Texas A&M tennis begins NCAA Tourney with two Saturday sweeps
It was a full day of domination at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Both Texas A&M’s men’s and women’s tennis teams swept their way through the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
On a busy day in Aggieland featuring top-15 doubleheaders for A&M baseball and softball on the diamond, a pair of national seed tennis teams made sure to handle their business on home court.
“It’s incredible the support we get from the 12th Man,” Lucciana Perez remarked. “Every time we play here, we come out and play for them. It’s so fun to play here in front of them.”
First, the No. 11-seeded men steamrolled Wagner in less than two hours.
The doubles point set the tone for the rest of the match, as Togan Tokac and Ethan Silva won 6-3 on Court 3 and Markus Molder and Lathan Skrobarcek won 6-3 on Court 5 to clinch it.
“It’s not easy that first match in the NCAA Tournament,” head coach Steve Denton said. “Our guys were pretty comfortably able to win the doubles point, and I think that gave them a bit of confidence.”
Building on that momentum, the Aggies won the first set on all six singles courts. Theo Papamalamis (6-0, 6-1) and Kriish Tyagi (6-2, 6-1) made quick work of their opponents to put the Aggies up 3-0.
All eyes turned to Court 2 as sophomore Alex Frusina ran through the first set 6-0 and battled in a dogfight in Set 2. Frusina pulled away late from Wagner’s Lukas Escher to win 7-5 and clinch the 4-0 sweep as A&M won its 12th consecutive Round of 64 match under Denton.
“I’m super honored to be the one who clinched the match today,” Frusina said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my teammates. They put up some great matches on the other courts to set me up in that spot. I had a couple points at the end that slipped away, but I was happy to bounce back pretty quick and get the job done.”
With Denton’s men taking care of business, the spotlight at Mitchell turned to Mark Weaver’s No. 4-seeded women as they looked to start off another NCAA Tournament run on the right foot.
Four returners from last year’s runner-up finish got the Aggies on the board in doubles, as Lexington Reed and Daria Smetannikov won 6-2 on Court 5 and Mia Kupres and Perez clinched it 6-2 on Court 1.
“It was a tricky start, we had a one-hour delay waiting on the men’s matches, so I felt a little bit of a funk to start doubles,” Weaver said. “But at the end of the day, we won the doubles point rather decisively.”
Moving on to singles, it was more of the same for the Maroon & White. Violeta Martinez won in straight sets (6-0, 6-0), and Reed won (6-1, 6-0) to put the Aggies up 3-0 in a hurry.
The SEC Player of the Year, Perez was poised to win in straight sets after winning the first set 6-0 and going up 3-0 in the second set, but she faced adversity from Quinnipiac’s Willow Renton. The visitor won four of the next six games with Perez struggling to close out the match, but A&M’s senior leader wouldn’t be denied.
“It was getting a little bit tough at the end to close it out,” Perez said. “But overall, on every court, we brought the intensity and focus we wanted to bring.”
Perez battled to close out the second set 6-4 and clinch the 4-0 sweep over Quinnipiac, capping off a day where broom sales soared in Aggieland.
Up next, the men’s team faces Stanford in the second round at 10 a.m. CT on Sunday as the Aggies look for their third consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.
Meanwhile, the women play either Baylor or Wisconsin in the second round at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday as they search for their sixth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.
