Junior Daniel Moreiras sealed the match with his thrilling singles win on Saturday.
SAN ANTONIO — The UTSA men’s tennis team kicked off it conference season in dramatic fashion on Saturday, gutting out a come-from-behind 4-3 victory against Texas Pan American at the UTSA Tennis Center.
The Roadrunners won their third match in a row to start the spring, while the Broncs fell to 0-4 on the young season.
“After last season, we felt like we had something to prove,” head coach Dr. Oliver Trittenwein said. “UTPA has the same guys from last year, but they are playing far, far better than they were last season. This was us last year, on the losing side of a close match with UTPA. This was a big win for us today.”
The match kicked off in doubles competition, with the senior-freshman pairing of Rodrigo Morgado and Martin Ayala scoring a convincing 8-3 win over Beau and Brett Bernstein at No. 1. Junior Daniel Moreiras and sophomore Pedro Zanotelli fell at the No. 3 spot to Marcus Dornauf and Andrew Irving, 9-8 (7-4), leaving the doubles point hanging on the outcome of the No. 2 matchup. Aswin Vijayaragavan and Nirvick Mohinta proved to be too much for junior Max Stratmann and freshman Tyler Brown and they knocked out the UTSA duo in a tie-breaker, 9-8 (7-2).
“UTPA has some great doubles pairings,” Trittenwein said. “I still don’t feel that we are as sharp as we should be at No. 3. I’m happy with Nos. 1 and 2. Our No. 2 guys had a really tough matchup today and I thought they played well, but I think we should have won at No. 3. We just need some more practice days at doubles so we can come out and really jump on teams and grab that doubles point.”
Senior Jorge Delgado got the Roadrunners back in the match quickly at the start of singles competition. He dismantled Irving with a dominating 6-1, 6-2, victory at No. 6. Morgado then gave the Birds a short-lived 2-1 lead with a win over Beau Berstein at No. 3 (6-2, 6-2). The Broncs battled back to tie the match at two when Brett Bernstein took out Brown at No. 2, 6-4, 6-4.
UTSA needed to take two of the final three matches still on the court to secure the victory.
Ayala dropped his first set at No. 1, 6-4, before rallying back to take the second set, 6-3, and that forced a deciding third set. Ayala eventually fell to Vijayaragavan 6-2 in the third, giving UTPA a 3-2 lead with just two matches left in play.
Stratmann and Moreiras were both in the third set of their respective matches.
At No. 4, Stratmann cruised to an early 1-0 set lead over Mohinta after taking the first frame, 6-1. Mohinta fired back in the second, winning 6-2 to force a third set.
The opposite held true for Moreiras at No. 5. Dornauf took the first set, 6-2, and Moreiras fought back to take the second, 6-4.
Stratmann jumped out to a 3-0 lead in his third frame and looked well on his way to finishing off his opponent before Mohinta fought back to tie the set at three. Stratmann went ahead 5-4 and eventually broke Mohinta’s service game to take the final set, 6-4, tying the match at three.
“I saw Ayala fall at No. 1 and realized it was up to Morieras and I to win this match,” Stratmann said. “You see your teammates struggling and you have to show them your best effort out there. Whatever you can show your teammates out there is going to mentally support them and motivate them. I tried to stay positive and play my game. It’s so close out there. A couple points here and there change everything. The mental toughness and the effort you show out there on the court is what’s important to your team.”
Similar to Stratmann, Moreiras jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the third set before the Bronc came galloping back to knot the score at four. Moreiras broke serve for the 5-4 lead and then held on to his serve to win the final set, 6-4, and the match, 4-3, for UTSA.
“For the longest time I didn’t know what the overall score was because nobody wanted to tell me,” Moreiras said. “They just wanted me to play my game. When it was just down to Stratmann and I, I found out we were down 3-2 and were going to need my match for sure. I was at 4-4 and had just lost the last four games. I was really emotional and was struggling. I knew I had to dig deep. When I saw Stratmann win his match, that really picked me up and I was able to close out my match.”
Trittenwein was pleased with the way his team competed in such a close match.
“Nobody likes to be in these close matches, winning or losing, but I think it’s great experience so early in the season. There’s going to be tough matches down the road and it really brings these guys together as a team when they see that they can count on their teammates. You are not always going to play your best game, and for these guys, it’s good to know that when they are down, their teammates are there to pick them up.”
UTSA will close out the weekend’s action against St. Edward’s at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the UTSA Tennis Center. Admission to all Roadrunners home tennis matches is free.