SAN ANTONIO – Just one day after the UTSA men's tennis team was selected for the program's first NCAA at-large bid, the Roadrunners have garnered more participants in the postseason. In Tuesday's selection, UTSA doubles pair Alan Magadan and Sebastian Rodriguez were selected by the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee among the 32 doubles teams that will compete in the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships.
Rodriguez, a senior from Trujillo, Peru and McAllen, Texas junior Magadan are the program's first entrants into the NCAA Championships as a doubles team. In 2015, Tomas Stillman was selected to compete in the singles competition.
The NCAA singles and doubles competition will be conducted May 22-27 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, after the conclusion of the team championship. UTSA will be the lone team with competitors among Conference USA teams.
The bracket is set with the UTSA team opening competition in Orlando against No. 18 Jeremie Casabon and Siim Troost from Vanderbilt. The only non-Power 5 program in their corner, UTSA's bracket also features teams from TCU, Tennessee, Texas, UCF, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
This postseason opportunity will provide a reunion of a spectacular fall for these Roadrunners, who only played 10 matches together in the spring. Although they saw limited action together in the spring, the 2023 duo of Magadan and Rodriguez have already developed the competition chemistry this opportunity requires. Currently ranked No. 26 in the nation, they have been listed as high as No. 6 following a historic run through the fall ITA Championships. The pair had a historic fall for the Roadrunners, advancing further than any UTSA team ever has in ITA competition, while also producing an 11-4 fall record.
Competing last November in the ITA Texas Regionals, arguably the most difficult Regional in the country, they defeated teams from Texas Tech (87-73) and Rice (8-4) to advance to the quarterfinals. From there, they bested No. 25 Texas A&M (8-4) before heading to a best-of-three match in the semifinals against 14th-ranked Baylor. Magadan and Rodriguez disposed of Baylor's pair of Jake Finn Bass and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (6-4, 1-6, 10-8).
In the finals, Magadan and Rodriguez met the No. 3 ranked doubles pair of Alexander Jong and Lui Maxted from TCU. UTSA gained control early in the first set and didn't look back, claiming the program's first ITA Texas Regional championship (6-3, 6-3).
Moving on to the ITA Nationals in San Diego, the pair traded blows with Louisville's 46th-ranked Natan Rodrigues and Fabien Salle before pulling out a three-set victory (5-7, 6-4, 10-4). In the round of 16, facing Pepperdine's Daniel De Jonge and Tim Zeitvogel and just edging out the duo in three sets (7-5, 3-6, 10-6).
Magadan and Rodriguez's win pushed them ahead into the quarterfinals, where they were the lone non-Power 5 school present. Rodriguez and Magadan battled hard, playing their third straight three-set match, but ultimately fell to Utah's Berk Bugarikj & Patrik Trhac (7-5, 1-6, 7-10) – ending their historic march in the ITA National Quarterfinal and drawing national attention from the governing body, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association – setting them for a season-opening rank at No. 6.
As a team, the UTSA Roadrunners rank 41st and begin competition this weekend in the No. 1 Texas NCAA Regional, making their first at-large appearance in a 10 a.m. Saturday match against No. 37 Pepperdine at the Texas Tennis Center.
-UTSA-
