Mar 29, 2019
COLUMBIA, SC – The No. 7 Texas A&M men's tennis team won their 14th straight match and 21st straight regular season SEC match with a 5-2 triumph at No. 18 South Carolina Friday evening. The Aggies (17-3, 7-0) maintained a tie for the lead in the SEC standings with No. 2 Florida (15-2, 7-0) as the two teams face off Sunday in Gainesville.
"Tonight we got a really tough road win against a very good South Carolina team," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "Our guys were very focused from the start and showed a lot of maturity. We are very proud of the whole team with how they competed in a tough environment. We are starting to become a pretty good team."
In the current 13-match win streak the Aggies have gone 4-0 against Top-25 teams. During the streak A&M sophomore Barnaby Smith has gone 11-1 while Hady Habib has posted a 10-2 mark. Sophomore Carlos Aguilar and Smith have led the team with a quartet of ranked wins.
The Aggies opened the day capturing the doubles point for the fourth straight match. A&M's Aguilar and Smith, ranked No. 23 nationally, bested South Carolina's Paul Jubb and Raphael Lambling, ranked No. 63, 6-2 on court one. The Gamecocks earned a 6-4 win on court two by Joseph Brailovsky and Jake Beasley over A&M's Kevin Lam and Hady Habib. With the point being decided on court three, A&M's Noah Schachter and Valentin Vacherot were up to the task as they captured a 6-4 win over SC's Beau Pelletier and Daniel Rodrigues.
A&M picked up the first three singles wins in straight sets to clinch the road win. A&M's Smith, ranked No. 76, was the first off the court with a 6-1, 6-1 win on court four over Brailovsky. No. 32 Vacherot, an A&M junior, captured the third point of the match with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over South Carolina's Lambling on court three. A&M's Habib, ranked No. 62, clinched the win with a 6-3, 6-4 win on court two over No. 93 Rodrigues, the clinch was the second of the season for Habib.
After the team match was decided South Carolina claimed a win on court one in straight sets and then the two teams split third set super-tiebreakers on courts five and six.