The No. 5 Aggie men’s tennis team continued their SEC success while tallying a 6-1 win against the No. 9 Florida Gators on Friday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station.
Friday evening’s win allowed Texas A&M to improve to an 17-4 record overall and 9-0 in the SEC as Florida stumbles to 13-8 and 7-3 in conference play.
Even as the Aggies were not off to their best start due to falling behind quickly on each of the three courts, they managed to come from behind and to secure the doubles point and an early advantage.
The No. 13 duo of Juan Carlos Aguilar and Jordi Arconada earned their second top-five win in a 6-3 win on court one over No. 5 Alfredo Perez and Johannes Ingildsen. No. 58 Arthur Rinderknech and Patrick Kypson completed a comeback, as they were down 4-1, to finish 6-4 against No. 44 Duarte Vale and McClain Kessler, to officially claim the doubles point.
Throughout singles play, A&M kept up the pace as they then claimed four of the six opening sets. Sophomore No. 52 Valentin Vacherot powered to a 6-1, 6-2 win on court four over Chase Perez-Blanco, to improve to 7-2 in SEC matches and 21-10 overall while giving the Aggies a substantial 2-0 lead.
Freshman No. 12 Kypson would later defeat No. 16 Ingildsen, 6-3, 6-1, on court one to earn his ninth ranked-victory and that would further extend the Aggie’s lead to 3-0. Fellow Freshman, No. 109 Aguilar would take care of business against No. 94 Vale, 6-0, 6-4, on court five to assure the win for A&M.
While the victory had been awarded to the home team, Senior No. 52 Arconada strongly contended for a 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 win on court three against No. 9 Perez. Soon after, Senior No. 10 Rinderknech earned his first top-10 win of his career a 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 victory on court two over No. 31 Oliver Crawford.
Freshman Barnaby Smith would surrender the sole point to the Gators in a 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 struggle against Andres Andrade on court six, leaving the overall score as a 6-1 victory for the Aggies.
The A&M men’s tennis team will conclude their regular season while next facing No. 27 South Carolina on Sunday, April 8 and No. 7 Mississippi State and Auburn the following weekend.