COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The UTSA men's tennis team had a historic Saturday night, defeating Texas A&M for the first time in school history, 4-3. The victory extended UTSA's winning streak to six matches in a row, as it downed its third-straight ranked foe. UTSA has now toppled No. 53 Florida Atlantic, No. 66 Wichita State and No. 49 Texas A&M in its last three matches.
The Roadrunners (8-4) have tripled the number of wins over ranked opponents from last season and are off to their best start in four seasons. The Aggies (4-6) dropped their second match of the day, having lost to fifth-ranked Kentucky earlier in the afternoon.
Quoting Coach Avdeyev
"I'm so, so proud of our guys. They showed up to win, not just compete. We came here prepared for a battle and were ready from the go. All credit to our guys, they did this."
Doubles
For the first time in six matches, the Roadrunners dropped the doubles point to start the match. Sebastian Rodriguez/Garrett Skelly opened up doubles play falling to Pierce Rollins/Kenner Taylor of Texas A&M (6-1) before UTSA's top duo of Alan Magadan/Tiago Torres dispatched of A&M's Trey Hilderbrand/Giulio Perego (6-3). The doubles point would come down to Tomás Pinho/Miguel Alonso versus Matthis Ross/Luke Casper of the Aggies. Pinho and Miguel struck first in the set, but A&M took the match (6-4) to claim a 1-0 lead on the night.
Singles
Knowing it had work to do in singles action, UTSA got busy in a hurry. Rodriguez got the party started, as the senior battled off the No. 105 singles player in the country, Pierce Rollins, downing the Aggie 6-2, 6-0. Pinho was next up, making short work of Casper, surrendering just one point (6-1, 6-0). The quick wins from Rodriguez and Pinho put the Roadrunners in front 2-1 heading into Magadan's matchup. The junior defeated Perego (6-4, 6-4) to put the Roadrunners one win away from claiming the match and making history. UTSA didn't have to wait long, as minutes after Magadan finished, Skelly completed an impressive comeback win over the No. 92 singles player in the country, Trey Hilderbrand (2-6, 6-4, 6-2). Having secured the victory with Skelly's win, the two teams agreed to continue playing out the remaining two singles matches. The fifth match to finish saw A&M's Ross best Muminovic (7-5, 6-2) on court six while on court one, No. 57 Raphael Perot took down Torres (77-64, 3-6, 10-4) to bring the final score to 4-3 as UTSA walked away victorious.
Up Next
The Roadrunners will return to the UTSA Tennis Center for its next matchup, as they are set to face off with the Furman Paladins. The match with the Paladins is set for Tuesday, March 7, and is set to begin at 1 p.m.
- UTSA -
