| Sophomore Max Stratmann clinched the win for UTSA on Thursday. |
SAN ANTONIO ? The UTSA men’s tennis team fought off a late comeback before knocking out DePaul in a third-set tiebreak in the final match of a rain-delayed match on Thursday at the UTSA Tennis Center.
“This was a big win for us today,” head coach Dr. Oliver Trittenwein said. “They handled us pretty easily last season. They are a tough, competitive team and it was important for us to come out and defend our home court.”
The Roadrunners (7-9) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by securing the doubles point.
Sophomore Max Stratmann and freshman Pedro Zanotelli dropped their No. 2 match to Alasdair Graetz and Jose Moncada, 8-3. The tandem of junior Jorge Delgado and sophomore Daniel Moreiras evened things up when they took down Bartosz Jozwiak and Juan Xavier Munoz, 8-6, at No.3. With the point hanging in the balance, senior Andre Moreira and junior Rodrigo Morgado held on to win an intense match at No. 1, 8-5, over Austin Doerner and Ben Hartman to secure the point for UTSA.
“It was important for us to come out and get the doubles point,” Trittenwein said. “I think the guys really understand doubles and match up really well with pretty much anyone. When you’re playing a team like DePaul, it’s important to come out and jump on them quick and grab a little momentum going into singles.”
Momentum is exactly what the Roadrunners had, but the tables gradually turned in favor of the Blue Demons.
UTSA won the first set in four of the six singles matches and looked well on their way to an easy win before DePaul mounted its comeback.
Moreira had the easiest match in singles competition, dropping Moncada 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 to give the Roadrunners a 2-0 lead. DePaul finally got on the board at No. 3 with Graetz’s straight-sets victory over Zanotelli, 7-5, 6-2. Delgado needed a second-set tiebreak to finish off Munoz at No. 6 [6-2, 7-6 (8-6)] and restoring the two-point lead for UTSA. Morgado took the first set of his No. 1 match with Doerner, 6-4, but then dropped the last two sets, 6-3, 7-5, which pushed the momentum back to the Blue Demons.
Holding a slim 3-2 lead, the Roadrunners needed to win just one of the last two matches to seal the win.
Moreiras and Jozwiak split the first two sets of their No. 4 match. Jozwiak took the first, 6-3, and Moreiras fought back to take the second in a tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5).
Meanwhile, Stratmann took the first set of his No. 5 contest with Hartman only to fall in the second, also in a tiebreak, 7-6 (7-5).
After seeing Moreiras drop his final set, 6-4, which tied up the match at three.
Stratmann went on to win the next three games to take a 6-5 lead in the third set, but Hartman broke the his serve to send the match into a third-set tiebreak to decide the winner of the match. Stratmann took the tiebreak, 7-4, and secured the win for UTSA.
“That was huge for me and for the team today,” he said. “A lot of focus is placed on those top two or three matches, but it just goes to show you that every point counts in team tennis. It gives me a lot of confidence to come through for the team in that situation and I think it shows everyone else that they can count on me in tough situations. It was just a great win overall for us tonight.”
The Roadrunners have one more non-conference contest on Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette before getting back into Southland Conference play.