SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The historic run for the UTSA men's tennis team came to a close Friday night, as the pair of Alan Magadan and Sebastian Rodriguez fell in the ITA National quarterfinals to Utah (Berk Bugarikj/Patrik Trhac) by a score of 2-1 (7-5, 1-6, 7-10).
Magadan and Rodriguez began the quarterfinal match strong, taking set one 7-5 against Utah before dropping set two and the 10-point tiebreaker. Prior to Friday's quarterfinal match, UTSA downed teams from Louisville in round one and Pepperdine in round two.
The round one matchup against Louisville was a doozy, as the pair of Natan Rodrigues and Fabien Salle were the fourth ranked doubles squad that UTSA faced in a row. After defeating #24 Texas A&M, #13 Baylor and #3 TCU in the Texas Regional, UTSA opened Nationals play with the #48-ranked Cardinals. Louisville's duo of Rodrigues and Salle teamed up to claim the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championship in the middle of October while Salle also won the singles championship at the ITA Ohio Regional.
The Roadrunners and Cardinals battled in the opening set of round one, with Louisville taking the first set 7-5. Magadan and Rodriguez fought back in the second set, winning 6-4 and evening the match at one apiece. The two went to a round three tiebreaker as the first to 10 would claim the match. The Roadrunners grasped momentum early, not giving Louisville any opportunities, and won the set 10-4 to claim the match 2-1.
In the second round, UTSA faced the duo of Daniel DeJonge and Tim Zeitvogel of Pepperdine. The duo was not ranked, snapping a streak of consecutive ranked duos faced, however, DeJonge was ranked 59th with a different duo partner prior to the ITA Nationals. In the second set, UTSA and its opponent again went to a third-set tiebreaker. Magadan and Rodriguez came out hot, taking the first set, 7-5. Pepperdine rebounded in the second, dispatching the Roadrunners 6-3. With the two squads in a decisive third set, UTSA managed to take down Pepperdine 10-6, winning the match 2-1.
"I'm very proud of those guys. They had won seven matches in a row and over half of them were against ranked teams," said head coach Sergey Avdeyev. He continued, "We had the last match but couldn't convert important points. It's a little disappointing finish but overall, we had great run. I'm certain it will give confidence to our team going into the spring season."
Up Next: UTSA's fall season concludes with the ITA Nationals. The next time the Roadrunners will be back on the court is 2023.
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