The No. 6 Texas A&M men’s tennis team claimed its sixth straight SEC win Sunday afternoon, defeating Alabama 5-2 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. With the win, the Aggies improved to 14-4 overall and 6-0 in league play while Alabama fell to 15-6 on the year and 1-5 in the league.
The Aggies marched out to an early lead by claiming the doubles point to begin the match for the 11th time in 18 matches this spring. No. 19 Juan Carlos Aguilar and Jordi Arconada raced out to an early advantage against Edson Ortiz and Mazen Osama and cruised to a 6-2 victory. No. 48 Patrick Kypson and Arthur Rinderknech used a late break to claim a 6-2 win over No. 71 Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov on court two to clinch the doubles point.
No. 25 Valentin Vacherot doubled the A&M advantage with an impressive 6-1, 6-3 victory over Ortiz on court four. The Frenchman improved to 19-9 on the year and 5-1 in SEC play. Shortly after Vacherot’s victory, No. 49 Arconada picked up A&M’s third point of the day. Arconada won for the 15th time this spring, topping Zhe Zhou 6-1, 6-2 on court three. Aguilar clinched the win for the Aggies with his 13th dual match win this spring, the freshman bested Riccardo Roberto 6-2, 6-3 on court five.
No. 6 Rinderknech won his 11th match in a row to improve to 15-1 this year, the senior improved to 6-0 in league matches with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Cancel on court two. The Tide were able to claim the final two points of the day as Alexey Nesterov topped Barnaby Smith on court six followed by No. 95 Osama topping No. 37 Kypson on court one.
Texas A&M returns to the road for their final time in the regular season, taking on Vanderbilt in Nashville on March 30 and Kentucky in Lexington on April 1.
Post Match Quotes
Steve Denton, Texas A&M Men’s Tennis Head Coach
On the SEC win streak…
“Our guys are doing a really good job of holding serve at home, winning the doubles point and getting enough guys to play well at the right time and winning a lot of first sets in singles puts a lot of pressure on our opponents. It’s a long season and there are a lot of matches to be played, the guys get tired and weary but we just have to figure out a way to keep competing throughout the season and if we do that I like our chances in a lot of these matches.”
On Arthur’s win streak…
“Arthur is showing his senior leadership. I can remember when he was a freshman and was struggling like a lot of our freshman right now are doing. He has matured a lot and has taken ownership of this team. It matters to him if the team does well and it shows every time he takes the court. He is battling hard every match on the court and then leading the team off the court as well, trying to help these young guys navigate a difficult SEC schedule.”
On Jordi’s play…
“Jordi has been the guy that jumps off the court first in a lot of these matches. He had a little bit of a hiccup against Rybakov of TCU, but most guys are having a hard time facing him this season. I though Jordi was a little flat on Friday night and we challenged some of the guys after the Tennessee win and he came back out and played his style of tennis today. He was taking the ball early and being really aggressive with his feet throughout the match.”
