It’s impossible to avoid adversity in sports. What really defines a team is how it responds to adversity. Thus far, Texas A&M men’s tennis is struggling on this front after losing its fifth consecutive game on Sunday, Feb. 27 to SMU.
The match started off in doubles play. SMU dominated from first serve and quickly clinched the point behind to straight set victories to take an early 1-0 lead.
Already behind the 8-ball, A&M got off to a good start in singles. Junior Noah Schachter and freshman Luke Casper each won in straight sets to give A&M back the lead at 2-1.
The two teams proceeded to trade the next two points with A&M leading 3-2 and on the verge of a victory.
Despite winning the first set 6-0, junior Guido Marson lost in three sets to SMU’s Ivan Thamma to even the match up at 3-3. The winner of the final singles tie between A&M sophomore Matthis Ross and SMU’s Pranav Kumar would clinch the victory for their team.
Ross got off to a tough start losing the first set in a tiebreaker, but quickly responded to win the second set 6-4 to set up a decisive third set. A 6-3 victory in the set for Kumar clinched A&M’s fifth straight loss. A&M’s season record is now 6-5.
A&M coach Steve Denton said A&M’s inability to capitalize on winning the first set is a main reason why the team is struggling.
“I thought SMU outplayed us in the doubles, but we gave ourselves a chance to win today when we won four first sets,” Denton said. “Unfortunately, we were not able to hold on to all four first sets. As I have alluded to throughout this spring, we have not been playing the big points well and have been playing them a bit scared.”
Denton was also complimentary of SMU’s ability to take advantage of A&M’s miscues.
“We give a lot of credit to SMU; they played very hard and took advantage of our mistakes,” Denton said. “I felt like that was the difference today, they competed and were more aggressive than we were. We have to learn from this match and begin taking it to our opponent and not be so passive.”
A&M’s next opportunity to get back on track is a home doubleheader on Friday, March 4, at the Mitchell Tennis Center against Incarnate Word and Arkansas. First serve for the former is set for 12 p.m. while the latter is set for 6 p.m.
