January 25, 2011

Islanders end road trip with loss at New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi men's tennis team ended its season-opening four-match road trip on Monday night, falling 7-0 to host New Mexico at the Linda Estes Tennis Complex.

"We got beat by a very good team today," said Director of Tennis Steve Moore. "The good news is we're competing extremely hard and with a lot of spirit and tenacity.

"If you take a look at the scores, you can see how competitive the match was. We're very competitive and very close to winning every point, altitude indoors perhaps may not be our best surface, but we have to learn to win there."

The Islanders finish the trip with a 1-3 record after playing well, but coming up just short in several individual matches throughout the five day excursion. The Lobos improved to 2-0 with the Monday night win.

"We lost too many tiebreakers this weekend," said Moore. "That is good news in that we're dead even, but we have to coach them up and teach them how to rise up and take those tiebreakers.

"That's our job as coaches."

In doubles, the team of Nathan Robinson and Robert Raguz came up with a win in the No. 2 position, taking down Jadon Phillips and Phil Anderson by an 8-6 final. That match evened the doubles score after Laurent Montoisy and James Langford suffered an 8-4 defeat at the hands of Conor Berg and Ben Dunbar. The point came down to the No. 3 position, with Gergo Weidinger and Alex Pavlov coming up just short against Joe Wood and Carl Ho, losing a 9-7 match to give the Lobos a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.

In the singles portion of the match, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi competed well but was unable to pick up a win while forcing No. 2 and No. 3 singles to three sets. In the No. 2 spot, Langford battled back to even the match at 1-1, but was unable to complete the comeback while taking a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 loss against Dunbar. In the No. 3 position, Raguz suffered a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 setback against Ho.

No. 1 singles saw Montoisy unable to recover from losing a heartbreaking first set to fall 7-6, 6-3 against Phillips. Aurelien Tave suffered a gut-wrenching straight-set defeat, losing to Anderson by identical 7-6, 7-6 scores in tiebreakers. Matt Westmoreland moved up a sport from his normal position, playing No. 5 singles and falling 6-1, 6-4 against Berg. The final match of the night saw Pavlov take a 6-2, 6-3 setback against Wood.

Despite the 1-3 record, the Islanders continued to compete well the entire week while coming up just short in several matches. Moore knows the team will continue working to get better throughout the season.

"This team is more than familiar with adversity, there's no finger pointing or blaming," said Moore. "We will keep a positive mental attitude, stick together, keep fighting and just improve on these little things that are the difference between losing close ones or winning close ones.

"We will keep improving every week and we will be fine."

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi will be in action again on Friday afternoon in a match at Baylor. The team will travel to Waco for a 3 p.m. battle against the Bears at the Baylor Tennis Center.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs New Mexico

1/24/2011 at Albuquerque, N.M.

New Mexico 7, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0

Singles competition

1. Jadon Phillips (UNM) def. Laurent Montoisy (AMCC) 7-6, 6-3

2. Ben Dunbar (UNM) def. James Langford (AMCC) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2

3. Carl Ho (UNM) def. Robert Raguz (AMCC) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1

4. Phil Anderson (UNM) def. Aurelien Tave (AMCC) 7-6, 7-6

5. Conor Berg (UNM) def. Matt Westmoreland (AMCC) 6-1, 6-4

6. Joe Wood (UNM) def. Alex Pavlov (AMCC) 6-2, 6-3

Doubles competition

1. Conor Berg/Ben Dunbar (UNM) def. Laurent Montoisy/James Langford (AMCC) 8-4