Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MAGNOLIA, ARKANSAS – Both UT Tyler tennis programs will head back to Tyler with a big win as both teams take down Southern Arkansas in a Monday afternoon battle.
 
The #19 ranked men's team for UT Tyler squared off with the #25 ranked Muleriders for their second ranked matchup in as many days. Unlike yesterday's big win over #13 Ouachita Baptist, the Patriots made it a little more dramatic against Southern Arkansas.
 
In the doubles matches, an early win for Jonas Dixon and Carel Wessel put the Patriots up 1-0, but the Muleriders came storming back with a 6-3 defeat of Egor Shestakov and Jordi Garcia Portell. That left the doubles point down to the #1 slot, but Joaquin Bianchi and Gonzalo Fernandez Gil could not get it rolling and fell 7-5.
 
With a 1-0 lead in their hands already, the Muleriders tacked on a quick win in singles as Ole Valkyser took down Wessel by scores of 6-3, 6-1 to make it a 2-0 advantage. Bianchi then stepped up and put the Patriots on the board for the first time as he came away with a 7-5, 6-2 win to cut the lead in half.
 
Garcia Portell looked to quickly join Bianchi in the winners column as he ran out to a big 6-2 first set win. In the second set however, the battle was much tougher as he had to come back from a 4-2 deficit to win four straight games and claim the second point for UT Tyler.
 
The match then moved over to the #3 slot, and the Muleriders would put the Patriots backs against the wall after scraping out a 6-4, 6-4 win to move their lead to 3-2 and one match away from claiming the win.
 
In slot #2, Fernandez Gil took on Tim Fischer for the chance to keep the Patriots alive, but Fischer would take set number one by a score of 6-4. In set number two, it was Fernandez Gil who ran out to a 5-3 lead, but Fischer reeled him in to force a 5-5 tie. However, this set belonged to the Patriots as Fernandez Gil stepped up big with a pair of game wins. That moved the match to a deciding set three, and after trailing 3-1 early, Fernandez Gil rolled off five consecutive game wins including three breaks of service to even the match up at 3-3.
 
That brought the match down to the #6 slot, as Ben Schneider and Yudai Watanabe squared off in a marathon affair. Set one would fall Watanabe's way as he came back from a 5-4 deficit to win three straight games. Set two would see Schneider again take the early lead, but he would not relinquish this one on the way to a 6-4 win.
 
That meant the entire match came down to the third and final set, and it was all Watanabe as he completely dominated the set, winning 6-0 in runaway fashion to secure the win.
 
The UT Tyler women battled back all day long, and came away with a strong 4-2 win as they make it three straight wins in a row now after starting 0-2.
 
The doubles portion of the match would see the Muleriders take the point, as they were able to win slot #1 6-3 and then stave off a storming comeback from Kanika Sivaraman and Tanvikhaa Saravanan to win 7-5 in slot #2. In slot three, the combination of Brooklyn Ross and Violetta Khisamova would come away with a 6-4 win.
 
Over in singles, it would be a battle throughout the contest, as the Patriots looked to bounce back from their 1-0 deficit. The comeback began with Khisamova, as she won in dominant fashion 6-0, 6-1, and trailed just once in her match to tie the score at one.
 
In the #3 slot, Allison Schwartz battled her opponent to three sets, but would fall 6-0 in that final set to give the Muleriders their second point. However, Saravanan would answer that match with her own straight sets win of 6-2, 6-4.
 
With the match pulled dead even, Akshaya Suresh was the next Patriot in line and after a marathon match, she would come away with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win to put the Patriots on match point. In her battle, the lead swapped hands five times over the first two sets before she put the clamps down in set three.
 
That left the match in the hands of Ross in the #1 slot, and she came back with a vengeance in set one after being down 3-5 to win 7-5. In the second set, She ran out to a 3-0 lead before her opponent would win six of the next nine games to force a tiebreaker. In that tiebreaker, it was ross who would pull away and earn the straight sets win to win the match for UT Tyler.
 
Next up for UT Tyler will be a quick road trip this weekend as they face off against Southeastern Oklahoma State on Friday afternoon in Durant, Oklahoma before seeing Newman on Saturday afternoon in a neutral site contest. Those will be the final two matches before the Patriots then play their home opener on March 5^th against Mississippi College.