The No. 5 Texas A&M men’s tennis team swept Lamar, 4-0, Friday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center to advance to the NCAA Tennis Championship second round against Baylor at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Aggies (23-5) topped the Cardinals (10-14) to move on to the second round for the 12th straight season and will face off against the Bears for a place in the Round of 16 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Aggies opened with the doubles point for the 17th time this season. Seniors AJ Catanzariti and Arthur Rinderknech skunked Carlos Paton Canal and Sebastian Santibanez, 6-0, on court two followed by a 6-3 win by Patrick Kypson and Valentin Vacherot on court three over Nicolas Mayr and Roy Stepanov.
The Aggies took all five first sets in singles that finished before the team match was clinched. Freshman Barnaby Smith raced out to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Canal on court six to increase the A&M advantage to 2-0. The win was number 13 of the season for the High Wycombe, England native and his ninth on court six.
No. 5 Kypson increased the lead with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win on court one over Benny Schweizer. The triumph was Kypson’s sixth straight win to improve his record to 16-7 on the season, all coming on court one.
Catanzariti clinched the win and the sweep with a 6-2, 6-1 win on court five over Mayr. The clinch was the second of the season for Catanzariti and improved his career dual win total to 49, just four shy of the top-25 in Texas A&M program history.
