Texas Border Business
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men’s tennis team defeated the St. Mary’s Rattlers 4-3 on Sunday at the Rohrbach Stadium Tennis Complex.
UTRGV (1-3) went up 1-0 by winning the first two doubles matches. Juniors Misha Kvantaliani and George Hutchings handily won their No. 1 match 6-2, then junior Chris Lawrance and freshman Sam Whitehead clinched the point by holding on for a 6-4 win in the No. 3 spot.
Seniors Carlo Izurieta and Alberto Mello came back from a 1-2 deficit to win their No. 2 match 6-4, sealing a doubles sweep for the Vaqueros.
St. Mary’s (0-1) tied the match at 1-1 after Mello had to retire down 4-1 in set one to Alvaro Soler in the singles No. 6 spot.
Hutchings never trailed his opponent and cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory in the No. 3 spot to put the Vaqueros back on top 2-1. Kvantaliani and Izurieta erased early deficits in their No. 1 and No. 2 matches, respectively, with strong finishes to give UTRGV a 4-1 lead and secure the victory. Izurieta bounced back from trailing 0-2 and 2-4 in the second set of his match to win at 7-5.
Whitehead responded well after dropping the opening set of his No. 4 match 0-6. He bounced back from trailing 2-5 to tie the second set at 5-5 before falling 7-5 to Oskar Irdoja.
Complete Results
Singles (6, 3, 2, 1, 4, 5)
1. Misha Kvantaliani (UTRGV) def. Chad Nguyen (StMU) 6-2, 6-4
2. Carlo Izurieta (UTRGV) def. Jake Faryniarz (StMU) 6-1, 7-5
3. George Hutchings (UTRGV) def. Niklas Knoerr (StMU) 6-2, 6-3
4. Oskar Irdoja (StMU) def. Sam Whitehead (UTRGV) 6-0, 7-5
5. Nicolas Llosa (StMU) def. Chris Lawrance (UTRGV) 7-5, 6-0
6. Alvaro Soler (StMU) def. Alberto Mello (UTRGV) 4-1
Doubles (1, 3, 2)
1. Misha Kvantaliani/George Hutchings (UTRGV) def. Niklas Knoerr/Nicolas Llosa (StMU) 6-2
2. Carlo Izurieta/Alberto Mello (UTRGV) def. Pablo Munoz Baroja/Jake Faryniarz (StMU) 6-4
3. Chris Lawrance/Sam Whitehead (UTRGV) def. Sebastian Azcui/Chad Nguyen 6-4
