The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
TCU *
No. 2 TCU edges No. 18 Men's Tennis, 4-2
04.16.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns close regular season next week at Texas Tech.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 18 Texas (17-9, 1-3 Big 12) put forth a formidable rally in singles play, but No. 2 TCU (21-2, 3-0 Big 12) held off the Longhorns by a 4-2 count Saturday afternoon at UT's Weller Indoor Tennis Center.
TCU won a tightly-contested doubles point to take a 1-0 lead, and the Horned Frogs extended their lead to 2-0 by way of Cameron Norrie's straight-sets win over UT's George Goldhoff at first singles.
UT senior Michael Riechmann took the first set off of TCU's Jerry Lopez at fifth singles, 6-1, but Lopez captured the remaining two sets, 6-4, 6-3 to give the Horned Frogs a 3-0 lead.
Texas redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky split his first two sets with TCU's Trevor Johnson at sixth singles. Zlobinsky picked up the one service break he needed early in the third set, and he held off Johnson 6-4 to put the Horns on the board and trim the TCU lead to 3-1.
As was the case at sixth singles, UT's Adrian Ortiz split his first two sets with Eduardo Nava at fourth singles. Ortiz held a 5-2 third-set lead, and though Nava challenged to even the set at five, Ortiz thwarted the rally and put away a 6-4 third-set win to draw Texas within 3-2.
Texas' Harrison Scott split his first two sets with TCU's 20th-ranked Alex Rybakov at second singles. Scott led well into the final set, but Rybakov rallied to claim the set 7-5 and close out the 4-2 win for the Horned Frogs.
UT's Rodrigo Banzer held a 5-4 third-set lead over TCU's 62nd-ranked Guillermo Nunez at third singles, but the match was suspended once the Horned Frogs clinched the team victory.
Texas wraps the regular season next Saturday when it visits Texas Tech.
No. 2 TCU 4, No. 18 Texas 2
Doubles – Order of Finish: 3, 1
1 No. 69 Hudson Blake/Reese Stalder (TCU) def. George Goldhoff/Michael Riechmann (UT), 7-6 (1)
2 Adrian Ortiz/Julian Zlobinsky (UT) vs. Trevor Johnson/Guillermo Nunez (TCU), 6-5, susp.
3 Cameron Norrie/Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. John Mee/Harrison Scott (UT), 6-1
Singles – Order of Finish: 1, 5, 6, 4, 2
1 No. 5 Cameron Norrie (TCU) def. No. 56 George Goldhoff (UT), 6-4, 6-1
2 No. 20 Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. Harrison Scott (UT), 4-6, 6-1, 7-5
3 Rodrigo Banzer (UT) vs. No. 62 Guillermo Nunez (TCU), 6-3, 6-7 (0), 5-4, susp.
4 Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Eduardo Nava (TCU), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
5 Jerry Lopez (TCU) def. Michael Riechmann (UT), 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
6 Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Trevor Johnson (TCU), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
It's getting later in the season, emotions are running high, there are things at stake with the conference tournament in positioning yourself, and NCAA seeding and the whole thing. So I told the guys before the match started that I'm really not looking to see how we play. What I want to see now is how we're competing and how resilient we can be, and I thought we were really resilient today. We competed really, really hard. So in that regard, I'm really proud of the team and proud of the effort. I think we're still improving, but we came up just a little bit short today. It was close all the way around, we just came up a little bit short.
Players Mentioned
