The TCU men's tennis team notched a 5-2 win over the San Diego State University Aztecs in its first Mountain West Conference match of the season on Monday at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
TCU is ranked No. 74 nationally, and the win brought the team's record to 6-11 on the year and 1-0 in conference play. San Diego State's loss brought the Aztecs' record to 2-12 and 0-1 in conference play.
After suffering a loss at No. 33 Rice on Saturday, head coach David Roditi said he wanted to get ready for conference play.
"We just had a tough match on Saturday," Roditi said. "We had kind of a half-day [Sunday]. [We] come out, hit some balls and get ready to start conference [play]."
TCU did not win any of its doubles matches. On the No. 2 court, the Aztec pair of Tim Schulz van Endert and Javier Pulgar defeated Horned Frogs Zach Nicols and Slah Mbarek 8-1. On the No. 3 court, San Diego State's Andre Feliz and Shiva Sangwan defeated TCU's Paul Chappell and Cameron Nash 9-7. To close out doubles, San Diego State's Giovanni Vaglietti and Hunter Nicholas defeated TCU's 44th-ranked duo of Emanuel Brighiu and Christopher Price 8-7 (2) on the No. 1 court.
Roditi said he was very disappointed with how the team did in doubles play.
"That is the worst performance I have ever seen in doubles at [the No. 2 court]," he said. "We're going to make some changes there."
In singles play, the Horned Frogs took wins at the Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 courts. No. 74 Brighiu defeated Vaglietti 6-2, 7-5. Mbarek defeated Schulz ven Endert 6-4, 6-3.
On the No. 3 court, Pulgar defeated Nichols 7-6 (3), 6-3.
TCU's Soren Goritzka defeated Nicholas in three games 8212; 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The final two matches, on courts 4 and 6, ended with tiebreakers. On the No. 4 court, Price defeated Feliz 7-5, 7-6 (5). The match on court No. 6 ended with TCU's Daniel Sanchez defeating San Diego State's Juan Florez 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Roditi said it has been a struggle because the team has not won very much at home but that he was proud of the way the team played in singles. TCU is now 4-5 at home.
"I thought we showed a lot of character coming down from losing the doubles at home," Roditi said. "They came back and fought some first sets, and we got through it, and we got five wins in singles. That's great. I'm very proud of the guys. [They] showed character."
Up next
The team will be back in action at 11 a.m. Thursday in Colorado Springs for a conference match at the United States Air Force Academy. Live match updates can be found on gofrogs.com.
