EDMOND, OKLAHOMA – UT Tyler men's tennis came away with a huge win over #15 Northwest Missouri State on Saturday afternoon and the Patriots women hung around tightly before falling to the Bearcats to wrap up their opening weekend of competition.
 
On the men's side, the number six ranked pair of Gonzalo Fernandez Gil and Joaquin Bianchi took on the number 10 ranked pair of Jan Skerbatis and Mason Meier in the number one doubles slot. In the match, the two pairs fought tough, but it took an extra game to see the Bearcats pair with the win.
 
Egor Shestakov and Jordi Garcia Portell would earn a much needed victory in the doubles side to even up the match at 1-1, but the pair of Jonas Dixon and Carel Wessel would fall 6-1 in their doubles match to allow Northwest Missouri State to earn the doubles point and carry a 1-0 lead into singles.
 
In singles, the Patriots would gain their revenge, taking four of the six singles matches to secure a win. The winning got started with Carel Wessel bouncing back from a doubles defeat with a pair of 6-1, 6-1 sets to even up the match. The winning continued as Bianchi bounced back with a 6-4, 6-3 straight sets win to give UT Tyler the lead.
 
That lead stretched to 3-1 thanks to a tightly contested match from Yudai Watanabe as he won the first set in a tiebreaker before rolling in set two by a score of 6-2.
 
The Bearcats responded with a straight sets win in the #6 singles slot as Jonas Dixon narrowly fell by scores of 6-4, 6-4. That set up both Fernandez Gil and Garcia Portell to potentially end the match. Garcia Portell took on Meier, and after falling 7-5 in the first set, he answered bigtime with a 6-1 win to even the match at 1. In the tiebreaking set, Meier would outlast Garcia Portell by a score of 6-3 to earn the win and tie the match at 3-3.
 
That left the match in the hands of Fernandez Gil, who faced off with Michael Delebois, the 30^th ranked singles player in Division II. After a first set win by a score of 6-3, Delebois matched him with a 6-3 win of his own to even the match. In the deciding set, it was Fernandez Gil who ran away with a 6-3 win to earn the match and the final point in a 4-3 win for UT Tyler.
 
Over in the women's match, the Patriots squared off in a tightly contested match themselves. Kanika Sivaraman and Allison Schwartz took on the number two doubles slot, but fell by a score of 6-2. In both the number one and three slots, the Patriots hung tightly, but a late push from both Bearcat doubles teams resulted in a pair of 6-3 wins to give them the doubles point and a 1-0 advantage heading into singles.
 
After Akshaya Suresh fell by scores of 6-2, 6-1, the Patriots looked for a spark as they were down 2-0. Brooklyn Ross stepped up in the #1 singles slot, and fought tough but came up just short with scores of 6-4, 6-1.
 
Schwartz in the #4 slot would battle it out with Carolina DeOliveira and got off to a hot start with a strong 6-3 win in set one. Schwartz kept the momentum rolling in set two, and delivered a huge 6-1 win to earn the first Patriots point.
 
Facing off in the number two slot Tanvikhaa Saravanan looked to continue the big momentum, but fell 6-1 in the first set. She came storming back in the second set, and forced a tiebreaker to decide it. However that tiebreaker would fall the Bearcats way and they would claim their fourth point of the afternoon.
 
In the number six slot, Dnyanada Patil came away with a 6-3 first set win, but dropped the second set by a score of 7-5. That led to a tiebreaker to 10, and the Bearcats would come away with a 10-4 win to earn their final point of the contest.
 
The second Patriots win came in the number five slot, as Sivaraman completed a huge comeback win to avenge her doubles loss. After her opponent ran away with a 6-1 win in the first set, Sivaraman stormed back with a 7-5 win in set two. She continued to roll, and finished off the tiebreaker with a 10-7 win to earn the win.
 
The Patriots will now get the chance to return to Tyler and rest before heading off on a three game road trip that includes stops in Dallas, Texas, and Arkadelphia and Magnolia, Arkansas.