Texas A&M’s No. 13 men’s tennis traveled up to Cambridge, Massachusetts this weekend to partake in the ITA Kickoff Weekend hosted by Harvard. After a dominating season opener against USTA, the Aggies had their eyes set on wins.
The Aggies started off their weekend versus No. 21 UCLA, who they have a three-match winning streak against. In a nail biting match in order to punch their ticket to the ITA Kickoff Weekend Championship, the Maroon and White held on and defeated the Blue and Gold 4-3.
The matchup began strong as A&M’s No. 48 doubles team of senior Luke Casper and junior Togan Tokac took down the No. 10 UCLA duo, junior Aadarsh Tripathi and senior Alexander Hoogmartens, 6-1. After a brutal loss for the Bruins, they came back swinging and secured the last two doubles points.
Heading into singles action, senior Giulio Perego picked up a point for A&M as he took down No. 93 Tripathi quickly, 6-2, 6-2, tying the match, 2-2. The Aggies got back on top after a dominating singles performance from freshman Theo Papamalamis, earning his first ranked win over No. 13 sophomore Spencer Johnson 6-3 6-1.
Casper joined Papamalamis gaining another singles win for the Aggies after taking down freshman Kaylan Bigun, putting them one point away from securing the win. The next two singles matches went to the Bruins as they took down sophomore Tiago Pires and Tokac, tying the match 3-3.
Coming down to the last match, veteran senior JC Roddick was matched up against UCLA’s No. 50 freshman Rudy Quan, in a thrilling three-set match. Roddick secured the first, dropped the second and then finally finished Quan up in the third, advancing the Maroon and White to the championship match.
“JC Roddick has been working very hard on his game and responded with a gritty three-set win in the decider,” A&M coach Steve Denton said.
A&M had its eyes set on the title, yet they had to defeat No. 23 Harvard on its home turf first. The Aggies got down 0-1 early as Perego and Roddick dropped their doubles match against senior duo Daniel Milavsky and David Lins 6-2.
Singles action soon started as the Aggies realized they couldn’t get too far behind a talented Crimson team. Pires handled business against junior Valdemar Pape defeating him in two sets 6-3, 6-1, to tie up the match.
After a loss for Roddick, Harvard went up 2-1 in the match as A&M searched for an answer in Tokac as he beat junior Masato Perera to tie the match once again at two. Shortly after the tie, the Crimson earned another point after Perego went down in a three-set thriller.
Playing behind 2-3, all eyes were on A&M’s Casper and Papamalamis as they were the last two single matches playing. With no room for error, Casper stepped up in a three-set battle to take down sophomore Rohan Murali 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
With this next match on the line, Papamalamis and Milavsky battled it out to the finish, as Papamalamis came out swinging in the third set, winning 6-0, ultimately leading the Aggies to victory.
“Theo once again displayed a high level of tennis IQ in the third set,” Denton said. “He played flawlessly to clinch the match for us.”
The team punched their ticket to the ITA Indoor Nationals for the second straight year after two hard fought days against two nationally ranked teams.
“The team had a great fighting spirit,” Denton said. “We were never ahead until the very end.”
After an outstanding weekend, the Maroon and White head west to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu, California, to take on Pepperdine on Feb. 2 at 4:00 p.m.
