THIBODAUX, La. – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men's tennis team concluded its year that saw a regular season championship in the conference semifinals, falling in a grueling 4-3 decision to New Orleans Friday.
The match was separated by minimal margins as even the doubles point came down to a 6-6 tiebreak that the Privateers () were able to garner an advantage over the Islanders (21-5). That point proved to be the decider as the teams split singles, giving New Orleans a hold with the edge.
Omar Suarez/
Etienne Marty took a 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles, the court they earned All-Conference First Team recognition for. New Orleans, however, came out on top of two narrow 7-5 and 7-6 (5) decisions to win the doubles point.
The Islanders reversed the match lead to go up 2-1 after
Nathan Favier and
Josef Zapletal wrapped up straight set victories in singles play. Favier, the SLC Newcomer of the Year, cruised to a pair of 6-1 sets at No. 1 singles while Zapletal held down No. 6 singles where he was an All-Conference First Team selection with a 6-1, 6-4 win.
Courts three and four went in favor of the Privateers who went back ahead 3-2 in the match. Marty, however, knotted it up after grinding out a 6-2, 7-5 victory at No. 5 singles for his second win of the day. The match would end at court two where the only three-set singles dual was played out with New Orleans coming out of it.
The men conclude a season that saw their 13
th regular season title and 23
rd overall championship, continuing to make them one of the winningest teams in the conference across all sports.
It also marked the program's most winning season with 21 wins, the third 20+ win season under Moore. It was helped by a 12-match winning streak entering the conference tournament.
A&M-Corpus Christi Tennis
- 17 NCAA Tournaments
- 36 SLC Championships
- 4 Top-40 National Rankings
- 3.0 GPA 43 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
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