Jan. 27, 2019
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 9 Texas A&M men's tennis team suffered their first setback of the season in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend finals against No. 16 Virginia on Sunday. With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 4-0 while the Aggies fell to 3-1.
The Aggies charged back from dropping the doubles point to claim four first sets in singles action and forced a third set in the two matches in which they dropped the first set. Facing the first deficit of the Texas A&M season, junior Valentin Vacherot earned an impressive 6-2, 6-3 win over Brandon Nakashima on court one to even the match at one-all.
No. 50 Barnaby Smith pushed the Aggies ahead with a 6-0, 1-6, 6-3 triumph over No. 38 Gianni Ross on court three. Moments later, No. 54 Ryan Goetz bested freshman Alex Vedri 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 on court six to tie the team score at two. Virginia regained the lead at 3-2 as Henrik Wiersholm defeated Noah Schachter 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 on court four.
Freshman Austin Abbrat leveled the match for the third and final time as he outlasted Aswin Lizen 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 on court five before the Cavaliers were able to earn the win on court two. Carl Soderland tripped up No. 89 Carlos Aguilar 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 on court two to earn the fourth point for the visitors.
The doubles point was highly contested to open the match, all three courts were on serve near the end of the match. Ross and Lizen topped Smith and Schachter, 6-4, on court two followed by a tiebreaker win on court one by Soderlund and Matthew Lord.