Feb 03, 2019
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 14 Texas A&M men's tennis team fell 5-2 to No. 13 Notre Dame at the Eck Tennis Pavilion on Sunday. With the loss the Aggies fell to 3-3 while the Fighting Irish improved to 5-0 this season.
The Aggies opened the match by dropping the doubles point as Notre Dame's Grayson Broadus and Matthew Gamble, ranked No. 49 nationally, bested Texas A&M's Barnaby Smith and Austin Abbrat 6-0 on court three followed by the Irish duo of Alex Lebedev and Axel Nefve defeating A&M's Valentin Vacherot and Jack Pulliam 6-3 on court two.
The Irish doubled their lead as No. 63 Richard Ciamarra topped Texas A&M junior Valentin Vacherot 6-3, 6-1 on court two. Texas A&M sophomore Hady Habib made his first dual match appearance this spring, the Houston native defeated Notre Dame's Nefve 6-2, 6-2 on court three. The Maroon & White evened the match at 2-2 as Aggie freshman Austin Abbrat topped No. 49 William Howells 6-2, 6-4 to win his sixth straight match. Abbrat improved to 2-0 against ranked opponents to equal the team-lead in ranked victories.
Notre Dame picked up its third point as Guillermo Cabrera bested A&M freshman Alex Vedri 6-2, 6-4 on court six. The Irish clinched the win as No. 16 Lebedev topped A&M's Aguilar, ranked No. 89, 7-6(1), 6-1 on court one. Notre Dame's Tristan McCormick earned the final point of the day as he outlasted A&M freshman Noah Schachter 7-6(3), 5-7, 1-0[7] on court four.