Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler tennis kicked off a three match weekend with a key matchup against West Florida, and they came away with a split in action.
Fog and wet courts delayed the start of action on Friday before the Patriots women took the courts to lead off the day's action.
Action began in doubles, as
Allison Schwartz and
Muskan Gupta took to the #1 line. The pair looked dominant yet again, putting together a 6-4 win in just 35 minutes to put the Patriots ahead quickly.
The Argonauts got the Patriots back with a 6-4 win of their own in line #2, leaving the match down to line #3 as
Yelena Kim and
Luisa Moraes took to the court for UT Tyler.
In that match, both teams went back and forth throughout, forcing the match into a tiebreaker for the doubles point. The Argonauts would have the upper hand, taking the tiebreaker 7-4 and the 1-0 lead into singles.
In singles, the Argonauts found their stride, pulling off straight sets wins in the #4 and #2 to quickly run their lead up to 3-0. In the #3 line, the Patriots saw
Kanika Sivaraman battle her way as she looked to extend the match. She came up just short in the first set, and the Argonauts would take set two on their way to a fourth point for the win.
Gupta would battle it out in line #1, and ran away with the first set by a score of 6-2. In set two, her opponent came back with a 7-5 win, but it was Gupta who came away with the third set tiebreaker win to get the Patriots on the board.
Luisa Moraes would also pick up a win on the day, taking a 6-0 set win in her first set before her opponent would retire, making the final score of the match 4-2.
Over on the men's side, the #12 Patriots took on their toughest opponent to date in the #7 Argonauts.
The Patriots would take the early lead in doubles, taking a 7-6 (7-2) win in the #2 line. The Argonaut however had the quick answer, pulling off a 7-5 win to pull the doubles matches to 1-1. That left the doubles point in the hands of the #1 line, where
Daniil Felker and
Egor Shestakov paired up.
In that match, both sides would go back and forth, eventually forcing a tiebreaker. In that tiebreaker, the two teams could not find any separation, before the Patriots finally took a 10-8 win in that tiebreaker and the doubles point.
The Argonauts would even up the match with the first win in singles, as they pulled off a straight sets win in the #4 line to make it 1-1.
Joaquin Bianchi led the Patriots charge in return, taking a straight sets win of his own that included a 7-6 (7-2) win in set number two to give the Patriots back the lead.
The Argonauts again came back, taking another straight sets win in #2 singles to again pull even. That however, would be the final point for #7 West Florida on the day as the #12 Patriots poured it on.
Carel Wessel began the run with a dramatic 7-6 (7-5) win in his first set, and then tacked on a 6-0 second set to pull the Patriots within one point of the match win.
Both
Jordi Garcia Portell and Felker would continue the big runs for the Patriots, as Garcia Portell put together a 7-5, 7-5 straight sets win in line #6, and Felker battled back from a 6-0 first set loss to take the second and third sets by scores of 6-3, 6-1 to make it a 5-2 win in the Patriots favor.
UT Tyler will continue their homestand against West Alabama on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Their men's program is currently ranked #23 in the ITA Rankings, while their women's program is currently #3 in the ITA Rankings.
Both of those matches will take place at the Summers Tennis Center on Saturday morning.
