The No. 7 Texas A&M men’s tennis team will host the ITA Kickoff Weekend in their spring home opener. On Saturday, Georgia State faces off against Cal Poly and the Aggies play LSU, with consolation and championship matches taking place on Sunday.
The Aggies are currently 1-0 after a 6-1 Jan. 14 win over Arizona State.
“I thought it was a good start to the season,” head coach Steve Denton said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of excitement about a first match of the year, but considering we played three freshmen in the match, I was very pleased with how the team performed.”
The three freshmen, Juan Carlos Aguilar, Patrick Kypson and Barnaby Smith, won each of their singles matches, with Kypson dropping No. 51 Michael Geerts. The tandem of Kypson and Smith combined to defeat Andrea Bolla and Thomas Wright in doubles competition. Aguilar and doubles partner No. 18 Jordi Arconada also beat their opponents, No. 53-ranked Benjamin Hannestad and Tim Ruehl.
“I was actually on Patrick Kypson and Jordi [Arconada]’s court, so I thought especially with his first match and playing such a top-ranked player, I really was pleased with how Patrick played and handled the situation,” Denton said. “I was pleased with him, but we had really good performances obviously by all of our freshmen.”
LSU is 5-0 and fresh off a 4-2 win over the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Georgia State is 3-2 after a 4-3 win over Portland. Cal Poly is 2-0, coming off a 7-0 win over Sacramento State. This match will help Texas A&M qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in February.
“I know that we’re going to have two really tough matches,” Denton said. “We missed out on the National Indoor last year, and I know with this team, with the experience of our senior leadership as well as these young players wanting to get to go and play in Seattle against the top teams in the country. I can’t say we’re going to win, but I know our guys will be motivated and play well.”
Georgia State and Cal Poly kick off the weekend’s events at 11 a.m., with the Aggies following at 2 p.m. A&M will play at either 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. on Sunday depending on the results of Saturday’s match against LSU.