RICHARDSON, TX (04.12.19) - The UT Dallas men's tennis team improved to 11-1 on the spring after earning home wins over conference foe Sul Ross State, 9-0, and non-conference rival Austin College, 8-1, Friday at the UTD Tennis Courts.
With Friday's shutout of Sul Ross State, the Comets improved to 4-1 in American Southwest Conference West Division play and locked down at least the No. 2 seed from the division in 2019 ASC Championship Tournament, hosted by East Division champion LeTourneau, April 25-27 in Longview.
The Comets will wrap up the regular season Thursday, April 18, when they close out ASC play with a 3 p.m. home match with Howard Payne.
MATCH 1 - UTD 9, SRSU 0
The Comets posted their fifth consecutive victory as they took little time to secure a 9-0 home win over Friday afternoon.
UTD dropped a total of just five games to the Lobos in doubles action en route to a quick 3-0 lead. The Comets then added six straight-set victories over SRSU to complete the shutout.
Comets
Luis Navarro and
Mason Gillespie opened the match with an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles before the tandems of
Zach Tavallaee and
Jed De Luna (No. 2) and
Eric Chen and
Brandon Giordonelli (No. 1) both tacked on 8-2 victories.
Giovanni Zamboni, playing at No. 1 singles, lifted the Comets to a 4-0 lead after a 6-0, 6-0, win over SRSU's Kyle Ferguson, and De Luna seal the team victory with a 6-0, 6-0, win ov his own at No. 3 singles over Christopher Llamas.
Chen (No. 2, 6-0, 7-5), Mauro Tejada (No. 4, 6-0, 6-2), Gillespie (No. 5, 6-1, 6-0) and Navarro (No. 6, 6-1, 6-1) also added singles wins.
MATCH 2 - UTD 8, AC 1
The Comets extended their winning streak to six matches later on Friday with an 8-1 non-conference home win over Austin College.
UTD's lone setback of the match came at No. 1 doubles as top-flighted
Mario Jelev and Zamboni were edged by AC's Kenneth Hardy/Siddharth Kortikere, 8-5.
Ashwin Vaithianathan and Hayden Steffes earned an 8-5 win of their own at No. 2 while Giordonelli and Chen tacked a win by the same score at No. 3 to lift the Comets to a 2-1 advantage.
Chen quickly dispatched his opponent, Calum Robe, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 5 singles to give UTD a 3-1 lead while Zamboni added a 6-3, 6-1, win at No. 2 over Brett O'Brien to push the Comets cushion to 4-1.
Steffes sealed the squad's second win of the day with a 6-1, 6-3, win over Andres Padilla No. 4 singles. Jelev (No. 1, 6-4, 6-2), Vaithianathan (No. 3, 7-6, 6-4) and De Luna (No. 6, 4-6, 6-2, 10-7) added wins.
