No. 12 Texas A&M men’s tennis traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to compete against No. 55 Vanderbilt, and despite a slow start, the Aggies survived in a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against the Commodores.
“Our guys showed a lot of fight today against Vanderbilt,” coach Steve Denton said. “They had us on the back foot for a while, but they kept battling and figured out a way to pull it off.”
The doubles point started off rough for the Aggies as the Commodores steam rolled past them. On Court 1, the No. 37 duo of junior Nathan Cox and senior Michael Ross got Vanderbilt off to a hot start, outdueling the Aggies in a 6-2 win over senior duo of JC Roddick and Alan Magadan.
It didn’t get better for the Aggies as on Court 3, as fifth year Henry Ruger and freshman Dylan Charlap helped the Commodores blank the senior pair of Giulio Perego and Luke Casper, 6-0. This gave Vanderbilt the first point of the match.
In singles, the Fightin’ Farmers showed why they’re the No. 12 team in the nation as No. 32 freshman Theo Papamalamis and Magadan secured two points on the first two courts. Papamalamis outdueled Panarin on Court 1 in a comfortable series, 6-0, 6-2, and Magadan defeated Cox, 6-2, 6-4, on Court 2.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Commodores continued to take advantage of their home court as Michael Ross edged out a narrow victory against sophomore Tiago Pires on Court 3, 7-5, 7-6. More bad news for the Aggies came when Pablo Martinez Gomez secured another point for the Commodores in singles, defeating Casper 6-2, 6-0 on Court 4. Vanderbilt would reclaim the lead, 3-2, over the Aggies.
To keep their winning streak alive, the Aggies relied on both junior Togan Tokac and graduate Matthis Ross on Courts 5 and 6 to pull off the comeback. On Court 5, Tokac defeated Ruger 6-3, 7-6 to tie up the score.
Now, with both teams tied at three points, Matthis Ross faced off against sophomore Hugo Coquelin to decide who the winner of the match on Court 6. The athletes split the first two sets, with Ross winning the first set 6-4 and Coquelin stealing the second set, 6-2. In the third set, it was Ross who escaped with the win on a hard-fought 6-3 third set, giving the Aggies the victory.
“It is never easy to win on the road,” Denton said. “The SEC is a tough conference and getting a road win means a lot. We must continue with this momentum as we prepare to play at Ole Miss on Sunday.”
A&M will travel to Oxford, Mississippi to challenge Ole Miss at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center on Sunday, March 23 at 1:00 p.m.
