Vaqueros dominate St. Mary’s University

_{UTRGV Men’s Tennis Team player Te Kani Williams prepares for a St. Mary’s University player to return the ball after his doubles partner Agustin Salazar served it across the net during today’s doubles match. UTRGV won all three doubles matches. AURORA ACEVEDO/THE RIDER PHOTOS}

The UTRGV Men’s Tennis Team defeated the St. Mary’s University Rattlers 6-1 at home today, sweeping the doubles competition, dominating the singles matches and bringing their record to 2-2 overall.

Junior Emilien Burnel and sophomore Sam Whitehead won the first flight against Rattlers Daniel Matheu Baldor and Alvaro Soler with a score of 6-2. Senior Christopher Lawrance and sophomore Karlo Krolo triumphed 6-3 over Ryan Koth and Jake Faryniarz in the second flight. In the third match, freshman Agustin Salazar and senior Te Kani Williams defeated St. Mary’s players Nicolas Llosa and Sebastian Azcui, 6-3.

Vaqueros Burnel, Krolo, Whitehead and Williams, Salazar and Rattlers junior Jake Faryniarz prevailed in their singles matches.

Asked for his thoughts on the game, Salazar said he thought he did not do well during the first half of his first set, but thought he brought it back.

“I managed to find a way to turn it around,” he said. “Second set, I played good. I’m just happy I was able to turn it around.”

Salazar won both his sets in the singles matchup 6-4 and 6-2 against Azcui. This was also Salazar’s first singles victory in his career.

_{UTRGV Men’s Tennis Team player Agustin Salazar serves across the court in a doubles game against St. Mary’s University today at the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center on the Edinburg campus. UTRGV won all three doubles matches.}

Asked about his doubles match with partner Williams against Rattlers Llosa and Azcui, Salazar said it was straightforward.

“Doubles, we won 6-3,” Salazar said. “Normal, just holding serve. We just broke once.”

Whitehead said he thought everyone came out into doubles flat.

“Once we got our energy going, all three courts played pretty well,” he said.

Whitehead won his singles match vs. Koth, 6-2 and 6-4.

“Coming into singles, we had some energy,” he said.

Whitehead said having a good start gave the others a good energy to finish their matches by winning five of their six singles.

“They don’t give you too many free points,” Whitehead said about the Rattlers. “So we had to earn it on all six courts and it was good. We were all able to do that.”

Asked if the competition went as expected, Salazar replied, “We were expected to win and we did.”

He said he was proud of the overall result.

Williams won his set 6-4 and 6-0 against Rattlers freshman Aaron Ben Anton.

Next up for UTRGV are two matches at Southern Methodist University against the University of Texas at Tyler and SMU on Saturday.

The next home game will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 27 at the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center in Edinburg.

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