Men fall to 9-9 with loss at SMU; face
Arkansas Sunday
By Quinten Boyd
Skiff Staff

The TCU men’s tennis team had been waiting for their re-match with Southern Methodist since dropping the first match in the season opener on Jan. 30.

Simon Lopez/SKIFF STAFF Freshman Chris Brandi and senior Daniel Wajnberg try to get something going for the TCU doubles team. TCU dropped the doubles point for the ninth straight time this season against SMU Wednesday. The Frogs are 4-9 when they lose the doubles point.

Apparently, the Mustangs had been waiting for the rematch as well.

On Wednesday in Dallas, SMU defeated the Frogs 6-1 in their match. The No. 25-ranked Frogs dropped to 9-9 on the season, and have lost five out of their past six matches. The No. 41-ranked Mustangs improved to 14-12.

The Frogs began their match in a familiar way, dropping the doubles point. The Frogs have lost nine consecutive matches when dropping the doubles point. TCU, which has lost a total of 13 doubles points this season, is 4-9 when dropping the doubles tally.

“I thought we played well in doubles,” head coach Joey Rive said. “We came close to pulling out the doubles point. We ended up falling just short today.”

The team only won one doubles match, as Jacob Martin and Alex Menichini defeated Ryan Mauck and Gwinyai Chingoka, 8-4.

Fabrizio Sestini and Daniel Scholten were involved in a heated match with Johan Brunstron and Eric Cohn, ranked No. 13 in the nation, before the Mustang duo pulled out the victory in a tiebreaker, 8-8 (10-8).

From there, the Mustangs won five out of six singles points to clinch the match.

Junior Toni Gordon notched the only point for the Frogs, defeating Brunstrom, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. The win is Gordon’s 20th on the year.

Scholten took Mauck to three sets in their match at six singles, but Mauck prevailed, 7-6, 1-6, 6-4.

“We can’t let a good team jump on us like that,” Rive said. “They jumped on us early in singles and they didn’t let up.”

Before the season finale against No. 18 Arkansas on Sunday, Rive admitted that his team needed to get stronger. The Razorbacks are 12-5 on the season, including an upset victory over then-No. 7 Kentucky.

“We keep getting stronger in matches, but we need to keep our intensity in matches like these,” Rive said. “With the conference championships and the NCAAs coming up, the season is just beginning.”

Quinten Boyd
q.m.boyd@student.tcu.edu

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002