Corpus Christi, Texas- The UMBC men's tennis team rallied
from a 3-1 deficit to defeat No. 68 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi,
4-3, in hot, windy conditions on March 22.
Freshman Juan Miguel Aranzazu (Ibague,
Colombia) completed the comeback with a dramatic, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
victory over Nathan Robinson at No. 3 singles.
"Give credit to UMBC men's team, they flat-out out-fought us
today," said TAMUCC Director of Tennis Steve Moore. "Sometimes you
just have to credit the other team, because they were mentally
tougher than us today and they rose up and took it. Rob Hubbard is
a great coach, and his teams always fight extremely hard."
UMBC improved to 6-7 on the campaign, while the Islanders
fell to 7-9. TAMUCC had a 4-3 victory over nationally-ranked
Oklahoma State on March 3.
The hosts breezed through doubles competition, gaining the
point by taking all three matches. They took a 3-1 lead with
victories at the Nos. 1 and 4 singles positions, but freshman Kamal Patel
(Germantown, Md./Seneca Valley) did get UMBC on the board with a
6-1, 6-4 victory over Alex Pavlov at the No. 6 slot. Classmate Daniel Gray
(Bowie, Md./The Bullis School) shaved the deficit to 3-2 when he
defeated Fernando Llorens 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 4
position.
The Retrievers tied the match as senior Joe
Adewumi (Phoenix, Ariz.) came from a set down to edge
Gergo Weidinger, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 and prevailed when Aranzazu
outdueled Robinson.
UMBC completes the Texas swing at UT-Pan American on
Friday.
