Denton's No. 16 seed Aggies defeat Rice to advance to Round of 32, 4-2
History repeats itself.
Fried rice is on the menu again.
No. 16 seed Texas A&M men’s tennis used a strong singles effort to defeat the Rice Owls in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Tennis Center, 4-2.
For the second season in a row, Steven Denton’s Aggies hosted Rice to open the NCAA Tournament, and for the second season in a row, they sent the Owls packing.
“It wasn’t looking good for a while, obviously,” Denton said. “We had a battle on our hands. Sometimes, you have to win ugly. Sometimes, you’re fortunate to get through a match like today that you honestly didn’t deserve to win. We had to figure a way out of that match and advance to the next round.”
It wasn’t as easy as the 4-0 match last year, where the Ags made quick work of Rice, but a resilient A&M side still found a way to get it done against the familiar foe.
In three highly-contested doubles matches, the Aggies struggled to pull away despite leading on two courts late, ultimately conceding the doubles point to the visitors.
Tiago Pires and Alan Magadan on Court 3 and Ritesh Patil and Giulio Perego on Court 5 both fell 6-4 in their respective matches.
Being down early was nothing new for the Maroon & White. When these two teams met on March 11 in College Station, Rice got off to a hot start by taking the doubles point.
“We’ve been here before, losing the doubles point, but it’s just one point,” Togan Tokac said. “We knew we were better than them in singles.”
Two months ago, the Aggies responded by winning all six singles points to run away with a 6-1 victory.
Battle-tested and ready to respond, the hosts played like a top-16 team during singles and did their job.
Damien Salvestre was inserted into the lineup on Court 6 and provided the spark Denton was looking for from his team, winning in straight sets (6-0, 6-3).
“I originally had someone else in mind to play that position,” Denton said. “We had to make a split-second decision after the doubles point. I thought he had been playing well in practice and that he was the right choice to put him out there. Give credit to associate head coach Kevin O’Shea because he talked me into that. I trust my coaches and I’m happy they made that decision.”
The story of the day was Tokac coming back from a third-set deficit to win on Court 5 and clinch the win for the Aggies in an emotional match.
“I’m really happy I got to clinch today,” Tokac said. “I’m really proud of my team.”
Tokac battled back with an overflow of emotion, powered by his teammates and the 12th Man.
“I did it because of my teammates. They helped me a lot,” Tokac remarked. “I love playing in front of the 12th Man and my teammates.”
Surviving and advancing is the name of the game.
The Aggies will host Baylor tomorrow at 2 p.m. CT for a spot in the Sweet 16.