The TCU Horned Frogs dropped to 3-2 on the season after losing 5-2 during their home opener against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
TCU head coach Dave Borelli attributed the loss to having a slow start to the season.
“We just need to play more matches and continue to improve,” said Borelli. “We had 18 days off and that’s a long stretch to go without playing.”
The match started with Texas Tech clinching the doubles point. Juniors Emmanuel Brighiu and Christopher Price played in the No. 1 position. The pair fell in a tie breaker against Rafael Garcia and Raony Carvalho, 8-7(3).
Sophomore Slah Mbarek and freshman SÂren Goritzka lost at the No. 2 position to the 16th ranked doubles pair of Gonzalo Escobar and Andre Stabile, 8-3.
Juniors Cameron Nash and Zach Nichols got behind early in their match at No. 3 doubles against Vitor Manzini and Raphael Pfister. The TCU duos made a strong comeback late in the contest, but were edged out of the win in the end, losing 7-9.
Both ranked singles players of the Red Raiders posted wins in their matches. No. 41 Escobar defeated TCU’s Brighiu, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 2 singles and No. 63 Carvalho defeated TCU’s freshman Marius Cirstea, 6-0, 6-2.
Texas Tech also accomplished straight set wins at the Nos. 4 and 6 position singles. Stabile defeated TCU’s Goritzka at No. 4, 6-3, 7-6(1), and Pfister defeated TCU’s Price at No. 6, 6-1, 6-0.
The Horned Frogs two points came from the final two singles matches. Nichols posted a straight set victory over Manzini at No. 5, 6-3, 7-5. Mbarek gained momentum after losing his first set to Garcia at No. 5, and eventually won the super tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-4).
Coach Borelli said Texas Tech’s decisive win over the Frogs was easy to explain.
“They just played better than we did,” he said. “They are a good, grinding, slow-court team.”
TCU will have a chance to improve their record on Saturday at 1 p.m. when they face Wichita State.
