No. 22 Texas Tech Edges No. 15 Men’s Tennis, 4-3
No. 15 Texas (16-8, 2-3 Big 12) claimed the doubles point and added singles wins from Sudanwa Sitaram and Ben Chen, but No. 22 Texas Tech (15-7, 3-2 Big 12) emerged with a 4-3 win Saturday evening at Tech’s McLeod Tennis Center.
Texas opened the match by winning a hard-fought doubles point to take a 1-0 led. Tech’s 29th-ranked duo of Gonzalo Escobar and Raony Carvalho led off the doubles session with an 8-5 win over UT’s 30th-ranked tandem of Chris Camillone and David Holiner, but the Horns took the remaining two matches to take the doubles point. Jacoby Lewis and Soren Hess-Olesen posted an 8-4 win over Tech’s Gabriel Wanderley and Jeff Bryan at third doubles. The match at No. 2 featuring UT’s Ben Chen and Daniel Whitehead against Tech’s Rafael Garcia and Vitor Manzini progressed into a tiebreaker, where Texas prevailed, 7-5 to earn the doubles point.
Texas Tech evened the tally at one behind a 6-4, 6-4 win from the Red Raiders’ 73rd-ranked Carvalho over UT’s 69th-ranked Hess-Olesen at first singles. Texas reclaimed the lead at No. 3 singles, where Sitaram dealt Tech’s Garcia a 7-6, 6-2 defeat. Texas Tech evened the match at two after Francisco Zambon notched a 7-5, 6-2 win over UT’s Lloyd Glasspool at sixth singles.
At fifth singles, UT’s Chen dropped the first set to Tech’s Wanderley, 6-2. Trailing 3-1 in the second set, Chen took the next five games to win the set, 6-3 and force a third, where he prevailed, 6-3 to give Texas a 3-2 lead. However, Manzini rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Holiner at fourth singles to even the match at three.
The match’s outcome came down to the second singles slot, where Escobar took the opening set off of UT’s Whitehead, 6-3. Whitehead broke Escobar midway through the second set and prevailed, 6-4 to force the decisive third set, which progressed to a tiebreaker. Escobar claimed the tiebreaker, 8-6 to preserve the Red Raiders’ victory.
