EDMOND, OKLAHOMA – UT Tyler tennis cruised to a sweep of Northeastern State on Friday as the #7 men delivered a 7-0 win and the #18 women picked up a second straight 5-2 win.
MEN'S MATCH: UT Tyler 7 | Northeastern State 0
The Patriots looked nothing short of dominant in their season opener, winning each singles match in straight sets and not going to a tiebreaker in any of their nine total matches on the day.
That stunning run began in doubles, with
Job Japelj and
Trevor Short taking a 6-2 in just 21 minutes.
Malo Poulesquen and
Carel Wessel followed with a 6-3 win just nine minutes later, and the Patriots secured a 1-0 lead.
Samuel Antwi and
Artiom Dorofeev would take a 7-5 win in line #2, securing a sweep to begin the day.
Over in singles, the tear continued as Poulesquen delivered a 6-2, 6-1 straight sets win in just 48 minutes to double the Patriots lead.
Just under 20 minutes later, Wessel and
Jordi Garcia Portell would cap off their own straight sets wins, with Wessel taking a 6-2, 6-0 win and Garcia Portell taking a 6-0, 6-1 win to ensure the Patriots would win the match.
The Patriots kept rolling, with Antwi and
Martin Despodov taking wins of 6-3, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-0 to push the lead to 6-0. That left just one match on the courts, but not for long as Dorofeev wrapped up the seventh and final point in scores of 6-4, 7-5 to earn the sweep.
WOMEN'S MATCH: UT Tyler 5 | Northeastern State 2
UT Tyler would put together a second consecutive 5-2 win on Friday, this time taking the doubles point and a 1-0 lead into singles. That point was earned by the #2 and #3 lines, with
Carla Rodier and
Hailey Zhang picking up a second straight win at 6-2, and
Claudia Di Leonardo and
Paula Castellanos adding on their own 6-2 win.
The match would continue in singles, where
Natalia Gorzny quickly doubled the Patriots lead with a 6-1, 6-1 straight sets win. She was followed by
Luisa Moraes, who capped off her own 6-2, 6-0 straight sets win to make it 3-0 and put the Patriots one point from a win.
The Riverhawks would stave off elimination with a win in the #3 line, but
Maria Antonio Ortega put her foot down with a 6-2, 6-2 win in line #5 to give the Patriots the fourth point needed for the win.
The Riverhawks added one more win in the #4 line, but the Patriots countered with one final point in the #2 line as Zhang delivered a three set marathon winner in scores of 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.
UT Tyler returns to action on Saturday as they wrap up play in Edmond, Oklahoma for the weekend. They will both face Southwest Baptist with the men starting at 9 a.m. and the women at 12 p.m.
