Men’s Tennis: Texas Defeats TCU to Take Big 12 Championship Title
The Longhorns swept the Horned Frogs 4-0 on Sunday afternoon.
For the second year in a row, the TCU men’s tennis team met Texas in the championship match of the Big 12 tournament. However, unlike last year, the Horned Frogs did not get the win this time around. On Sunday, at the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Texas defeated TCU 4-0.
TCU lost the doubles point and was swept on Courts Three through Five in singles play. Sunday’s match was the seventh time the two schools faced each other in the last two seasons. Four of those were for either conference or national titles. In those seven duals, Texas now leads 4-3. Earlier this season, both teams won home matches.
"Texas was too good today," said head coach David Roditi. "They played better, they deserved it. Proud of our guys. We kept fighting until the end. They were just too good. They didn't let us in. We had some opportunities. There are some things there to learn. All the credit goes to Texas, their players, their staff, their coaches, everybody. Congratulations. Like I said yesterday, they're one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team on paper, and they showed it today. We get a couple weeks before we host the first round of the NCAA Tournament and it's time to get better, go back and learn from this, and come back even stronger for Nationals."
TCU finished the season 22-4, and Texas finished 22-3. In last week’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national rankings, TCU was ranked No. 3, and Texas was ranked No. 5. The new rankings will be released on Tuesday. Texas won the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament and should move ahead of TCU.
Both teams now await the NCAA postseason. Texas receives the Big 12’s automatic qualifier bid. TCU, though, should still be in a good position to be a high national seed. The NCAA Tournament selection show is on April 29 at 5:30 p.m. CT. The NCAA Regionals, played on campus sites, are May 4-5.
Doubles Play – Texas Won
The doubles point required all three courts to determine the winner. The new pairing of Jake Fearnley and Pedro Vives on Court One was the first to win, 6-3, over Elliot Spizziri and Siem Woldeab.
Texas would then win the next two sets. On Court Two, Pierre-Yves Bailly and Eshan Talluri defeated Duncan Chan and Lui Maxted 6-2. The Longhorns would clinch the doubles point on Court Three as Micah Braswell and Cleeve Harper defeated Jack Pinnington and Kaj Quirijins 6-2.
Singles Play – Texas 3 TCU 0
Texas won four of the six first sets on the singles courts. Three of those were on Courts Three through Five, and the Longhorns were able to get straight-set victories on those courts to get the sweep over TCU.
On Court Five, Woldeab defeated Chan 6-2, 6-2. Then, on Court Four, Pierre-Yves Bailly defeated Maxted 6-3, 6-4. Gilles-Arnaud Bailly would clinch the championship for Texas on Court Three with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Vives on Court Three.
Three courts were left unfinished after the championship was clinched. On Court One, No. 10 Pinnington won the first set over No. 1 Spizziri 6-2 and was down 5-7 in the second. On Court Two, No. 8 Fearnley forced a third set against No. 3 Micah Braswell after losing the first set 4-6 and winning the second set 6-2. He was down 1-2 in the third set. Finally, on Court Six, Tomas Jirousek won his
Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the Killer Frogs message board community today!
Follow KillerFrogs on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest TCU news! Follow KillerFrogs on Facebook and Instagram as well. Download the KillerFrogs app on Google Play or in the Apple App Store.