The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
N.C. State
No. 3 Men’s Tennis earns 6-0 sweep over No. 35 N.C. State
03.10.2019 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns and Wolfpack played only singles to avoid weather on Sunday, and Texas moved to 14-1 this season.
Austin, Texas – The No. 3 Texas Men's Tennis team earned a 6-0 sweep over No. 35 N.C. State at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday. The teams played only singles due to weather concerns and with the win the Longhorns moved to 14-1 this season, including an 8-1 mark against teams currently ranked in the top 50.
"We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but I thought we rallied and fought hard," head coach Michael Center said. "N.C. State has a really good team, so it was a good victory, but I thought today we didn't do as good of a job emotionally as we needed to at the start. Then a couple of guys really picked it up and we got three points comfortably, but we were struggling to get that fourth point. Yuya did that for us and then we were able to close it out."
With the slow start, the Wolfpack got off to leads in a number of matches as junior No. 4 Christian Sigsgaard fell behind 3-0 in first singles against No. 25 Alexis Galarneau. However, Sigsgaard flipped a switch and rattled off 11 straight games to take the 6-3, 6-1 win and give Texas a 1-0 lead. It was Sigsgaard's sixth win over a ranked opponent since dual match play began and his 16th this year including tournament play.
Senior No. 49 Harrison Scott followed quickly behind Sigsgaard with his 6-4, 6-0 win over Yannai Barkai in fourth singles. Scott jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set on the strength of wins in two deuce point games before closing out the set, 6-4. He then made quick work of the second set to move to 9-3 in dual match singles play.
Senior Rodrigo Banzer returned to the lineup for just his second singles match in the past month. Banzer jumped right in and picked up a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Georgiy Malyshev in sixth singles. After being tied, 2-2, in the first, Banzer broke serve on a deuce point to take the lead before securing the last three games for the win. The second set followed the same script as Banzer broke a 2-2 tie and took the last four games to improve to 5-1 in dual match play.
Junior No. 9 Yuya Ito then clinched the team match with his 7-6 (6), 6-4 win over Igor Saveljic. Ito trailed 2-0 early in the first set before capturing the next three games for the lead. The match went back and forth until each player won a deuce point game at 5-5 to send it to a tiebreaker at 6-6. Ito twice claimed two-point leads in the breaker and each time Saveljic came back until taking a 6-5 lead himself. Ito responded with the last three points to win the tiebreaker and the set. In the second, Ito jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Savelic grabbed a pair of deuce point games to make it 3-2. The players then stayed on serve throughout with Ito earning his team-leading 13th dual match win to only one loss.
Each of the last two matches were comebacks as seniors Leonardo Telles in third singles and Colin Markes in fifth singles both dropped close first sets. Telles' went to a tiebreaker in that was even at 5-5 before Tadas Babelis picked up the last two points. However, Telles would respond in the second set by taking three straight games following a 2-2 tie for a 5-2 lead and resulting in a 6-3 win. They played a 10-point tiebreaker for the third set, which Telles secured quickly for the 6-7 (5), 6-3, 1-0 (2) victory. He is now 8-1 in dual match play this season.
Despite falling in the first set, 7-5, Markes responded in strong fashion to earn his 14th straight singles win with a 9-0 record in dual match play by downing Robert Turzak, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. Markes won the last five games of the second set and broke Turzak in a deuce point game at 3-2 in the third for a 4-2 lead, which he held for the 6-3 win.
This was the first of three matches in five days for the Longhorns who next host Rice on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. before facing off with No. 1 Ohio State on Thursday, also at 5:30 p.m. That match will be televised live on Longhorn Network.
No. 3 Texas 6, No. 35 N.C. State 0
Singles – Order of Finish (1,4,6,2,3,5)
1. #4 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) def. #25 Alexis Galarneau (NCSU), 6-3, 6-1
2. #9 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Igor Saveljic (NCSU) 7-6 (8-6), 6-4
3. Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Tadas Babelis (NCSU), 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 1-0 (10-2)
4. #49 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Yannai Barkai (NCSU), 6-4, 6-0
5. Colin Markes (UT) def. Robert Turzak (NCSU), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
6. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Georgiy Malyshev (NCSU), 6-2, 6-2
Players Mentioned
