Box Score AUSTIN, Texas – Although the final score was 5-0, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis program gained valuable experience and kept a lot of matches close in a defeat at No. 5 Texas on Saturday at the Texas Tennis Center.
A&M-Corpus Christi's (9-1) day was highlighted by an outstanding effort at No. 5 singles from freshman
Carlos Berna Ruiz. After dropping the first set 6-3, he came back to dominate the second 6-1 and even the match, despite it going unfinished.
Another strong performance came from freshman
Pascal Lorieul at No. 4 singles. He got edged in a back-and-forth first set tiebreaker, but was tied 1-1 in the second when play was halted.
Berna Ruiz and Lorieul also shined in doubles and were tied 4-4 when Texas (7-1) clinched the doubles points.
Prior to last season being canceled due to COVID-19, Texas won the 2019 national championship.
"We obviously played a great team today, the defending national champions. If you look at the scores, this was a battle. Carlos and Pascal played incredibly well. There were a lot of tight matches and I felt we were competitive in every match. I love our guys – they have character and they came to fight, and they have in every match this year," head coach
Steve Moore said. "I need to do a better job at getting them to understand a few tactics that can make a difference in these matches and I have to work harder to do that. This team left highly motivated, and with great, positive energy, knowing that if we can just refine a few things we can play with anyone."
Both the men and women will be in action again Tuesday when they travel to UTRGV for the South Texas Showdown, hosted by NavyArmy Community Credit Union. The men will serve it up at 2 p.m., followed by the women at 3 p.m.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 11 NCAA Tournaments
- 25 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 31 Straight Semesters
- Islanders have received a No. 3 seed at the NCAA Tournament three times
- Women's tennis has cracked the ITA top-75 national rankings three times
- Men's tennis has cracked the ITA national rankings 10 consecutive years
- Ranked nationally in NCAA DI as high as No. 35 for the men and No. 60 for the women
Texas 5, A&M-Corpus Christi 0
Doubles Competition
1. Chih Chi Huang/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def.
Ryuya Ata/
Kyohei Yamanaka (AMCC) 6-1
2. Jacob Bullard/Payton Holden (UT) vs.
Carlos Berna Ruiz/
Pascal Lorieul (AMCC) 4-4, unfinished
3. Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper (UT) def.
Chad Nguyen/
Nathan Schwartz (AMCC) 6-2
Singles Competition
1. #120 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def.
Kyohei Yamanaka (AMCC) 6-3, 6-3
2. #78 Micah Braswell (UT) def.
Ryuya Ata (AMCC) 6-1, 6-4
3. Cleeve Harper (UT) def.
Nathan Schwartz (AMCC) 6-4, 6-3
4. Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs.
Pascal Lorieul (AMCC) 7-6 (7-3), 1-1, unfinished
5. Nevin Arimilli (UT) vs.
Carlos Berna Ruiz (AMCC) 6-3, 1-6, 1-0, unfinished
6. Leighton Allen (UT) def.
Borja Delgado (AMCC) 6-1, 6-3
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