Monday night at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, Texas A&M men’s tennis team rewrote history with their 4-3 win against top ranked Ohio State.
A&M freshman Noah Schachter, began the winning streak of the day with his toppling victory against Ohio State’s Tim Seibert 6-3, 6-3 on court five. To follow, A&M sophomore Hady Habib adds to the rush 2-1 with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over Ohio State’s ranked No.28 Kyle Seelig, on court two.
Following his teammate’s lead, A&M sophomore Valentin Vacherot, ranked No. 38, earns the third Aggie victory of the night with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win against Ohio States’ No. 81 Alex Kobelt. With these victories under his belt, Vacherot moves up to a 7-3 in dual matches and earned his sixth consecutive win.
Barnaby Smith finished off the night for the Aggies with a 7-6(7), 6-3 win over Ohio State’s nationally ranked No. 69, Martin Joyce. With this, Smith moves to a 11-1 in his spring season with 12 out of 13 won matches.
Smith point out the team’s strengths and weaknesses with, “I’m not surprised even when we lost the doubles point, we didn’t play well at doubles as a team and I honestly thought we could win every point in singles and we almost did. We had chances in the other two singles matches. I know a lot of us didn’t feel like we played our best tennis tonight, but we just competed really hard. The conditions were tough and the crowd was great. We have been working so hard for so long. We trust the work that we have put in as a team.”
Although Texas A&M’s win was secure, Buckeyes did earn the first point of the night in doubles and held onto a pair of singles wins.
“We did what we had to do to get a win tonight,” Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said to 12thman.com. “It’s tough on them, their star player is not here and obviously that makes a difference. They would be the first to not use that as an excuse and its tough coming out and playing outdoor tennis for a few days, but it is just like when we go play them indoors. We knew they were going to compete very hard against us like they always do and it’s going to be a dogfight, but our guys were pretty good again tonight. We are playing with a little bit of momentum and the guys believe in themselves and we were able to get across the finish line.”
The Aggies proved themselves further with the victory against Ohio State, securing not only their ninth straight win this season but earned a triumph over the 16th all-time matchup between Texas A&M and Ohio State. With both team having eight straight wins behind them, the Aggies pushed through securing their winning streak in the SEC spring season.
On Saturday, March 16th, A&M will head to Baton Rouge and faceoff in a double header against No.24 LSU and New Orleans