CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – After going 4-0 last week, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Thomas Rodrigues Lopes becomes the first Islanders tennis player to earn Southland Conference Player of the Week honors in the 2018 spring season. This is the first of his career.
Throughout the three matches last week, Rodrigues went 4-0 (with a fifth set unfinished.) In Thursday's match against Prairie View A&M, he picked up a big singles victory (4-6, 6-3, 10-9) at the No. 1 slot over PVAMU's Xavier Lawerence. The next day, Rodrigues picked up a key point over UTRGV's Elliot Johnstone at the No. 4 slot (6-0, 6-2). After the Islanders dropped the doubles point, that singles victory helped propel a 4-3 comeback win over the Vaqueros.
Along with his two singles victories, Rodrigues also picked up a pair of wins in doubles play in Thursday's doubleheader against the Panthers. In the first match, he teamed with Kyohei Yamanaka at the No. 3 slot to earn a 6-1 victory. In the second match of the doubleader, Rodrigues moved up to the No. 2 slot to team with William Mottet, earning a 6-4 victory.
As a team, the Islanders improved to 8-1 on the season, with their only loss coming in the season opener in Austin to the Texas Longhorns. With the three wins last week, they extended their current win streak to eight matches. This week, the team travels to Lafayette, Louisiana for the ULL Invitational, with the hope of keeping that streak alive!
- GO ISLANDERS -
