Austin – No. 2 Texas Men's Tennis defeated No. 40 Texas A&M, 5-2, at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday for the Longhorns' fourth-straight win in the all-time series.
Texas won the doubles point with victories at Nos. 1 and 2 and followed with singles wins by juniors No. 54 Micah Braswell at No. 3, No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, Evin McDonald at No. 6 to clinch at 4-1, and No. 22 Siem Woldeab at No. 4.
After the doubles point, Braswell came away with a decisive 6-3, 6-3 win over Giulio Perego. In the first set, Braswell had the only two breaks, grabbing them for a 2-1 lead and then to take the set at 6-3. In the second, despite consecutive deuce points at 2-2 and for a 3-2 lead for Braswell, there would only be one break in the set, which came at 5-3 for Braswell before he served out the match for a 2-0 overall Texas lead.
Spizzirri was off next with a 6-3, 7-5 win over No. 63 Noah Schachter. Like Braswell's second set, there would only be one break in the first set for Spizzirri, which he secured at 3-1 before extending to 4-1 on serve. Schachter took the set's only deuce point on serve at 4-2, but on serve is where it would stay to Spizzirri's win. The number of breaks increased in the second set, including the first two games starting on Schachter's serve. Spizzirri then broke again for a 3-2 lead that he consolidated to 4-2 on serve to start a run of four-straight holds that left Spizzirri up, 5-4, with a chance to serve it out. Schachter was able to stay alive with a break, but Spizzirri broke right back to regain the lead and did not miss out on his second chance to serve out, doing so for the 7-5 win and 3-0 lead for UT.
Texas A&M then cut into that lead with a 6-2, 7-5 win for No. 57 Raphael Perot over sophomore No. 33 Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 2. Perot broke and held on deuce points in the opening two games for a 2-0 lead, and later added another break at 5-2 on the way to his 6-2 win. In the second, it was Bailly who started with a deuce-point win that held his opening serve, however Perot was still the first to break, which he did at 2-1 before extending his lead to 3-1 on a deuce-point hold. Two games later, Bailly got the break back on a deuce point to even it, and then held to regain the lead at 4-3. After Perot also held, the next three games were all breaks, capped by a deuce point for Perot to put him up 6-5, before he finished the match on serve.
With two other matches being flipped to third sets in favor of the Aggies, McDonald prevented that in his 6-4, 7-6 (6) clinching victory over Matthis Ross. McDonald opened the match with what turned out to be the only break of the first set, which came on a deuce point. There were two other deuce points that both came on Ross' serve at 3-2 and 4-3, but the set stayed true to serve for McDonald's 6-4 win. In the second, it was Ross who struck first with a break in the second game for a 2-0 lead, however McDonald broke right back to return it to being on serve where the set stayed until McDonald broke again for a 4-3 lead. At that point, he had a chance to extend his lead, but the only deuce point of the set went to Ross to result in back-to-back breaks once again for 4-4. After a pair of holds, it would be yet one more set of consecutive breaks that would send it to a tiebreaker. In the breaker, McDonald jumped out to a 3-0 lead by opening with a mini-break on the first point. Ross responded with three in a row of his own and five of the next six to take a 5-4 lead. However, McDonald would not be denied as he won four of the next five, including the next two and the last two for the 8-6 win.
The remaining matches both went three sets, starting with Woldeab's 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Guido Marson. The scoring of Woldeab's first set followed the exact same pattern as McDonald's first, as Woldeab rode an opening break all the way to the win with only one deuce point along the way that came on his serve for 5-3. After Marson held his opening serve of the second set, three-straight deuce-point games resulted in a hold and a break for Woldeab to give him a brief lead, followed by another break for Marson to get back on serve. Marson later captured the only other break of the set for 4-2 that he extended to 5-2 on a deuce-point hold before the last two games were on serve, as well, to go to a third set. There, Woldeab moved out to a 3-0 lead with a break in the second game. He then had a chance to increase his lead but came up on the short end of consecutive deuce points to instead have it cut to 3-2. It would be the first of four-straight breaks that left Woldeab with a 5-3 advantage before he snapped the string and served out for his win and a 5-1 Texas lead.
The final match went the Aggies' way as senior Chih Chi Huang fell to Luke Casper, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 5. After the first four games opened on serve, starting with a deuce-point hold for Casper, the next deuce and the first break would belong to Huang at 3-2, which he then consolidated on serve to 4-2. Casper then got the next break at 4-4, but Huang posted his second deuce-point break for a 6-5 lead that he then served out for the set. The second then belonged to Casper as Huang earned one game at 4-1, and although Huang recovered to move out to a 3-0 lead in the third, Casper again established himself and closed on a 6-0 run to the final.
Earlier in doubles, the Longhorns played an efficient point, getting up a break on all three courts before securing 6-2 wins at both Nos. 1 and 2.
The match at No. 1 with the No. 6 duo of Spizzirri and junior Cleeve Harper against Schachter and Trey Hilderbrand finished first with the Longhorns breaking in the opening game. The Aggies then held their next two serves on deuce points, but Texas forced another deuce on the following Texas A&M serve, and this time got the break to go up, 5-2. Spizzirri and Harper then served it out to the win.
Bailly and Woldeab were just behind them and clinched the point over Perego and JC Roddick at No. 2. Texas broke first on a deuce point for a 3-1 lead, and similar to the match at No. 1, three-straight Texas A&M service games went to deuce. The Aggies held the next one at 4-2, but the Longhorns got the third to win the match at 6-2.
Also similar to the match at No. 1, the remaining match at No. 3 featured a Texas break in the opening game. The pair of Braswell and Huang then held for a 2-0 lead over Pierce Rollins and Kenner Taylor. The match stayed on serve the rest of the way until play stopped with the Longhorns leading, 4-3.
Texas (11-2) will next have a rematch of the final of the ITA National Indoor Championships as they travel to Fort Worth to face No. 1 TCU on Saturday, March 4, at 3 p.m. CT.
#2 Texas 5, #40 Texas A&M 2
Singles – Order of Finish (3,1,2,6,4,5)
1. #1 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #63 Noah Schachter (TAM) 6-3, 7-5
2. #57 Raphael Perot (TAM) def. #33 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 6-2, 7-5
3. #54 Micah Braswell (UT) def. Giulio Perego (TAM) 6-3, 6-3
4. #22 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Guido Marson (TAM) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
5. Luke Casper (TAM) def. Chih Chi Huang (UT) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
6. Evin McDonald (UT) def. Matthis Ross (TAM) 6-4, 7-6 (6)
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2)
1. #6 Eliot Spizzirri/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Trey Hilderbrand/Noah Schachter (TAM) 6-2
2. Siem Woldeab/Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. JC Roddick/Giulio Perego (TAM) 6-2
3. Micah Braswell/Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Pierce Rollins/Kenner Taylor (TAM) 4-3, unf.
