Men’s tennis went 2-1 this past weekend, knocking off Trinity and Tyler Junior College, while the women’s team dropped their two games in Fort Worth.
The Wildcats had a full slate of games this past weekend, taking on Trinity University on Friday, Tyler Junior College on Saturday and Texas Tech on Sunday.
The team started the weekend off getting a nice 7-0 sweep against Trinity. However, despite what the scorecard said, the Tigers stuck with the wildcats the whole day, taking the No.2 doubles spot and held with ACU in the other two doubles matches.
“I wasn’t very happy with the way we showed up for the doubles,” head coach Juan Nunez said. “Just very low energy.I think how close those doubles matches were woke them up and then obviously I challenged the guys to go out there in singles and show up and dominate the way I know they could.”
The Wildcats would find more of their groove in the singles with two quick wins at the No.1 and No.2 spot with Benjamin McDonald, sophomore from Plano, Texas securing the team victory at No.3.
On Saturday, the Wildcats would be back home to take on Tyler Junior College. ACU was able to take the No.1 and No.3 doubles spots for the 1-0 start. The Wildcats would also go on to win four singles matches with Savan Chhabra, senior from Irving, Texas, and Cesar Barranquero, sophomore from Villaescusa, Spain, winning in straight sets.
The team would travel out west to Lubbock on Sunday to take on Texas Tech in the final game of their long weekend.
Although the Wildcats would get swept 0-7, there were many bright spots during Sunday’s matches including a doubles win from Barranquero and Dario Kmet, junior from Sydney, Australia, defeating the 26th ranked duo of Dimitrios Azoidis and Reed Collier of Texas Tech.
“Overall it was a good weekend,” Nunez said. “It was still another weekend where I was able to play basically everybody in my lineup. A huge thing for me is during January and February, I try to play with as many people as I can. You just never know who’s gonna end up playing in April. Every weekend, If you had to ask me, we’re better Sunday or Monday when we come back, than we were Friday when we started.”
The Wildcats head to Corpus Christi this weekend to play in their second annual H-E-B Tournament of Champions. The team will face Radford University in the first round at 12 p.m. on Friday.
On Sunday, the women’s team traveled to Fort Worth to take on the University of San Francisco and TCU.
The Wildcats would gain one win in the doubles matches thanks to Masha Vrsalovic, freshman from Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Olivia Sears, freshman from Goshen, Indiana, but unfortunately lose the doubles point. Sears would account for the Wildcats only point of the match as she took the No.3 singles spot winning in two close games.
In the afternoon game, Paula Garrote, sophomore from Cartagera, Spain, would grab the sole point for the Wildcats winning at the No.6 spot. After taking the opening set 6-2 and barely losing the second set 6-7, Garotte would come from behind in the third to grab the win for the Wildcats.
“We competed as a team really well,” head coach Brian Rainwater said. “Even though the final score wasn’t there, we had close matches everywhere. I like going to play big schools that are that much higher than us and not losing 7-0 as well.”
The Wildcats will have a big home weekend facing The University of New Mexico on Friday at 1 p.m., Lamar University on Saturday at 10 a.m., and Tyler Junior College Sunday at 1 p.m.
