Men's Tennis Falls Just Short in Marathon Match

LUBBOCK, Texas – In the Lone Star Conference opener, the St. Mary's Men's Tennis team dropped a marathon heart-breaker at Lubbock Christian, 4-3.
 
Each team won three singles matches, but the Chaparrals took the early lead winning the doubles point and were able to hold on.
 
"We had some game point opportunities in each loss," Director of Tennis Bill Macom said. "Had we converted, it's a different outcome. I think we played better overall than the last match, which is a good sign."
 
The Rattlers (5-2, 0-1 Lone Star) got dominant victories at ladder positions four and five as juniors Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) and Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) combined to drop only three games. Irdoja won 6-2, 6-0, while Llosa was victorious 6-1, 6-0.
 
After winning the tiebreaker in the first set, sophomore Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) stumbled in the second set before coming back to win the third and the match, 7-6 (3), 0-6, 6-2.
 
The match came down to #6 singles, where junior Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) jumped out to the early 6-0 lead in the first set, but Nikita Deev came back to win the next two sets, 6-3, 6-4.
 
The Rattlers get very little rest after a match that lasted five hours as they play at Midwestern State at 2 p.m.