The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Tulane
No. 10 Men’s Tennis rallies for thrilling 4-3 win over Tulane at NCAA Championships
05.13.2017 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns rally from 3-1 down, lock up fourth straight NCAA Championships round of 16 appearance.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 10 Texas (20-8) fought off multiple match points and rallied from a 3-1 deficit to post a thrilling 4-3 victory over No. 29 Tulane (19-6) Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Championships. Texas advances to the NCAA Championships round of 16 for a fourth consecutive year. The Longhorns will head to Athens, Georgia to take on either seventh-seeded Baylor or Cornell on Thursday, May 18 at 9 a.m. ET.
Tulane won matches at the second and first doubles positions to take the doubles point and a 1-0 lead. At second doubles, Tulane's Tyler Schick and Ewan Moore broke UT's Christian Sigsgaard and Julian Zlobinsky for a 4-1 lead and went on to post a 6-3 win.
Texas responded with a victory at third doubles. UT's Yuya Ito and Harrison Scott raced out to a 4-0 lead over Tulane's Constantin Schmitz and Luis Erlenbusch and held on for a 6-4 win. At first doubles, Tulane's Sebastian Rey and Chi-Shan Jao broke UT's George Goldhoff and Leonardo Telles for a 5-4 lead. The Tulane tandem served out the following game and won 6-4 to clinch the doubles point for the Green Wave.
Texas' Ito put the Horns on the board with his 6-4, 6-2 win over the 117th-ranked Rey at third singles. Tulane reclaimed the lead at 2-1 behind the 18th-ranked Schmitz' 6-4, 6-3 win over UT's 25th-ranked Sigsgaard at first singles.
Tulane extended its lead to 3-1 by way of Erlenbusch's 0-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) win over UT's Goldhoff at fourth singles. However, Texas stormed back and closed out the remaining three matches in once-improbable fashion to punch its ticket to the round of 16.
At second singles, UT's Scott split his first two sets with Tulane's Moore before overpowering Moore in the final set, 6-1 to pull Texas within 3-2. At fifth singles, UT's Telles rallied from 5-3 down in the third set with two service holds and a service break for a 6-5 third-set lead over Tulane's Schick. Tulane held serve in the ensuing to force a tiebreaker where Telles prevailed, 7-3 to even the team score at three points apiece.
At sixth singles, UT's Rodrigo Banzer dropped his first set to Tulane's Jao, 6-3. Trailing 5-3 in the second set, Banzer held serve, broke Jao and held serve once more to force a tiebreaker. Jao held two match points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but Banzer swept the ensuing four points to win the tiebreaker, 8-6 and force a third set. Banzer broke Jao at four-all in the third set and held serve in the next game to close out a 6-4 third-set win and send Texas to Georgia for the round of 16.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas Head Coach Michael Center
On today's match: I just kept telling myself, "Keep positive and keep helping these guys out as best you can." We were done. They had us. We saved five match points here at No. 6. They had us all over the place. They played an unbelievable match. They've got a great team, and we were really fortunate tonight. I think that shows how much fight these guys have to stay in there and give themselves a chance.
On the resiliency of the team: At this point, you just want to win and keep breathing. We're still alive. We're going to go out tonight and enjoy this as a team but starting tomorrow we can do better. We have to go on a mission to Athens. I still believe in this team a lot. We can beat anyone, but we've got to clean some things up.
On the momentum of the program: This team is good. This team belongs in Athens. This team deserves to be in Athens. I'm looking at it where we are right now. We've got a good, young team. If we have the right attitude and play well, we can compete with anyone.
On Rodrigo Banzer: No. 6 is really [Tulane's] best spot. I think that guy's lost maybe once or twice this whole year. He's a senior, and he's a really good player. I knew that was going to be a really challenging match coming into it. We saved five match points in that match. When [Banzer] got that second set, I looked into his eye and saw what was going on and thought, "I like this guy in this situation." He clinched against Ohio State and Florida. He's been in that spot a lot. I was really confident he could come through and he did.
Texas sophomore Leo Telles
On his emotions after today's win: It's definitely an unbelievable day. It's hard to put into words. The team effort, the fight, everything was just great today.
On if he knew the pressure was on coming down the stretch: I kind of did, but that's what I like about college. I knew that it came down to me and Banzer. I was down 5-3 in the third set. We were all tired today, but I knew he was tough today. I'm extremely happy with effort I put in today and the effort Banzer put in and the entire team.
On the resiliency of the team: You have to give a lot of credit to the other team. They put in so much work and made it extremely tough for us. I'm just very happy we came back. This is probably going to give us some momentum going into Athens, and we're definitely excited to play Baylor.
Texas sophomore Rodrigo Banzer
On what happened in the win: It was hard to explain because I was losing in the first or second set 5-4 or 5-3, I was serving and asked coach; "how are the other guys doing?" And he said; "we need all the matches." So basically, I started putting in more and more effort and putting more balls on the court and then I broke his serve. I won the tiebreaker, I don't know how. Then the third set he was more tired than me.
On moving on to the sweet sixteen: That's amazing. Last year we did the same thing but I couldn't be there in Tulsa, so for right now I'm pretty excited to go there and try to do our best in Athens.
On what it's like for the whole team to be watching his final match: I told them that was the best feeling in college tennis, it was like playing a Davis Cup match. I told them that when I'm playing the last match, that's when my best tennis is coming and I'm pretty good in those moments.
On experience winning the clinching point: I think that those experience before helped me a lot because when you're in those moments I feel pretty relaxed and pretty concentrated. That's an event for me so I feel like the experience gave me some advantage.
On the positivity of moving forward to Athens: I think that right now, that's something that we were expecting; to be in Athens. I think that we belong there. In our practices we're trying to do our best, try to fight a lot and try to do our best everyday to improve.
NCAA Championships Second Round (Round of 32)
No. 10 Texas 4, No. 29 Tulane 3
Doubles – Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
1 No. 70 Sebastian Rey/Chi-Shan Jao (Tulane) def. No. 76 George Goldhoff/Leonardo Telles (UT), 6-4
2 Tyler Schick/Ewan Moore (Tulane) def. Christian Sigsgaard/Julian Zlobinsky (UT), 6-3
3 Yuya Ito/Harrison Scott (UT) def. Constantin Schmitz/Luis Erlenbusch (Tulane), 6-4
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 6
1 No. 18 Constantin Schmitz (Tulane) def. No. 25 Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-4, 6-3
2 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Ewan Moore (Tulane), 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
3 No. 55 Yuya Ito (UT) def. No. 117 Sebastian Rey (Tulane), 6-4, 6-2
4 Luis Erlenbusch (Tulane) def. George Goldhoff (UT), 0-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4)
5 Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Tyler Schick (Tulane), 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (3)
6 Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Chi-Shan Jao (Tulane), 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
Players Mentioned
