No. 17 men’s tennis ends season in Sweet 16

AUSTIN, TX – The No. 17 Texas A&M men’s tennis team fell in the Austin Regional, 4-0, to the No. 3 Texas Longhorns at the Texas Tennis Center Friday night.

“I was proud of the guys,” head coach Steve Denton said. “I thought they fought really hard in doubles, we were down three on court two and were able to come back and win a tiebreaker. I was proud of the way our guys competed tonight and played really hard despite not being at our best. Obviously, our leader was not out there playing, but the rest of the guys stepped up and played at a high level, which I was very pleased to see.”

The doubles point proved to be highly competitive with all six pairings winning five sets in their respective matches. On court 2, the duo of JC Roddick and Lathan Skrobarcek were down 3-0 to Eshan Talluri/Pierre-Yves Bailly of Texas (25-3) but responded by claiming three straight sets to even the score. Roddick/Skrobarcek would see-saw with their opponent for the rest of the match until the tie breaker with the score knotted at 6-6. The Aggie pair dominated the tie breaker, 7-3, to give A&M (20-11) its first match of doubles. However, the Longhorns went on to take the other two duals by a score of 7-5 in both matches to capture the doubles point.

The Maroon & White were without two-time All-SEC First Team selection No. 20 Raphael Perot due to injury. The Longhorns capitalized and took three singles wins on courts 2, 3 and 6 to claim the match.

Perot and Roddick will take part in NCAAs during the singles portion of the tournament and No. 14 Giulio Perego and Togan Tokac will compete in doubles for the national title. The tournament will take place May 20-25 at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

MATCH STATS

Doubles

• No. 26 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. No. 14 Giulio Perego/Togan Tokac (TAMU) 7-5
• JC Roddick/Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) def. Pierre-Yves Bailly 7-6 (7-3)
• Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Tiago Pires/Luke Casper (TAMU) 7-5

Order of finish: 1, 2, 3*

Singles

• No. 42 JC Roddick (TAMU) vs. No. 2 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 5-7, 4-5 UNF
• No. 5 Micah Braswell (UT) def. Giulio Perego (TAMU) 6-3, 6-3
• No. 40 Gilles-Arnaud Bailly (UT) def. Togan Tokac (TAMU) 6-3, 6-4
• Tiago Pires (TAMU) vs. Siem Woldeab (UT) 3-6, 6-4, 2-2 UNF
• Luke Casper (TAMU) vs. No. 56 Jonah Braswell (UT) 0-6, 5-5 UNF
• Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) 6-3, 6-1

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