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Box Score 2 ORLANDO, FLORIDA - UT Tyler tennis will take home a slew of victories from the Sunshine State, capped off by a sweep of St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday.
On the men's side, the Patriots continued their efforts from day one after a sweep over Augustana and P.R.-Rio Piedras.
The match began in doubles, as the Patriots again flexed their muscles with dominant wins by both
Daniil Felker /
Egor Shestakov and
Carel Wessel /
Joaquin Bianchi. The Felker, Shestakov pair put together a 6-1 win, while Wessel and Bianchi took a 4-1 win to move the Patriots ahead 1-0 going into singles.
In singles, the Patriots continued their strong stretch, as Felker took a 6-4, 6-1 win in line #3 and Shestakov took his own straight sets win in scores of 6-0, 6-2 to give the Patriots a 3-0 advantage.
Minutes later, the match was sealed in the Patriots favor as Bianchi gave up just one game in two sets on his way to a 6-1, 6-0 win to give the Patriots their fourth point needed for the win.
The Patriots also picked up wins in line #6 from
Jordi Garcia Portell, who won 7-6 (9-7), 6-0. In the #5 line, Wessel had the most dramatic win of the contest, splitting the first two sets 6-3, 6-7 (11-13), before pulling off a 1-0 (10-8) tiebreaker win in the third set to give the Patriots their sixth and final point.
On the women's side, they got rolling early as they delivered the doubles point to their score.
Muskan Gupta and
Yelena Kim paired in the #1 line, taking a 6-4 win. They made way for
Elisa Buhagiar and
Luisa Moraes, who also claimed a 6-4 win.
The Spartans battled back however, taking win in line #2 to even up the score. The Patriots had their own answer, as Gupta took a 6-3, 6-3 win just minutes later to put the Patriots back in front.
Moraes continued her strong doubles play into singles, as she tacked on a 6-4, 6-3 win to move the Patriots ahead 3-1 and put them on match point.
A Spartans win in line #4 moved the match score to 3-2, but Buhagiar in line #5 capped off a Patriots win with her own dramatic efforts, as she dropped the first set 6-7 (4-7) before storming back with wins of 6-1, 6-3 to give the Patriots the fourth point of the match and guaranteeing the win.
UT Tyler will now get a week to recover, with their next match taking place on March 22 on the road against Western New Mexico. That match will kick off Lone Star Conference play for both teams.
