Both of A&M’s tennis teams swept its competition this weekend totaling five match wins, four of which being in conference play.

The No. 15 women’s team kicked off the weekend by defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs by a count of 5-2. The Aggies (10-4, 7-2 SEC) captured their sixth win over the last seven matches Friday due to some tough play across the board. Head coach Howard Joffe spoke after the match about his team’s performance.

“Today was a really good win for the Aggies,” coach Howard Joffe said. “Mississippi State was every bit as good and tough as advertised. This was an overall team effort, and the encouraging pieces from today were I felt our ladies were oppressive at every position. [Stefania] Hristov and [Anna] Mamalat both won tough three-set matches to get us over the finish line, Rutuja [Bhosale] had another excellent ranked win over Georgiana Patrasc and the doubles teams are starting to click.”

Following their win Friday, the Aggies traveled north for Oxford to face the Ole Miss Rebels Sunday afternoon.

Unlike Friday in Starkville, A&M began singles play behind after dropping the doubles point for just the third time over the course of its last 13 matches. A&M’s Anna Mamalat was the first to get on the board for the Aggies, tying the score at one apiece.

Although A&M suffered a loss on court one, which put them behind 2-1, the Aggies rallied and did not give up another point to capture the win with a final count of 4-2. Both Saska Gavrilovska and Stefania Hristov battled through three sets to clinch the final two points for A&M.

The women’s team will head home to prepare for their match Wednesday when they will host Abilene Christian.

The No. 9 A&M men’s team began play at home Friday evening when they welcomed in the visiting Arkansas Razorbacks (11-10, 1-6 SEC).

Opening the match by securing the doubles point has worked well for the Aggies (14-3, 8-1 SEC) this season so far, recording a 10-2 record when beginning the match 1-0.  The win on the doubles court also helped create some momentum for the Aggies as they went on to capture the first set in five of the six singles matches.

That momentum carried A&M to a 4-0 victory over the Razorbacks and was good for its seventh conference win of the season. Next up for the Aggies were the Ole Miss Rebels. Head coach Steve Denton spoke of the matchup with the Rebels set for Sunday.

“Our next order of business is Ole Miss, they beat us last year 4-3 in Oxford and I know they have a really good team again this year,” coach Denton said. “I know they will come in here excited to play against us and we have to be ready for a tough match.”

Once again, the match began 1-0 thanks to the senior pair of Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo who clinched the doubles point

Although all eyes were gravitating to the court one matchup of No. 59 Efferding and No. 15 Nik Sholtz, it was the play of the A&M freshman that proved to be the difference in the match. Wins by Jordi Arconada, AJ Catanzariti and Max Lunkin, respectively, clinched the match for the Aggies and handed them their eighth conference win of the season. Coach Denton spoke of his team’s depth

“A win like this is good to showcase the depth that this team has,” coach Denton said. “Our mantra has to be ‘Next man up.’ We had a lot of guys come into the lineup and get off to a good start in the match.”

The Aggies had to use everything they had left in the tank to squeak out a 4-3 win against UTSA Sunday afternoon. Singles wins from Jordi Arconada, Arthur Rinderknech and AJ Catanzariti allowed A&M to escape the weekend without suffering a single loss. All of the singles wins for the Aggies on Sunday came from freshmen.
A&M will travel to Houston Wednesday to face the Rice Owls for a 5 p.m. match.