COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M senior Jeremy Efferding advanced to the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Championship, defeating No. 27 Or Ram-Harel of Tulsa in three sets Wednesday afternoon. Juniors Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant open the NCAA Men’s Tennis Doubles Championship Thursday at Baylor University’s Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
No. 47 Efferding rebounded from dropping the first set 6-3, getting broke on his second serve to go down 3-1 and unable to get the match back on serve. The right-hander was nearly eliminated down 5-3 in the second set, fighting off match point to win three straight games and force a tie-breaker. In front of a maroon and white contingent the senior prevailed 7-2 in the breaker to force a decisive third set.
As play continued, conditions and stellar play from Efferding seemed to begin to get the best of Ram-Harel. The SEC Tournament MVP broke the Tulsa sophomore’s serve the three times in the final set to advance to the second round Thursday afternoon. Efferding will face No. 16 Romain Bogaerts of Wake Forest for a spot in the round of 16 and ITA All-American status. With his fourth straight win, Efferding improved to 25-8 on the season including a team-high nine wins against ranked opponents.
Adams and Vinsant drew No. 8 Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz of Baylor in the first round of the doubles bracket Thursday. The A&M junior tandem ranks No. 10 in the latest ITA doubles rankings, going 12-4 against ranked duos, including an unheard of 4-1 ledger against top-5 tandems. Adams and Vinsant are making their first appearance in the NCAA doubles field; both competed in the singles bracket in 2014. Vinsant earned All-American honors after advancing to the Round of 16 a season ago. The duo was an impressive 11-3 against ranked duos, including an unheard of 5-1 ledger against top-5 tandems this season.
Texas A&M recently completed the team portion of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship, finishing the season 24-5 after being eliminated by eventual national champion Virginia, 4-0, in the national quarterfinals. It marked the second time in program history the Aggies advanced to the Elite 8.
Start time for Thursday’s matches will be determined following the conclusion of the first round Wednesday evening. Visit 12thMan.com for more match times and an updated bracket once they are available from the NCAA. 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.
2015 NCAA Singles Championship
Waco, Texas – Hurd Tennis Center
First Round
#47 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) def. #27 Ore Ram-Harel (Tulsa) 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2
Second Round
#47 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) vs. #16 Romain Bogaerts (WF)
NCAA Doubles Championship
Waco, Texas – Hurd Tennis Center
First Round
#10 Harrison Adams / Shane Vinsant (TAMU) vs. #8 Diego Galeano / Julian Lenz (Baylor)
WACO, Texas – Texas A&M’s Saska Gavrilovska played her way into the second round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championship with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Taylor Ng of Dartmouth today at Baylor University’s Hurd Tennis Center in Waco.
Aggie teammate Rachel Pierson was not as fortunate, suffering a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 setback to 17th-ranked Viktoriya Lushkova of Oklahoma State.
Gavrilovska, who was eliminated in the first round of the 64-player singles tournament as a freshman in 2014, becomes only the second sophomore in Texas A&M history to reach the round of 32, joining Lynn Staley who accomplished the feat in 1990. Gavrilovska, also the second player in program history to compete in the tournament as both a freshman and a sophomore, will face No. 8-seed Sydney Campbell of Vanderbilt Thursday at noon.
Ng, the automatic qualifier from the Ivy League and ranked 97th in the nation in singles, broke Gavrilovska’s serve to open the match and went on to hold a 4-2 lead. Gavrilovska then rallied to win the next four games to win the set, 6-4.
The second set was on serve until Gavrilovska broke to take a 3-1 lead. Ng was unable to break back, and Gavrilovska pulled away to win, 6-2, snapping Ng’s 10-match win streak. Gavrilovska, ranked 54th, improves to 19-12 overall, including 12-7 against ranked opponents.
“The match was real tough at the beginning,” Gavrilovska said. “I got off to a slow start. I was really tight and nervous just playing the first round of NCAAs, but I was able to overcome it, just being tougher. In the second set, everything started to fall into place and I was able to win the set fairly easily.
“It feels really good to be going to the second round. It is always tough in the first round of the tournament. You have to be tougher than your opponent, so in some ways I believe I will be much better tomorrow but I also didn’t play that well today, so I have to just focus really well and not be that nervous.”
Pierson, a sophomore from Princeton, N.J., also got off to a slow start as Lushkova reeled off four straight games to close out a 6-2 first-set victory.
The 26th-ranked Pierson found herself down a break at 2-1 in the second set. Pierson would break back to tie the score at 2-2 and then broke again to go up 4-2. Lushkova later got within 5-4, but Pierson broke Lushkova for the third time in the frame to win the set, 6-4, and force a third set.
Pierson carried the momentum into the final set and built a 5-3 lead. Lushkova broke to get within 5-4, but Pierson was at match point, 40-30, in the ensuing game. Lushkova, a sophomore who earned All-America honors as a freshman after advancing to the round of 16, overcame the deficit and held serve to even the set at 5-5. Lushkova would also win the next two games to close out the match.
“I had a really slow start and she came out hitting all the right shots,” a disappointed Pierson said. “She wasn’t missing. It’s kind of hard to get used to these courts. They are really slow, and I thought my timing was a little bit early. I lost the first set pretty quickly, but the second set I was able to get my timing back on track and I was able to pull it out. In the third set I felt like I was ready to go. She started playing well again, but I felt like I had a good chance in the third. I found myself up 5-3, match point. She had a really good solid serve game and then broke me. I was kind of frazzled after that, not being able to close out. She ended up closing out 7-5, staying mentally tough the whole time. It is something to learn from.”
Pierson, the 2015 ITA Texas Region Player to Watch and a member of the All-SEC first team, was making her first career appearance in singles and ends the season 22-14. She will get another shot for a postseason victory Thursday as she and Eva Paalma, a freshman from Estonia, begin competition in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championship. The Aggie duo will take on Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad of Arizona State in the first round at 5 p.m.
“Motivation,” Pierson said when asked what she takes from today’s match into her doubles match tomorrow. “This means I have to work harder. I have to know I can win. Tomorrow I’m going to be more motivated to fight out there and win a couple of matches with Eva and hopefully go all the way.”
Pierson and Paalma are 11-5 in doubles, and the pair is coming off an 8-5 victory over ninth-ranked Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady of UCLA in the round of 16 of the team championship.
Krawczyk and Vlad are ranked 26th with a 15-4 record. The winner between the Aggies and the Sun Devils will take on the winner between Auburn’s eighth-ranked Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger and Baylor’s 14th-ranked Ema Burgic and Blair Shankle in the round of 16 on Friday.
All matches will be the best of three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six games all will be used for all matches.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.
Stories courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics