SAN ANTONIO – After five hours of battle in mid-90's temperature, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis program grinded for a 5-2 win over UIW on Tuesday to win the Southland Conference regular season championship at a rowdy Mabry Tennis Center.
A&M-Corpus Christi (14-9, 2-1 SLC) will be the No. 1 seed at the SLC Tournament. It was the 12th regular season title and 21st championship in the history of the men's tennis program.
"These high character, hard-working group of brothers are champions again," said head coach
Steve Moore. "I'm so proud of them I really can't put it into words. All the adversity and injuries, and these guys never used the excuse card or pointed fingers. This is one of the toughest and best college tennis matches I've been a part of in a long time. Honestly, both teams deserved to win this match and I have a tremendous respect for UIW with the spirit they fought with and the job their department did getting hundreds of people to this match. This was an unbelievable environment to play in, and hundreds of people were screaming for hours – big respect for that. This is the find of college tennis match where you know everyone poured their whole heart into it on both teams. Again, I'm just so proud of our guys and their fitness, toughness and grit."
The doubles point was a back-and-forth rollercoaster. Sophomores
Pascal Lorieul and
Nathan Schwartz put the Islanders on the board with a 6-1 win at No. 1. Though, the Cardinals evened it with a 6-3 decision at No. 3.
It came down to No. 2 doubles where sophomores
Ryuya Ata and
Borja Delgado trailed 5-4, 40-15 and saved three match points to stay alive. They eventually forced a tiebreaker where they pulled it out 7-4 to win the doubles point.
In singles, the Islanders again had to battle after dropping the first set on five of six courts. Five of the six matches then went three sets.
The first singles win came from junior
Matthieu Peres as he battled back to win 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 on court three. The Islanders then went up 3-0 overall after sophomore
Guillermo Castaneda rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.
UIW clawed back to make it a 3-2 score after winning courts two and five. In the remaining two matches, the Cardinals were up 5-4 on both courts.
Senior
Kyohei Yamanaka trailed nearly the entire match before gutting out a 5-7, 6-0, 7-6 (4) win to clinch the overall match and put the Islanders up 4-2.
A bizarre situation in the final match happened as Lorieul was tied 3-3 in a third-set tiebreaker when play was halted for a lightning delay. After a 30-minute wait, Lorieul took the court again and closer out a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4) victory.
Lorieul and Peres both finished the year with 3-0 SLC singles records.
A&M-Corpus Christi improved to 9-1 all-time against UIW and has won the last five in a row. The Cardinals suffered their first home loss of the year and ended 9-1 at home.
As the top seed, the Islanders will play Saturday, April 23 in the semifinals of the conference tournament in New Orleans, hosted by UNO. They will face the winner of the No. 4 and 5 seeds when the bracket is announced.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 13 NCAA Tournaments
- 29 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 35 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
A&M-Corpus Christi 5, UIW 2
Doubles Competition
1.
Pascal Lorieul/
Nathan Schwartz (AMCC-M) def. Noah De Luna/Rafal Bednarczuk (UIW) 6-1
2.
Ryuya Ata/
Borja Delgado (AMCC-M) def. Marwin Kraleman/Tomas Reche (UIW) 7-6 (3)
3. Joao Sasso/Warren Fulgenzi Jr. (UIW) def.
Ulysse Bertrand/
Guillermo Castaneda (AMCC-M) 6-3
Singles Competition
1.
Pascal Lorieul (AMCC-M) def. Tomas Reche (UIW) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4)
2. Joao Sasso (UIW) def.
Nathan Schwartz (AMCC-M) 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5
3.
Matthieu Peres (AMCC-M) def. Pietro Perego (UIW) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
4.
Kyohei Yamanaka (AMCC-M) def. Arnau Miralles (UIW) 5-7, 6-0, 7-6 (4)
5. Warren Fulgenzi Jr. (UIW) def.
Ulysse Bertrand (AMCC-M) 6-4, 7-5
6.
Guillermo Castaneda (AMCC-M) def. Rafal Bednarczuk (UIW) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
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