The men’s tennis team’s season came to end on Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Southland Conference championship when the Wildcats fell to the Islanders 4-3.
On Friday, the Wildcats beat Nicholls 4-0, for their 22nd win of the season and sixth against conference opposition.
Senior Cole Lawson and junior Jackson Fire took down Alvaro Barranco and Eduardo Marino at No. 2, 6-1 and junior Nikolas Moceanu and Riley Tran doubled up Nestor Giriet Lopez at No. 3, 6-3.
The Sheehy brothers match at No.1 was left unfinished with the score tied at at 4-4, but the brothers were the first two off of the court in singles, giving ACU a 3-0 lead.
The match-clinching point was delivered by Southland Freshman of the Year Dimitris Azoides, who beat Eduardo Marino, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 4.
On Saturday the Wildcats fought hard, but fell short to the Islanders, 4-3. This ended the Wildcat’s season at 22-5.
“All six players competed extremely hard in both singles and doubles,” Tran said, “I believe they had a slight advantage over us based on how physical they played and they also competed with a bit more spirit.”
Earlier this season the Wildcats defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi 5-2 at home, but on Saturday the top-line Sheehy brothers we beaten 6-1 by Okkie Kellerman and Francois Kellerman and the No.2 all-conference duo of Lawson and Fire kist a 7-6 (3) decision to William Mottet and Thomas Rodriques.
Losing the doubles point put the Wildcats in the unenviable position of having to win four of six single matches.
A&M-Corpus Christi moved out to a 3-0 lead with the first singles matches off the court. Kellerman first reversed a three-set loss to Tran by posting a 6-4, 6-0 win over the Wildcats freshman at No. 5, and then returned Redshirt junior Sebastian Langdon fell, 6-2, 6-3 to Kyohei Yamanaka at No. 6.
However, Jonathan Sheehy, winner of six-straight matches, got his team on the scoreboard with a No. 2 line win over Francois Kellerman, 6-4, 6-3, and then his brother, Josh, battled back to defeat William Mottet for a second time this month.
The match-tying point was earned by Moceanu, who bested Thomas Rodrigues, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) for his 14 win of the Spring.
The deciding point was left between Islander senior Carlos Pedrosa and Freshman Dimitris Azoides. Azoides lost the first set, 6-1, before rallying to win the next two 7-6 (4), 6-3. Pedrosa scored the final three points of the third set after Azoides tied their score 3-3. Azoides finished second on the team with 18 set victories, a majority of which earned between the No. 3 and 4 positions.
“Going to the Southland tournament was an unbelievable experience that me and my teammates will cherish for the rest of our lives,” Tran said. “Although we did not get the results we had wished for, the opportunity to compete in such a grand tournament was unbelievable.”
ACU’s final singles record this season as a team stands at 102-53, while its doubles record finishes at 40-26.
