Split Squad Wins All Three Matches on Saturday for Men's Tennis

SAN ANTONIO – In a rare split squad, the St. Mary's Men's Tennis team won a pair of matches in Memphis, Tennessee, while the team that stayed in San Antonio won a 5-2 exhibition against Hardin-Simmons.
 
The group on the road defeated Rhodes College 7-0 in the first match of the day and followed it up with a 7-0 shutout of Tennessee Southern to bring the season record to 8-0.
 
The Rattlers have won all eight matches either 6-1 or 7-0. 
 
On Saturday in Memphis, Niklas Knoerr (Tübingen, Germany) and Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) won both doubles matches at No. 1. Against Rhodes, Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) partnered with Pablo Munoz Baroja (San Sebastián, Spain) for the win at No. 3, while he and Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) won against UTS.
 
Director of Tennis Bill Macom shuffled the singles lineup and eight different Rattlers played during the doubleheader. Knoerr won the morning match at No. 2, 6-1, 6-0 and fought back to win a three-set thriller in the afternoon, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3. Irdoja shut out his opponent in the morning at No. 3 and lost only two games at No. 4 in the win over the Firehawks. Llosa blanked his Rhodes opponent at No. 4 and won 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5 and Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) won both matches at No. 6.
 
At Rohrbach Tennis Stadium, the Rattlers won 5-2 over the Cowboys. Hardin-Simmons won two of the three sets in doubles for the first point of the day, but the Rattlers won five of the six singles bouts to secure the victory.
 
Freshman Daniel Matheu Baldor (Madrid, Spain) won 6-2, 7-5 at #1, while sophomore Ryan Koth (Boerne, Texas) won 6-1, 7-6 at #2 and freshman Rafael Macedo (Brazil) won 6-1, 6-2 at #3. Freshman Mario Urdaneta (Houston) dropped only one game at No. 4, winning 6-0, 6-1 and Ian Freire (Guatemala) bounced back after dropping the first set 6-4 to win 6-3 and 1-0.
 
The Rattlers take two weeks off from competition, hosting Our Lady of the Lake on Friday, March 4 before the alumni match on March 5.