The No. 6 Texas A&M men’s tennis team overpowered No. 22 Vanderbilt, 4-3, Friday afternoon at the Currey Tennis Center in Nashville, Tenn. The Aggies improved to 15-4 overall and 7-0 in SEC play while the Commodores dropped to 15-5 on the year and 5-3 in league play.
The Aggies started the day trailing 1-0 after doubles play, dropping a tight doubles point in a tie-breaker on court two. No. 46 Cameron Klinger and Billy Rowe upset No. 19 Jordi Arconada and Juan Carlos Aguilar on the top court before Valentin Vacherot and AJ Catanzariti were able to take court three in a tiebreaker over George Harwell and Baker Newman. No. 75 Panu Virtnaen and Lachlan McPhee scraped by No. 48 Arthur Rinderknech and Patrick Kypson 7-6(8) to push the Commodores ahead.
With their backs against the wall the Maroon & White pushed back and claimed four first sets and the second set in the two matches in which they dropped the first set. No. 25 Vacherot evened the match with a swift 6-0, 6-3 win on court four over Rowe followed by a 6-3, 6-1 win by Aguilar on court five over Maxwell Freeman to give the Aggies their first lead of the night.
No. 37 Kypson pushed the A&M advantage out to 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 22 Klinger on the top court followed by the clinch victory by No. 49 Arconada on court three over No. 100 Newman. With the team match secured the final two singles matches were played out. No. 56 Valent claimed the win on court two as No. 6 Rinderknech was forced to retire, then Harwell secured the final point with a three-set win on court six over Barnaby Smith.
Texas A&M remains on the road for an Easter showdown against No. 23 Kentucky at 12 p.m. at the Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.
Post Match Quotes
Steve Denton, Texas A&M Men’s Tennis Head Coach
About the match…
“The doubles was a wild ride, first it looked like we were going to get blown out then we slowly crept back in to a couple of courts and then had several chances to win the point only to lose it in the end. With the momentum clearly on their side early in the singles, our guys just kept battling and turned those matches around. This was a great response by these young men and we couldn't be more proud of their mentality today.”
