February 12, 2015

Men's Tennis Drops 5-2 Heartbreaker to SMU

DALLAS – The Texas A&M - Corpus Christi men's tennis team suffered a heartbreaking 5-2, loss tonight against a very tough SMU squad at the SMU Indoor Tennis Complex. The Mustangs (7-1) clinched the doubles point before securing four of the six singles matches.

"A lot of respect for SMU," Director of Tennis Steve Moore said. "We had four great three-set matches going, and SMU battled back and won matches that they were down in, so a lot of heart and grit on their part. I thought we fought extremely hard but didn't close out two matches that would have made the difference in the dual match. Carl Neufeld is a great coach and SMU made some key adjustments to turn the momentum at three and four.

"I'm proud of the way we battled today in front of a great crowd. I thought Peter was a warrior but he's been a warrior all year."

The Islanders (3-1) lost a tough doubles point on courts one and two as the sophomore duo of Paul Cook and Kevin Bettendroffer dropped their first loss of the season at No. 2 doubles. The pair came up short 6-1 to Nate Lammons and Arkadijs Slobodkins. SMU then captured the doubles point after Arturs Kazijevs and Markus Kerner defeated the senior-junior pair of Peter Nagy and Guillaume Rauseo, 6-4, at No. 1 doubles. After picking up their first doubles win of the season on Tuesday, Arthur Bedel and Mitchell Cook were trailing SMU's Samm Butler and Tony Russell, 5-2, at No. 3 doubles when the point was clinched.

SMU carried its momentum over into singles play to take a 3-0 lead after picking up straight-set wins on courts five and six. Javier Pujol fell 6-1, 6-2 to Slobodkins in No. 5 singles for his first loss of the season. P. Cook also came up short in No. 6 singles, 6-3, 6-4 to Charles Nettlefold.

The final four singles matches featured three-setters. Bettendroffer put the Islanders on the board with a come-from-behind victory in No. 2 singles. The sophomore dropped the first set 6-1, before bouncing back to edge Kerner 7-5 in the second set. In the third, Bettendroffer closed out a 6-1 win for his third win of the season.

SMU battled back from a set and a break down at three and four to claim the victory at home against a scrappy Islander team. At No. 4 singles, Rauseo bested Lammons 6-3, in the first set before Lammons rallied back to top Rauseo 6-4 in the second and 6-1 in the third to give SMU its clinching fourth point.

The highlight of the night was Nagy's thrilling match at No. 1 singles. After dropping the first set, the senior battled back with some great shots in the second and third to win, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 over Kazijevs, who was ranked in the ITA national rankings last season.

The Mustangs earned their fifth and final point of the day in No. 3 singles after Butler rallied back against Ricardo Mayagoitia after being a set and a break down. Mayagoitia garnered the first set 6-4, before Butler answered back with a 6-4 second-set win and 6-3 third-set victory.

"We are heading in the right direction," Moore added. "It's always special coming back here. We have built a strong support network for Islanders Tennis in Dallas."

The men will remain on the road to face Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 1 p.m.

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Tennis Match Results

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi vs. SMU

2/12/2015 at Dallas, Texas

SMU 5, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi 2

Singles competition

1. Peter Nagy (AMCC) def. Arturs Kazijevs (SMU) 1-6, 6-3, 7-5

2. Kevin Bettendroffer (AMCC) def. Markus Kerner (SMU) 1-6, 7-5, 6-1

3. Samm Butler (SMU) def. Ricardo Mayagoitia (AMCC) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3

4. Nate Lammons (SMU) def. Guillaume Rauseo (AMCC) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

5. Arkadijs Slobodkins (SMU) def. Javier Pujol (AMCC) 6-1, 6-2