The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Incarnate Word
No. 19 Men's Tennis handles Incarnate Word, 6-1
03.26.2016 | Men's Tennis
Horns win their second match of the day to improve to 13-6
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 19 Texas (13-6) won all six of their singles matches to seal a 6-1 win over Incarnate Word (7-9) on Saturday evening at the Westwood Country Club in Austin. The Longhorns have now won nine of their last ten matches.
The Cardinals opened the evening taking the doubles point following two straight victories in the third and first doubles matches. UT freshman Colin Markes quickly reversed Incarnate Word's fortunes with a singles victory to knot the score up at 1-1 following a straight sets victory over Ryan Hoverson.
Texas took a 2-1 lead following freshman Rodrigo Banzer's straight sets victory over Incarnate Word's Joey Vatanadilok in second singles, and sophomore John Mee cruised to victory after winning the match's first 11 games, defeating Sebastian Mortier 6-0, 6-2 at fourth singles.
Freshman Harrison Scott clinched the overall victory for the Longhorns following his 6-2, 6-3 win over Incarnate Word's Josip Smoljan in first singles. Senior Michael Riechmann soon followed with a straight sets victory of his own in the three singles matchup, defeating Francisco Bendana by scores of 6-4, 7-5.
Redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky capped the meeting with a three-set thriller that ended with a 12-10 tiebreaker in UT's favor, locking up the final point to give Texas a 6-1 win.
"I thought Incarnate Word did a really good job. They came out and they were really hungry," said Texas head coach Michael Center. "We got off to a little bit of a sluggish start, but I thought the guys rallied again in singles. This team just has a lot of resiliency and we just keep plugging away. It was a good day overall for us. We're getting into April and May now, so let's hope that we can play our best tennis now at the end of the season."
Texas hosts UTSA in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 2 at Polo Tennis Club in Austin to close out nonconference play. The first session will be held at noon and the second will be set for 4 p.m.
No. 19 Texas 6, Incarnate Word 1
Doubles - Order of Finish: 3, 1* (2 Doubles was suspended)
1) Josip Smoljan/Francisco Bendana (UIW) def. No. 61 Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz (UT), 6-4
2) Colin Markes/Rodrigo Banzer (UT) vs. Joey Vatanadilok/Sebastian Mortier (UIW), 5-5, susp.
3) Tucker Brown/Ryan Hoverson (UIW) def. William Jou/Johnny Goodwin (UT), 6-4
Singles - Order of Finish: 6, 2, 4, 1*, 3, 5
1) No. 113 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Josip Smoljan (UIW), 6-2, 6-3
2) Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Joey Vatanadilok (UIW), 6-3, 6-0
3) Michael Riechmann (UT) def. Francisco Bendana (UIW), 6-4, 7-5
4) John Mee (UT) def. Sebastian Mortier (UIW), 6-0, 6-2
5) Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Tucker Brown (UIW), 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10)
6) Colin Markes (UT) def. Ryan Hoverson (UIW), 6-2, 6-4
* - clinching point
Players Mentioned
