COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 12 Texas A&M men’s tennis team claimed their seventh straight win Friday afternoon at the George P Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, defeating Vanderbilt, 6-1. The Aggies improved to 8-3 on the season and 3-0 in SEC play while the Commodores fell to 9-6 this year and 1-2 in league play.
After dropping the doubles point to open the day, the Maroon & White swept all six singles matches. Current SEC Freshman of the Week, Hady Habib, evened the match at one-all as he defeated Pen Binet 6-2, 6-3 on court six. Junior AJ Catanzariti gave the home team its first advantage of the day, topping Baker Newman 7-6(3), 6-1 on court two.
Texas A&M’s third and fourth points came in quick succession as sophomore Aleksandre Bakshi bested Lachlan McPhee 7-6(3), 6-4 on court three followed by No. 115 Jordi Arconada clinching the match with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Billy Rowe on court four.
Freshman Valentin Vacherot topped Alex Ross 7-5, 6-3 on court five to push the Texas A&M advantage to 5-1. SEC Player of the Week, Arthur Rinderknech, finalized the singles sweep with a 7-5, 6-3, 1-0[7] win on court one over Daniel Valent.
Texas A&M won the first doubles match to be completed as Habib and Bakshi raced to a 6-1 victory over Binet and Tate Allwardt at court two. Vanderbilt, however, would pull away to win on the remaining two courts to win the doubles point. No. 22 Rinderknech and Max Lunkin fell to Lachlan McPhee and Billy Rowe 6-4 on court one.
The day’s first point came down to court three where Arconada and Catanzariti won a deuce point to go up, 6-5, against Newman and Valent. The Aggie duo then built a 40-30 lead in the ensuing game, but Vanderbilt fought back to win the next two points to even the match at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was tied, 4-4, before Vanderbilt won the next three points to win the match and clinch the doubles point for the Commodores.
The Aggies return to action Sunday as they play host to No. 18 Kentucky and Prairie View A&M in a doubleheader at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The match against the Wildcats begins at 1 p.m., and first serve against the Panthers is slated for 4:30 pm.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.
Texas A&M Head Coach Steve Denton quotes:
On the match…
“Doubles was disappointing, obviously. We were up 5-3, serving for the set and lost our serve and it opened the door. Give Vanderbilt a lot of credit, they played well in the tiebreaker and deserved to win the point. And then the match looked pretty close all the way throughout. I thought the key was us kind of finishing the first sets. Late in the first set, I thought we raised our level and won some big 3-all points and turned the momentum back to our favor. Once we won those 7-5 and 7-6 sets, our guys got a little more aggressive and on top and swung the momentum our way.
On the team’s mindset…
“I’m proud of our guys’ fight. We lose the doubles point and Vanderbilt was playing well and getting after us, and our guys responded again, which has what this team has been doing the last couple of weeks. They didn’t panic and they kept fighting and got back into these matches. And I’m really pleased that we were able to close out a lot of the matches in straight sets today. It was big for us because we have a big, physical match against Kentucky on Sunday, and we get to kind of save our legs a little bit. Not having to play long, three-set matches today gives us a little more in reserve for a tough one on Sunday.”
On the winning streak…
“It’s really more about these guys playing well, each guy contributing. That is what we are doing right now is everybody is contributing. Today everybody contributed, and it is more about that. If you think about (streaks), you are not focusing on what you really need to focus on. We just need to go out and compete hard and see what happens.”
On Vanderbilt’s Cameron Klinger being out of the lineup…
“That made a huge difference. He’s been one of the hottest players in the SEC and the country. He really raised his level. It is a shame that he wasn’t here and is not able to play for them. This was their first match without him, so they played with a lot of emotion today and fought really hard, fought hard in the doubles and obviously really put a lot of pressure on us in the singles, but it would have been even more pressure on us had he been in the lineup, playing as well as he has been playing. And obviously dropping those guys a level, it’s a big deal in college tennis when one of your star players is not available to you.”
Tennis Match Results
Vanderbilt vs Texas A&M
Mar 10, 2017 at College Station, Texas
(George P. Mitchell Tennis Center)
#12 Texas A&M 6, Vanderbilt 1
Singles competition
1. #8 Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU) def. Daniel Valent (VANDY) 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)
2. AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) def. Baker Newman (VANDY) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1
3. Aleksandre Bakshi (TAMU) def. Lachlan McPhee (VANDY) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
4. #115 Jordi Arconada (TAMU) def. Billy Rowe (VANDY) 7-5, 6-3
5. Valentin Vacherot (TAMU) def. Alex Ross (VANDY) 7-5, 6-3
6. Hady Habib (TAMU) def. Pen Binet (VANDY) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. Lachlan McPhee/Billy Rowe (VANDY) def. #22 Arthur Rinderknech/Max Lunkin (TAMU) 6-4
2. Hady Habib/Aleksandre Bakshi (TAMU) def. Pen Binet/Tate Allwardt (VANDY) 6-1
3. Baker Newman/Daniel Valent (VANDY) def. Jordi Arconada/AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) 7-6 (7-4)
Match Notes:
Vanderbilt 9-6, 1-2 SEC
Texas A&M 8-3, 3-0 SEC; National ranking #12
Order of finish: Doubles (2, 1, 3); Singles (6, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1)
T-2:51
A-200
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics