COMPETITION UPDATE (updated May 24, 10:00 a.m. CT)
ORLANDO – The NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Doubles Championships have been postponed and now will begin on Wednesday, May 24, including the Round of 32 match between UTSA's Sebastian Rodriguez and Alan Magadan against NC State's Robin Catry and Luca Staeheli. Continuous rains at the USTA National Campus have caused significant delays in the singles and doubles competitions.
Wednesday's doubles matches are set for 2:30 p.m. CT.
ORLANDO – Making the first appearance by a UTSA doubles pair at the national championships, the Roadrunner duo of senior Sebastian Rodriguez and junior Alan Magadan get their postseason run under way on Tuesday, May 23, with doubles matches starting at 4:30 p.m. CT due to weather delays. They will square off with NC State's Robin Catry and Luca Staeheli at Orlando's USTA National Campus in the opening round of the NCAA Division I Doubles Championships.
It's been quite a season for this Roadrunner pair; almost coming full circle. Rodriguez and Magadan made a historic run in the fall season to get 2022-23 rolling, but spent much of the spring season with other partners. Selected into an at-large bid for the NCAA Championships with a No. 26 ITA national ranking, the pair will play together again for the first time since defeating Gonzaga's 64th-ranked top pair on March 15.
Magadan is in his first season with the program after transferring as a junior from Tyler Junior College – He is originally from McAllen, Texas. Hailing from Trujillo, Peru, Rodriguez was a graduating senior during Saturday's Commencement program, earning his degree in Marketing. Working in tandem last fall, Magadan and Rodriguez produced an 11-4 record and delivered the program's first ITA Regional Doubles Championship.
Competing last October in the ITA Texas Regionals, carving their path through arguably the most difficult Regional in the country, the duo defeated teams from Texas Tech's Isaac Arevalo and Franco Ribero (87-73) and Rice's Dylan Heap and Yasha Zemel (8-4) to advance to the quarterfinals. From there, they bested Texas A&M's 24th-ranked Noah Schachter and Trey Hilderbrand (8-4) before heading to a best-of-three match in the semifinals against Baylor. Magadan and Rodriguez disposed of Baylor's pair of Jake Finn Bass and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (6-4, 1-6, 10-8) for the opportunity to compete for the program's first Regional title.
In the Regional final, 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, they faced Pepperdine's Daniel De Jonge and Tim Zeitvogel, just edging out the duo in three sets (7-5, 3-6, 10-6). That victory pushed them ahead to the quarterfinals as the lone non-Power 5 school present at that stage.
Rodriguez and Magadan battled, playing their third consecutive 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 – setting up for a season-opening rank at No. 6.
This postseason opportunity in Orlando provides a long-overdue reunion, as the pair played together only 10 times in the regular season, spreading UTSA's talent around on the doubles flights. They finished the regular season with a 3-4 record together, a 12-7 doubles record for Rodriguez and a 12-8 doubles mark for Magadan. The pair was named to the Conference USA All-Conference first team, and Magadan was a C-USA first-teamer in singles.
As a team, the Roadrunners also laid down some historic results in the spring, achieving an 18-7 record for the third-most wins in program history – and the most for UTSA since 1985. The Roadrunners bested six ranked opponents and accrued the program's longest winning streak of 14 matches, while achieving program-record rankings three times and climbing as high as 34th. UTSA ended its team season at the Austin, Texas NCAA Regional against No. 37 Pepperdine in the program's first NCAA appearance as an at-large selection.
NCAA Championships Schedule
Rodriguez and Magadan will open competition on Tuesday, May 23 at the USTA National Campus in southeast Orlando, Florida, in the opening round of the NCAA Doubles Championships. They will face 11th-ranked Robin Catry and Luca Staeheli from NC State. Storms pushed through the Orlando area on Monday and bumped the singles schedule. Doubles matches are slated to begin at 4:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday.
The winner advances to the round of 16 to face the victor between No. 3 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri from Texas and No. 24 Jordan Chrysostom/Ryan Fishback from Virginia Tech.
The NCAA and USTA will provide live stats and streaming with programming available on the NCAA Championships Page. Fans can watch live results in two ways, IOnCourt or StatBroadcast. Continuous multi-court broadcast coverage will be provided by Cracked Rackets.
About the Opposition
Ranking 11th in the latest ITA listings, Catry and Staeheli helped the Wolfpack to a 15-10 record, a No. 25 ranking and an NCAA appearance in the Athens, Ga. Regional. The duo finished with an 15-5 spring record together, including a 5-4 record against ranked pairs – they went 10-4 on court one for NC State and 5-1 on court two. Staeheli is a junior from Wollerau, Switzerland, and has a 16-9 singles record on the season, while Catry is a senior from Lille, France, with a 17-7 solo mark.
Top-ranked Texas made it to the Final Four before falling to eventual National Champion, fifth-ranked Virginia. Helping the Longhorns' effort to another phenomenal year for the storied program, Spizzirri and Harper produced major results for UT with a 19-9 dual record on the year. A junior from Greenwich, Conn., Spizzirri remains the No. 1 singles player in Division I tennis and produced a 20-1 dual record in the spring – all against ranked opposition. A Calgary, Alberta junior, Harper is 16-7 with a 3-7 mark against nationally-ranked opposition.
Virginia Tech went 9-16 this season, while Chrysostom and Fishback went 8-8 together with a 3-5 record against ranked foes. The pair are making their third consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships, and Geneva, N.Y. junior Fishback earned a singles win in the opening round of singles action Monday to extend his singles record to 11-14. Chrysostom is a junior from Bowie, Md. With a 4-5 solo record.
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