The Texas A&M men’s tennis team concluded the LSU invitational with nine wins in singles and doubles play in Baton Rouge. The women meanwhile picked up 20 wins at the SMU Red and Blue Challenge in Dallas.
The tournaments marked the last of tournament play for some of the players, while others will go on to compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships for both and the Rebel Fall Invite for the women specifically next week.
The Aggie men split four matches on day one Thursday afternoon, including a 6-1, 6-2 win by freshman Kevin Lam over Me El Tonbari and a 6-2, 6-4 win by junior Max Lunkin over Tom Colautti in singles. Lunkin and fellow junior Frakie Colunga came up short 8-7(5) in doubles and junior James Martell fell in singles 6-4, 6-2.
Day two featured five wins from the Aggie men including two from doubles pair Colunga and Lunkin. Lam and Martell also grabbed a doubles win over Florin Radu and Jimmy Wasserman of host LSU. Lam teammate Martell each won in singles as well on Friday afternoon, beating Eric Wagner of Tulane and Mark Ihrig of Denver.
Lam and Martell continued their hot streak into day three with another doubles win, this time over Jake Hansen/Emanuel Llamas of Rice. Lam also grabbed another singles victory over Princeton’s Jonathon Carcione in straight sets.
The women opened up play against Wichita State at noon Friday. They were victorious in one match in doubles, a 6-2 victory by senior Anna Mamalat and junior Rutuja Bhosale, and three singles matches including a 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 win from Bhosale, a 6-4, 7-6 win by Ines Deheza and a 6-4, 6-4 win from Eva Paalma.
They continued play at noon Saturday against Tulsa where they won all three doubles matches, a 6-2 win from Deheza and senior Stefania Hristov, a 6-1 win from Mamalat/Bhosale, and a 6-3 win from a new pair in Paalma and freshman Dominca Gonzalez. They fell one match short of sweeping the board in singles as well, featuring wins from Bhosale, Deheza, Paalma, Mamalat and Hristov.
The women ended day three with a match-up against Wyoming at 9 a.m. and took two out of three doubles matches, including wins from Hristov/Deheza and Paalma/Gonzalez. Singles was a field day and every matchup went in favor of the Aggies, including a thrilling 7-5, 1-6, 12-10 victory from Deheza and a dominating 6-0, 6-1 win from Paalma.
The Aggie men that qualify for the National Indoor Championships will resume play Thursday Nov. 12 in Flushing Meadows, New York. Any women who continue playing will do so in the women’s National Championships or in Las Vegas at the Rebel Invite. Those that do not qualify begin their winter early and will prepare for the spring season.
