With its victory on Sunday, Jan. 30, over No. 12 Arizona, No. 19 Texas A&M men’s tennis clinched a spot in ITA, or Intercollegiate Tennis Association, National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, and also threw in a victory over A&M-Corpus Christi later in the day for good measure. Expect A&M’s ranking to improve in the coming days after such a successful weekend.
A&M coach Steve Denton said the Aggies are going to have to make a habit of defeating quality teams such as Arizona if they want to be successful this season.
“If we are going to reach our goals this season, we need to play in matches like this and play against the teams that will be at ITA Indoors,” Denton said. “We put ourselves in a position to be tested and see how much we will be able to accomplish.”
A&M got off to a rough start in its match against Arizona by losing the first doubles match. On the verge of losing the doubles point, A&M set up a decisive third match after juniors Matthis Ross and Pierce Rollins defeated Carlos Hassey and Colton Smith, 6-4.
The final doubles match was close throughout with a 5-5 tie, forcing the teams to continue to play two more sets before a potential tiebreaker. Freshman Giulio Perego and sophomore Raphael Perot won the aforementioned sets to win the match 7-5 and clinch the doubles point.
The Aggies got off to another slow start in singles as they dropped the first match in straight sets to the Wildcats. The win evened the match at 1-1.
Behind victories from Ross and junior Guido Marson, the maroon and white took back control of the match with a 3-1 lead. Ross’ performance was especially impressive as he came back from a 5-2 deficit to win his match over Herman Hoeyeraal 6-2, 7-5.
Junior Noah Schachter’s three-set victory punched A&M’s ticket into the ITA Indoor Championships.
Denton said A&M’s performance in the critical junctures of the match led to its victory over Arizona.
“We had a great team effort today. Arizona is a very good team, and I think our guys stepped up today,” Denton said. “I have been talking all week about the team that plays the big points the best will advance to Seattle. We were that team today. The difference in the match today was how hard we fought, and we knew it was going to be a battle.”
A&M kept its pedal to the metal in its second match of the day against A&M-Corpus Christi by quickly clinching the matches’ doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead.
In singles play, the Aggies proceeded to win all six singles matches, but the Islanders put up a good fight. The maroon and white clinched the 7-0 victory after freshman Mathis Bondaz and junior Anish Sriniketh each won in tiebreakers.
The two victories upped A&M’s 2022 record to 4-0.
After a well-deserved break, A&M will be back in action for a road matchup on Saturday, Feb. 12 against USF in Tampa, Fla. First serve at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts is scheduled for a 12:30 p.m start.