The men’s and women’s tennis teams both went 2-1 this past weekend as the men traveled to Corpus Christi and the women had a home tripleheader.
The men’s team, who were participating in the H-E-B Invitational came in fifth place overall winning their last two games after dropping their first game early on Friday.
The Wildcats would be without Jose Maria Rastrojo, junior from Seville, Spain, who is dealing with a possible season ending injury. Head coach Juan Nunez decided to sit Cesar Barranquero, sophomore from Villaescusa, Spain, due to a minor injury he suffered last week, as well as due to the weather conditions.
“[Barranquero] was still a little sore, and the conditions were crazy on Friday,” Nunez said. “Between the 20-25 mph winds and 46 degrees, when under those conditions you get cold really easy. We just didn’t want to push him being this close to our conference schedule.”
The Wildcats would lose to Radford University 0-4 in their first match on Friday before bouncing back to defeat Oral Roberts 4-0 in the evening game.
ACU would take the doubles point by taking the No.1 and No.2 doubles spot. Daniel Morozov, sophomore from Joliet, Illinois, would clinch the winning point for the Wildcats in the No.2 singles spot winning 6-2, and 7-6.
The Wildcats would be ahead in every match that went unfinished in the game.
“The guys came out and just took care of business from the beginning,” Nunez said. “It was really good because Oral Roberts is a good team, they’re scrappy and they’re always really really competitive. I knew it was gonna be interesting to see how they react after the morning and they just went after it. We actually took care of it pretty quick. That was a good feeling.
The men would go on to win their game the next day defeating New Mexico State 4-1. The Wildcats would grab the doubles point and would finish off the Aggies thanks to two 6-1 wins in the No.4 singles spot by Benjamin Mcdonald, sophomore from Plano.
“I was pretty pleased with how we finished the weekend,” Nunez said. “Especially playing New Mexico State last, without Cesar, without Jose, and our third match in two days. To be able to beat a conference opponent like that was good.
The Wildcats are back in action this weekend as they head to Waco to take on Brown University on Friday at 5 p.m. and Baylor on Saturday at 12 p.m.
The women’s team sandwiched their three games this weekend winning on Friday, dropping their Saturday game and bouncing back for a win on Sunday.
Friday afternoon the wildcats gained a solid 4-2 victory over the University of New Mexico.
In the doubles matches, the Lobos got off to an early 1-0 lead before the Wildcats would win the next two with a come from behind win at the No. 3 spot from Eva Arranz, sophomore from Valladolid, Spain, and Andrea Guerrero, senior from Mexico City, Mexico.
ACU would gain a 3-1 lead in the singles and Maria Cascos, freshman from Gijon, Spain would lose two close tiebreakers in the No.4 spot before Masha Vrsalovic, freshman from Cochabamba, Bolivia would clinch the win.
Due to a wrist injury from Cascos, the Wildcats would enter Saturday with a modified lineup. They would drop the game 2-4 with Maryjoe Crisologo, junior from Surrey, British Coombia and Arranz winning their singles matches
“We had opportunities against Lamar,” head coach Bryan Rainwater said. “ With Maria I feel like that’s a 5-2 or 6-1 in our favor. Without Maria it just made everything tighter and we still had opportunities. So I was just really pleased with how we played overall.
The team would close out the weekend on a 6-1 win over Tyler Junior College as Arranz would clinch the win for the Wildcats and go 3-0 in her singles matches on the weekend.
With conference play approaching for the Wildcats, the team will start to see more time in between games allowing for more rest and preparation. The Wildcats, who have participated in many long weekends and back to backs, will have at least one day in between every one of their matches now for the remainder of the season.
“I definitely scheduled it that way,” Rainwater said. “I wanted January and February to be super tough, and then going into conference, I wanted us to be able to play one match at a time. Still tough opponents, but youre gonna have more time for your body to recover. So these next two weeks are definitely gonna be about getting everybody healthy
The Wildcats head on the road and will face UTEP at 11 a.m. on Saturday in El Paso.
