0 Aggie advantage, and A&M freshman Luke Casper followed it up with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 set win.
Ole Miss obtained its lone point of the match on Court 5 behind a hard-fought 7-6, 4-6, 1-0 set win by senior Simon Junk over A&M sophomore Matthis Ross. This set was moot, though, as the Aggies picked up the match win 6-1.
“I was real pleased with how we came out in the doubles against Ole Miss,” A&M coach Steve Denton told 12thman.com. “I think that was a big point against them because they are [a] good doubles team.”
The result dropped the Rebels to 12-11 on the season and 2-8 in SEC play. It was the Aggies’ 20th win of the season, as they moved to 20-10 and 7-3 in SEC competition.
Match 2
A&M went back to work in the nightcap of the doubleheader with a non-conference matchup, and it put together another sterling performance.
The Aggies swept in doubles to take a 1-0 lead. Taylor paired with sophomore Anish Sriniketh to win their set 6-4, and Perot played with freshman Mathis Bondaz to also earn a 6-4 set win. Storch and sophomore Rahul Dhokia combined for a highly competitive 7-6 set win over UTRGV’s duo of seniors Alberto Mello and Carlo Izurieta.
A&M turned to singles, looking to finish strong against the Vaqueros, and that’s exactly what it did. Abbrat annihilated UTRGV junior Michael Davis with a 6-0, 6-0, straight-sets win to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead. A&M sophomore Pierce Rollins then secured a straight-sets win in similar fashion, 6-1, 6-1.
Dhokia continued the maroon and white domination with a 6-1, 6-2, straight-sets win that gave the Aggies the match victory, and Storch added on with a 6-1, 6-3, straight-sets victory over Mello to put A&M ahead 5-0.
Sriniketh brought the Aggies one step closer to a shutout match win with his gutsy 6-4, 7-6, straight-sets win over UTRGV junior Misha Kvantaliani, but Izurieta got the Vaqueros on the board with a grind-it-out 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 set win over Bondaz.
The set win by Izurieta was only a consolation prize for the visitors, as A&M won the match by a final score of 6-1.
“UTRGV was a very spirited group, and we had a tight doubles on all three lines,” Denton told 12thman.com following the day’s action.
The second match victory moves A&M to 21-10 on the season, with wins in seven of its last nine matches. Meanwhile, the loss drops UTRGV to a lowly 5-16 on the season.
A&M will now attempt to maintain its winning ways, but it will be tested, as the Aggies travel to Columbia, S.C., to face the No. 9 Gamecocks at Carolina Tennis Center on Friday, April 15 at 4 p.m.