The men’s tennis team traveled to two different locations to face off against two teams for what ended up being some interesting matches. They started off in Waco to play no. 34 Baylor in the afternoon, then traveled to Dallas to face Eastern Washington in the evening. The men were able to pull out an impressive 6-1 team victory over Eastern Washington and lost to Baylor by a score of 6-1.
In singles, the men were only able to get one victory against Baylor, the 34th ranked team in the nation, however, they kept up with the competition and made each match close. Against Eastern Washington, the Wildcats picked up an overwhelming five victories out of six.
The standout in singles for ACU yesterday was sophomore Henry Adams as he was the only one to get victories in both his matches. Adams won his match against Tyler Stayer from Baylor by a score of 6-4, 6-3, and Luke Ness from Eastern Washington by a score of 6-3, 6-4.
“It felt good to get a win in singles, but it would have felt better to get a team win,” Adams said. “We can take away that we are not too far away from Baylor’s level and with experience and hard work we can get there. We are starting to play every single match with a high level of intensity and that has been paying off for us this season.”
In doubles, the men were not able to get a victory against Baylor, but were able to sweep Eastern Washington three matches to none. The teams were Nico Agritelley/Josh Sheehy, Adams/Jason Proctor, and Hunter Holman/Sebastian Langdon.
Agritelley and Sheehy lost to their opponents from Baylor 6-2, but beat their Eastern Washington competition 6-3. Adams and Proctor lost to the team from Baylor 6-4 and beat their opponents out of Eastern Washington 6-3. Holman and Langdon got beat in their match against Baylor 6-1 and won their match against Eastern Washington 6-0.
“We came out knowing Baylor was going to be tough because they’ve always been a good team,” Sheehy said. “I felt like we fought well in most of the matches and nearly pulled out a second singles match win at the end. For our second match, we came out focused and took care of business. From today’s playing It’s great to play this level since it can only make us more experienced and ready for a higher level. In future matches, we know there is still a lot to accomplish since we have to prove we are worthy of our recent ranking.”
The next matches for the men will be Friday, March 4th here in Abilene against Temple University at 12 P.M. and McMurry University at 4 P.M.