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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A University of Texas at Austin lecturer was arrested and fired this week in connection with his participation in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus, raising fresh concerns among faculty members and free speech advocates about academic protections in the state.

Richard Heyman, who has taught at UT for 18 years in the College of Liberal Arts, was arrested Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety and charged with interfering with public duties, a Class B misdemeanor. The charge stems from Heyman’s participation in an April 29 pro-Palestinian demonstration in which authorities arrested around 80 protesters who had set up an encampment on campus.

The university fired Heyman on Thursday through an email, according to his lawyer, Gerry Morris. Heyman was scheduled to teach three classes during the upcoming fall semester.

According to Heyman’s arrest affidavit, DPS troopers accused him of yelling expletives at law enforcement during the protest, pulling away a trooper’s bike and making a motion with a water bottle “as if he were going to swing it and hit” a trooper.

Citing three video recordings of Heyman’s actions, Morris disagreed with the affidavit’s characterization of his client as physically disruptive.

Morris said the officer initiated physical contact and pushed Heyman, which caused Heyman to grab onto the bike’s handlebar for balance. Morris said he plans to ask the Travis County Attorney’s office to dismiss the case.

“This is a politically charged atmosphere that this occurred in,” Morris said. “I think in a normal atmosphere, the prosecutor would look at this, drop it pretty quickly. But I’m not sure that it’s going to move very quickly given what we’re in the middle of.”

Heyman’s firing comes amid rising concern among Texas faculty groups that state legislators have passed laws that have led to increased scrutiny and insecurity regarding their jobs. Anne Lewis, an executive board member of the Texas State Employees Union, linked Heyman’s firing to what she said are broader moves by the state to restrict academic freedom and First Amendment rights.

“I think it is an attack on higher education and its core values, and Richard is just one of many that is getting caught up in this attack,” Lewis said. “He’s the worst so far.”

Last year Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 17, which banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices at Texas universities, and Senate Bill 18, which set out to terminate tenure at state universities but ended up only requiring schools to provide clear guidelines for how to obtain and keep tenure. Complying with SB 17 resulted in firings at universities across the state, with UT-Austin laying off dozens of employees earlier this year.

The state Legislature’s Higher Education Committee will likely monitor the implementation of both laws and consider regulating faculty senates in the next legislative session, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s agenda for lawmakers during the interim period before the next legislative session. Faculty senates represent faculty members in open meetings to make recommendations on a wide variety of topics such as undergraduate degree programs and student services.

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AUSTIN, Texas – Severe weather hit parts of Central Texas with large hail falling in some areas. 

Take a look at some videos that FOX 7 Austin viewers captured.

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