TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler tennis each took a 6-1 win over Harding on Friday in their first regular season home matches of 2026.
 
WOMEN'S MATCH: #21 UT Tyler 6 | Harding 1
 
The teams would begin their day by splitting the first two doubles matches, with Harding taking the #1 line 6-2 and the Patriots answering with a 6-1 win from Maria Antonio Ortega and Carla Rodier.
 
That set up a winner take all in line #3, where Paula Castellanos and Claudia Di Leonardo delivered a 6-4 win and put the Patriots up 1-0.
 
Natalia Gorzny got the Patriots rolling in singles, delivering a 6-2, 6-1 win in just 38 minutes in the #2 line, doubling the Patriots advantage. Right behind her was Antonio Ortega, who earned a 6-3, 6-3 straight sets win to put the Patriots up 3-0.
 
Harding would muster their only point of the day with a win in the #1 line, and the Patriots would pour it on down the stretch in the #4, #5, and #6 lines.
 
Rodier was the only player to go into a tiebreaker, but she earned a 7-6 (7-1) win in that tiebreaker before following with a 6-0 sweep in her second set in the #4 line. Castellanos earned a straight sets win of 6-2, 6-0 in her #5 match, and Di Leonardo capped it off with a 6-4, 6-1 win to make it five singles wins for the Patriots.
 
MEN'S MATCH: #5 UT Tyler 6 | #21 Harding 1
 
Unlike the women's match, the Harding men would take the early advantage, taking wins in the #1 and #2 doubles lines to counter a win from Job Japelj and Trevor Short at 6-4 in the #3 line, allowing the Bisons to take a 1-0 lead.
 
What followed however, would be a Patriots avalanche, as they took each of the singles matches and a 6-1 win.
 
Artiom Dorofeev and Malo Poulesquen led off with straight sets wins that each took under an hour in the #1 and #2 lines. Dorofeev won in 54 minutes in scores of 6-0, 6-3. Poulesquen took four minutes longer, winning 6-1, 6-1.
 
Carel Wessel nearly followed suit in line #3, taking 61 minutes to dispatch his opponent 6-4, 6-2. Samuel Antwi won his match in line #4 6-3, 6-3, never trailing at any point and securing the winning point for the match.
 
Jordi Garcia Portell would deliver a fifth straight straight sets win in line #5, winning his match 6-3, 6-0. That set up Martin Despodov in line #6, who won a dramatic first set 7-6 (8-6) before his opponent was forced to retire prior to set two.
 
UT Tyler will be back in action on Saturday morning, taking on Southern Arkansas right back at the Summers Tennis Center. The women will get started at 10 a.m. while the men will start at 11:30 a.m.