Senior Jorge Delgado won his singles match in three tiebreakers on Saturday.
TAMPA, Fla. — UTSA men’s tennis team lost its first of two matches in the Sunshine State on Saturday when it dropped a 5-2 decision to Florida Atlantic.
The Roadrunners (3-2) raced to an early 1-0 lead by sweeping the doubles competition.
Senior Rodrigo Morgado and junior Daniel Moreiras cruised to an 8-3 victory at No. 3. The sophomore-freshman combo of Pedro Zanotelli and Martin Ayala clinched the point at No. 1, taking out Marc Abdelnour and Lawrence Harradine, 8-6. At No. 2, junior Max Stratmann and freshman Tyler Brown picked up the win in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (7-4).
“I am very happy with how our doubles teams played today,” head coach Dr. Oliver Trittenwein said. “I’ve said all season that I feel we have the right guys in the right places and we just needed to tighten things up here and there. Today they looked about as good as they have all season.”
Unfortunately for the Birds, the momentum they picked up in doubles didn’t carry over into singles play, as FAU won the first four matches en route to the three-point win.
Brown fell in straight sets to Ervin Garibovic at No. 3, 6-3, 6-1, and Joshua Scholl also only needed two sets to dispatch of Moreiras in their No. 5 tilt, 6-2, 6-4. Playing at the No. 1 spot for the first time this season, Morgado lost to Abdelnour in a tough two-setter, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). The Owls closed out the match when Daniel Vardag defated Stratmann in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
Senior Jorge Delgado continued his solid play, remaining undefeated in singles competition this season when he knocked out Derek Madon in three tiebreakers, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 (10-8).
“I am really proud of how the guys competed today,’ Trittenwein said. “Florida Atlantic is a solid team. We played them a couple seasons ago and played a tough match against them, but today I didn’t recognize any of the guys since the last time we played them. I think they are going to be one of the toughest teams we played this season, with the exception of maybe Texas and Texas A&M. I thought the guys showed a lot of heart against a really tough opponent today. I would have loved to come away with the win, but I can’t complain about how they performed on the court today.”
UTSA will cap off their road trip when they take on South Florida at 9:30 a.m. (CT) on Sunday. The match was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon but was rescheduled due to rain.