The No. 7 Texas A&M men’s tennis team strolled into Nashville on Friday afternoon and put their five match-winning streak on the line against the Vanderbilt Commodores. After claiming victories in three conference and two non-conference matches against Rice and Tyler Junior College, the Aggies suffered their second SEC loss this season 3-4 at the hands of Vanderbilt.
This was a tough match for the Aggies as they were not able to earn the crucial final doubles point. The only victory through doubles for the Aggies was in the third court by Jordi Arconada and Shane Vinsant.
Winning the double point proved to be especially critical since each team in singles had the same number of court wins. Vanderbilt won in the first, third and fourth court while A&M won the second, fifth, and sixth.
The No. 7 men’s tennis team fell to 5-2 in the SEC and will now head into two more non-conference matches at the Mitchell Tennis Center on Monday in a double header against Incarnate Word and No. 3 TCU.
This past weekend in College Station, the No. 17 Aggie women’s team improved to 9-1 at home and are now 4-4 in the SEC this year.
The Missouri Tigers came into the Mitchell Tennis Center on Friday and were handed a blowout loss. This was only the first of the two matches this weekend as the women’s tennis team also played the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday morning.
The Aggies claimed the doubles point against Missouri and the rest of the match looked similar. The Tigers did not claim a single win on the day and fell to the Aggies 7-0. Head coach Mark Weaker spoke about his thoughts over the match.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to get a 7-0 victory against a much improved team,” Weaver said via 12thman.com. “No doubt, we are the more talented of the two, but to win 7-0 decisively, I am glad we all just clicked together.”
Sunday was the eighth conference match this year and the Aggies were able to start on the right foot. They claimed wins on the first and third courts and quickly got out in front of the Razorbacks 1-0 in doubles.
Singles was tied up at 2-2 when Arkansas Sasha Shkorupeieva defeated Aggie sophomore Eva Paalma 7-6, 6-2. In the next court, Ines Deheza had initially got out early ahead of her opponent, winning the first set 6-3 before making it a closer second set at 5-4. Her win put the Aggies ahead of the Razorbacks 3-2.
“I said we need it, we needed it that much,” Deheza said when striving to put the Aggies ahead.
The Razorbacks later cleared out the fifth and sixth courts with two wins and defeated the Aggies 4-3.
“Yes, I know it was going to be a tough match for sure,” Weaver said. “It’s part of competition, two very good teams battling it out. It’s a matter of a big battle, of who’s tougher.”
The Aggie women’s tennis team will head on the road Thursday to compete against the No. 8 South Carolina Gamecocks.
