ORLANDO – Despite putting numerous firsts in the UTSA men's tennis record book for this season, the Roadrunner doubles tandem of Sebastian Rodriguez and Alan Magadan saw their historic postseason run come to an end on Thursday at the USTA National Campus. The 36th-ranked UTSA pair were eliminated in a hard-fought loss to third-ranked Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri from Texas, 7-5, 6-3, in the NCAA Doubles Championships Round of 16.
Trujillo, Peru senior Rodriguez and McAllen, Texas junior Magadan became the very first UTSA doubles team to make the NCAA individual championships, and proceeded to become the first Roadrunners with a postseason victory, topping NC State's Robin Catry and Luca Staeheli in straight sets on Wednesday.
Against Catry and Staeheli on Wednesday, the Roadrunners were able to build up leads in both sets to gain momentum. With Harper and Spizzirri among the top players and pairs throughout the season, they had no such luxury. Holding serve was the name of the game throughout the match and proved to be a significant deciding factor in the outcome.
In the opening set, the Roadrunner and Longhorn pairs traded games with no break points. The pairs were neck-and-neck up to a 5-5 tie. Harper and Spizzirri scored on their serve with a clean sweep to go ahead 6-5, then finished off the set after pushing ahead 40-15 in the 12th game – claiming the 7-5 win.
The second set began as a mirror image of the first, trading points to the serving pair. In the fifth game, UTSA missed on a double break that allowed UT to go up 3-2 on their third serving game. Rodriguez and Magadan fired right back, knotting the score at 3-3. However, a second double break in the seventh game proved decisive as Harper and Spizzirri won seven of the next eight points to first go ahead 4-3 and then break Rodriguez' serve for the 5-3 advantage. The Longhorns pair claimed the final game in a 6-3 final, ending the match and the season for UTSA.
This postseason run caps an already historic season for both Rodriguez and Magadan, as well as the entire Roadrunners squad. The duo also collected UTSA's first ITA Regional Doubles Championship in the fall, reaching the ITA National Quarterfinal. Graduating last weekend with his degree in Marketing, Rodriguez wraps up his fourth season and his career – joining with Magadan to earn Conference USA All-Conference first team doubles honors and earning a 15-9 record together between the fall and spring. Magadan also earned C-USA singles first team honors in his first season at UTSA. The pair were invaluable in helping UTSA to its best season since 2015 and the third-most wins in program history (18). UTSA reached an NCAA-leading 14 consecutive wins, defeated six ranked teams and reached a program-record 34th in the ITA rankings – while Rodriguez and Magadan climbed as high as No. 6 in the ITA doubles rankings.
Gallery: (5-25-2023) '23 NCAA Tennis (M) Doubles Round of 16
NCAA Doubles Results
#3 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri def. #36 Sebastian Rodriguez/Alan Magadan, 7-5, 6-3
Quoting UTSA Senior Sebastian Rodriguez
"This NCAA experience was incredible. We were able to see the highest level of universities in the United States, and we realized that we were at the same level, playing very good matches and taking advantage of each of the moments we spent on the court. I want to thank my coaches because without them none of this would have been possible."
Quoting UTSA Junior Alan Magadan
"It was a pleasure spending time with Sebastian on the court, especially knowing that was his last college tournament ever. I am glad that I chose UTSA to live these types of moments and I have enjoyed every second of it. Getting ready to continue making more history this upcoming year since it will be my last year of college. I'm proud to be a Roadrunner."
- UTSA -
