The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Lamar
No. 18 Men's Tennis shuts out Lamar, 4-0 in NCAA First Round
05.13.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns advance to Saturday’s second round at No. 12 Texas A&M.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 18 Texas (18-11) seized a pair of doubles matches to win the doubles point and put away three straight-sets singles wins to finish off a 4-0 victory over No. 56 Lamar (17-5) Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Championships.
Texas advances to the second round of the NCAA Championships for a fourth straight year and improves to 51-33 all-time in the event. The Longhorns will take on host No. 12 Texas A&M on Saturday (1 p.m. CT) at A&M's Mitchell Tennis Center.
Texas needed only 25 minutes to win a pair of doubles matches and assume a 1-0 match lead. Sophomore Adrian Ortiz and redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky nailed down a 6-2 win over Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Nikita Lis at second doubles.
The Horns clinched the doubles session at the third slot, where sophomore John Mee and freshman Harrison Scott dealt Juuso Laitinen and Sebastian Santibanez a 6-2 defeat. The remaining contest at first doubles was suspended.
"I challenged the guys, and we really worked on our doubles," said 16th-year UT head coach Michael Center. "Lamar had good doubles pairs coming into this tournament, and a lot of people thought they could beat us in the doubles. We went after them and came out of the gate strong. We made them play a lot of balls, and we put a lot of their first serves in play. The guys took control, and I thought we had a great start."
Texas made short work of Lamar in the singles session and produced three singles wins to close out the 4-0 victory. Junior George Goldhoff finished off Lamar's Michael Feucht by a 6-4, 6-3 count at first singles, and senior Michael Riechmann staked Texas to a 3-0 lead with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Hoogenboezem at fifth singles.
The Longhorns clinched the match at second singles where Ortiz knocked off Lamar's Lis, 7-5, 6-2. The remaining courts were suspended given that Texas had clinched the team win.
ADDITIONAL POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
The guys won all six first sets (in singles), and we played better in some spots and put pressure on them (Lamar). We did a good job to finish the match. This was a good day against a Lamar team that had a great season. Lamar won a conference championship and beat a top-25 team in Rice. It was a great year for Lamar.
We're happy to keep going (to the second round). We don't know who we're playing tomorrow but we assume it will be Texas A&M. We've had a lot of great matches over the years and some tough matches over here (in College Station). I expect another tough match tomorrow. We've got a young group, but one thing they've been good at all year is being good competitors. We'll do that again tomorrow and do our best to compete well.
NCAA Championships First Round (Round of 64)
No. 18 Texas 4, No. 56 Lamar 0
Doubles – Order of Finish: 2, 3
1 George Goldhoff/Michael Riechmann (UT) vs. Michael Feucht/Benny Schweizer (LU), 4-4, suspended
2 Adrian Ortiz/Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Jeandre Hoogenboezem/Nikita Lis (LU), 6-2
3 John Mee/Harrison Scott (UT) def. Juuso Laitinen/Sebastian Santibanez (LU), 6-2
Singles – Order of Finish: 1, 5, 2
1 No. 68 George Goldhoff (UT) def. Michael Feucht (LU), 6-4, 6-3
2 Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Nikita Lis (LU), 7-5, 6-2,
3 Harrison Scott (UT) vs. Benny Schweizer (LU), 6-4, 5-2, susp.
4 Rodrigo Banzer (UT) vs. Sebastian Santibanez (LU), 6-3, 2-5, susp.
5 Michael Riechmann (UT) def. Jeandre Hoogenboezem (LU), 6-4, 6-4
6 Julian Zlobinsky (UT) vs. Juuso Laitinen (LU), 7-6 (3), 4-3, susp.
Players Mentioned
