No. 12 Texas A&M men’s tennis split its doubleheader on Friday, March 13 with opponents in UTRGV and Ohio State.

Match 1 vs UTRGV

Aggie men’s tennis defeated the Vaqueros 6-1 at Mitchell Tennis Center with a doubles point clinch from redshirt freshman Grant Lothringer and freshman Brayden Michna.

The doubles point was clinched by the Court 2 duo of Lothringer and Michna, 6-3. Paving the way for Lothringer and Michna was sophomore Ethan Silva and freshman Lathan Skrobarcek who defeated their UTRGV opponents on Court 3 6-1.

While the doubles point was secured, the Court 1 pairing of freshman Tiago Pires and graduate Kenner Taylor led against senior Emilien Burnel and freshman Ivo Isqueiro 5-4. The Court 1 doubles play ended as A&M earned the point.

Going into singles play, Silva quickly added to the Aggies’ lead by outplaying freshman Will Roberts in two sets on Court 6, 6-2, 6-0.

No. 64 junior JC Roddick was the next to earn a point for the Maroon and White as he defeated Burnel 6-3, 6-1 on Court 1.

The match was clinched by Skorobareck in his win over freshman Paolo Bonaguro on Court 5, 6-0, 7-5.

The Aggies and the Vaqueros played out the rest of the matches with Lothringer and Michna winning on Courts 3 and 2, respectively. Kenner fell to freshman Santiago Serrano in three sets on Court 4.

Match 2 vs Ohio State

A&M men’s tennis, 14-4, and 3-1 in conference, came off its 6-1 victory over UTRGV and fell 6-1 to No. 1 Ohio State. History repeated itself in this home game as the Aggies fell to the Buckeyes, 7-0, during the 2022-23 season.

The match started with doubles, the Buckeyes duo graduate Cannon Kingsley and senior JJ Tacy took on Pires and Taylor. Pires and Taylor lost the match 4-6, making them the first duo to lose a point.

Tracy leads Ohio this season with 23 singles wins and 20 doubles wins. Sophomore Togan Tokac took on Tracy during singles play. Tokac had the lead as Tracy fell short due to serves hitting the net but being one of the three Buckeye starters that have not lost a singles match meant coming back. Tokac shortly fell to the volley player, 6-3,6-7,10-7

The Maroon and White duo junior Giulio Perego and Tokac led in points against graduate Justin Boulais and graduate Andrew Lutschaunig. Tokac and Perego are leading the Aggies in doubles win, 8-3. After multiple lob and slice shots, the Aggies took their first win, 6-2.

Luke Casper and Roddick served cross-court shots and had no issue rotating fluidly. The Aggies came close to earning the second point but fell to graduate Robert Cash and freshman Bryce Nahashima. The Buckeyes were consistent with their back shots but caught their opponents off guard when they started serving toward the front. The tiebreaker ended 7-6,7-2

The Buckeyes remained dominant in singles matches as Ohio had five players ranked in singles. The Buckeyes have lost five singles matches during the dual season. Roddick, who has five ranked wins and is on a four-match winning streak, took on Kingsley on Court 2 and cleared a win in both sets 6-2,6-4. After Casper and Pires fell to sophomore Alexander Bernard and Cash, the Buckeyes clinched the match.

“I thought we fought hard and got playing time for the entire squad,” head coach Steve Denton said. “I am proud of the way we competed tonight. We have to move on and get ready for Tennessee on Friday. Another great team that presents a great opportunity.”

The Maroon and White are set to play the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers on Friday, March 15, at the Mitchell Tennis Center.