Texas A&M’s No. 16 men’s tennis had its season ended at the hands of No. 1 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. Despite a valiant effort, the Aggies could not hand the Demon Deacons their second loss of the season, ultimately losing 4-0.
Following a 4-3 win over Baylor in last weekend’s matchup, the Maroon and White did not build well off their last performance. Wake Forest’s No. 18 duo,sophomore Luca Pow and graduate Luciano Tacchi, dominated A&M seniors Giulio Perego and Damien Salvestre, winning 6-4.
With the doubles point on the line, a battle was on the horizon.
On Court 2, the Aggies’ sophomore Tiago Pires and senior Alan Magadan pushed the Demon Deacons’ No. 26 graduate Stefan Dostanic and freshman Charlie Robertson to an initial tiebreak point. With an opportunity to shift the match balance toward Court 1 — which was about to host another tiebreaker — where the A&M duo failed to capitalize, leading to a Demon’s win, 7-6.
Forcing the No. 1 team into two tiebreakers is no easy feat, and the Aggies never backed down. With the home side up 1-0 and a mere two points separating sides heading into singles play, the Maroon and White faced a mountain of an assignment.
Unfortunately for A&M, this fruitless doubles resistance was the “high water mark” for the Aggies’ trip to North Carolina. First, Wake Forest’s No. 9 junior DK Suresh defeated A&M’s No. 85 Alan Magadan 6-3, 6-1.
On Court 1, Wake Forest’s No. 13 Stefan Dostanic took down A&M’s No. 31 Theo Papamalamis, winning 6-3, 6-3.
Rapidly, the Fightin’ Farmers dug themselves into a seeping hole. An encounter that initially showed promise for the visitors was now at the precipice of disaster. The Aggies, down 3-0, would have to sweep the remaining four singles matches to advance to the Elite Eight.
On Court 5, A&M junior Togan Tokac provided a glimpse of hope. The Istanbul, Turkey native looked poised to win the first set, but following a tiebreaker, the point went to Tacchi Despite the first set-theatrics, the second was not one for the record books. Tacchi bludgeoned Tokac 6-1, securing the point and a win for the home side.
Several Aggies demonstrated promise and pushed their higher-ranked foes to the brink of defeat, however, none of these promising performances impacted the scoreboard, and the Aggies were defeated 4-0.
While the defeat signaled the end of the Maroon and Whites’ season, many of the individuals will return to Mitchell Tennis Center in the fall, with hopes to turn around their back-to-back season enders in the Sweet Sixteen.
