RICHARDSON, TX (03.29.19) - The UT Dallas men's tennis team was handed its first loss of the spring Friday afternoon as the Comets dropped their American Southwest Conference West Division opener to Concordia Texas, 5-4.

The Comets (6-1, 0-1 ASC West) will look to bounce back Saturday with a 4 p.m. home match against Mary Hardin-Baylor in another ASC West contest.

UTD opened doubles play with a 8-1 win at No. 2 as the tandem of Ashwin Vaithianathan and Haydn Steffes handled Concordndia's Hoanh Le and Jorge Garcia. However, the Tornados finished doubles action with a 2-1 lead after wins at No. 1 and No. 3.

Comet Giovanni Zamboni evened the dual at 2-2 with a 6-1, 6-2, win over CTX's Le at No. 2 singles. But the visiting Tornados regained the lead, 4-2 with ensuing wins at No. 3 and No. 1, respectively.

Jed De Luna then drew UTD within a single decision with a 6-2, 6-2, win over CTX's Ethan Espiritu at No.6 before Steffes evened the match, 4-4, with a three-set win over Adam Compton, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.

It then came down to the final two players left on the court to decide the match. At No. 5 singles, CTX's Evan Pena took the first set against Comet Eric Chen, 7-5, but Chen responded with a 7-6 win in the second, claiming a 7-5 victory in the tie-breaker, to force a match-deciding third set. Pena held off Chen, 6-4, to close the match.