Texas A&M’s eighth ranked men’s tennis team was shut out on the road against No. 5 Tennessee, losing 4-0.
After taking a loss down in Athens, Ga., to No. 10 Georgia, A&M prepared to take on an even bigger fish in Tennessee. The Aggies wound up facing their first shutout all season, and went 0-2 over the weekend. The team’s momentum is trending in the opposite direction as the postseason creeps up.
The Aggies were not at full strength, playing without a pair of ranked seniors: No. 2 Hady Habib and No. 78 Barnaby Smith. This put them at a disadvantage from the start when facing a team as good as Tennessee, who is now 21-3 on the season. The Aggies drop to a record of 14-7, and are only 6-5 in the SEC.
A&M started the match from behind early after getting shut down in doubles play. Juniors Pranav Kumar and Noah Schachter for the Aggies lost 6-1 on court 3 to open up the day. Soon after, Tennessee’s No. 3 ranked duo of Pat Harper and Adam Walton defeated A&M’s No. 8 duo of senior Carlos Aguilar and graduate student Bjorn Thomson by a score of 6-3.
On court 2, A&M sophomore Pierce Rollins and senior Valentin Vacherot’s match went unfinished. The Aggies were down 1-0 early, a position from which the Aggies had yet to complete a comeback from this season.
The Aggies needed to win four of the six courts in singles matches to win, but those dreams soured very quickly. No. 64 Aguilar quickly lost in two sets to Tennessee’s No. 12 Johannus Monday. He was then followed by No. 78 Rollins, who lost 6-4, 6-4. The shutout was solidified after No. 77 Schachter fell to No. 50 Martim Prata.
The remaining three courts went unfinished, despite strong efforts by the Aggies pushing all three to a third set. The match was called at a score of 4-0.
The Aggies will have time to regroup after dropping two in a row, facing Alabama in a rescheduled match. The two teams face off in Bryan-College Station on Saturday, April 17. The match time is to be determined. This will be the last match for the Aggies before the SEC Tournament, and the results can be huge as the team fights for seeding.