The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oklahoma State
No. 1 Men’s Tennis clinches share of Big 12 regular-season title
04.12.2019 | Men's Tennis
With 4-3 win at No. 26 Oklahoma State, the Longhorns earned at least a share of their eighth regular-season championship in the Big 12.
Stillwater, Okla. – The No. 1 Texas Men's Tennis team cliched at least a share of its eighth Big 12 regular-season title by downing No. 26 Oklahoma State, 4-3, in Stillwater on Friday night. With the win, the Longhorns improved to 4-0 in the conference with one match remaining and 21-2 overall, which equals the team's best record through 23 matches since 2010.
"This was a big win to be able to clinch a share of the conference title," interim head coach Bruce Berque said. "Our guys have worked all year to put themselves in a position to be in contention, and now we want to see if can get one more win. We know how good of a team Oklahoma is so all of our focus will be on that match. Tonight, the match was extremely close, and we had some guys step including Leo at the end to beat a very tough Oklahoma State team."
The match went down to the wire as Oklahoma State came back to tie it after Texas led 3-1, but like he has so many times before, senior No. 73 Leonardo Telles secured the victory for the Longhorns with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 win over Mathieu Scaglia in third singles. In the opening set, Telles pushed out to a 3-1 lead and the players held serve to a 5-4 advantage for Telles before he broke Scaglia to take the set. The second set followed the exact same script up to the 5-4 lead for Telles, however this time, Scaglia held before then breaking Telles in taking the final three games. Like he had in both of the previous two sets, Telles broke on the opening game of the third set on his way to a 3-1 lead. Scaglia answered to even the set, 3-3, but Telles broke on a deuce point to take the lead, held to 5-3 and then broke again to take the match and win the title for Texas. Telles is now 13-2 in dual match singles play this season.
To get to that point, after the Longhorns dropped just their fifth doubles point of the season, junior No. 7 Yuya Ito did what he has done so many times before and got Texas out to a quick start in singles to even the match, 1-1. Ito downed Maxim Tybar, 6-1, 6-1, in second singles, running off five straight games in both sets after 1-1 ties. Ito leads the team with 21 dual match singles wins to only one loss with nine wins over ranked opponents.
Senior Colin Markes followed quickly behind Ito to give Texas a 2-1 lead with his 6-4, 6-1 win over Luke Hammond in fifth singles. In the first set, Markes found himself down 3-1 to start, but did not look back from there, rebounding with a 3-1 run of his own to tie it while also taking the last four games overall for the set. He continued his hot play in the second set with a quick 6-1 decision to improve to 14-2 in dual match play.
Senior No. 50 Harrison Scott was next to finish, posting a 6-4, 6-2 win over Emile Hudd at fourth singles to extend the Texas lead to 3-1. Scott moved out to leads of 4-1 in both sets, however Hudd was able to tie the first set, 4-4, before Scott took the last two games. In the second set though, Scott surrendered just one additional game to win 6-2, capturing a deuce point in the final game of the match.
It was then that Oklahoma State began to rally. Junior No. 8 Christian Sigsgaard fell to No. 76 Matej Vocel, 6-3, 7-5 in first singles. After Vocel took the final three games of the first set to break a 3-3 tie, he also took the first three games of the second set. Sigsgaard fought all the way back for a 5-4 lead, but lost two deuce-point games in a row to trail 6-5 before Vocel claimed the match. In dual match play, Sigsgaard has now faced 17 ranked opponents and is 10-5 with two unfinished.
The final two matches were three-set contests. Senior Rodrigo Banzer lost a closely-contested first set to Brady Draheim that was tied, 5-5 before Draheim took the last two games. The second set was all Banzer as he opened a 3-0 lead en route to a 6-1 win. The final set featured six deuce points in nine games, all but one of which Draheim won. He opened a 3-0 lead all on deuce points, but Banzer answered with a 3-0 run of his own to tie it. Draheim then took the lead back on serve, but once again came up with two deuce points to close the match, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, setting the stage for Telles.
Earlier in doubles, after Markes and Telles fell to Hudd and Vocel at the second position, 6-3, No. 5 Scott and Sigsgaard took their match, 7-5, over No. 29 Tybar and Scaglia in first doubles. Scott and Sigsgaard got out to a 4-1 lead, but Tybar and Scaglia responded with a 3-0 run to tie it, 4-4. From there, the match stayed on serve until Scott and Sigsgaard broke for the 7-5 win. That left the deciding match between Huang and Ito against Hammond and Dubinski. The match stayed on serve throughout, including two deuce-point wins for Ito and Huang, until the final game when Hammond and Draheim broke for the win.
The Longhorns finish the regular season with an opportunity to clinch the outright Big 12 championship at No. 21 Oklahoma on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
No. 1 Texas 4, No. 26 Oklahoma State 3
Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,4,1,6,3)
1. #76 Matej Vocel (OSU) def. #8 Christian Sigsgaard (UT), 6-3, 7-5
2. #7 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Maxim Tybar (OSU), 6-1, 6-1
3. #73 Leonardo Telles (UT) def. Mathieu Scaglia (OSU), 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
4. #50 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Emile Hudd (OSU), 6-4, 6-2
5. Colin Markes (UT) def. Luke Hammond (OSU), 6-4, 6-1
6. Brady Draheim (OSU) def. Rodrigo Banzer (UT), 7-5, 1-6, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,1,3)
1. #5 Christian Sigsgaard/Harrison Scott (UT) def. #29 Maxim Tybar/Mathieu Scaglia (OSU), 7-5
2. Emile Hudd/Matej Vocel (OSU) def. Leonardo Telles/Colin Markes (UT), 6-3
3. Luke Hammond/Brady Draheim (OSU) def. Chih Chi Huang/Yuya Ito (UT), 7-5
Players Mentioned
