Men's Tennis Comes Up Just Short Against Undefeated St. Thomas Aquinas

LAKE NONA, Fla. – In a game of inches, the St. Mary's Men's Tennis team almost handed St. Thomas Aquinas its first loss of the season, falling 4-3 on Thursday.
 
The Rattlers (8-5) came within a few points of the Spartans, which moves to 8-0 with the one-point victory.
 
StMU won one of the three doubles matches as juniors Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) and Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) won 6-4 at #2. The match at number one went back-and-forth before a late break of serve gave the Spartans the 7-5 win and the team point.
 
Four of the six singles matches went to the deciding third-set with STAC winning three of the four. The Rattlers saw both Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) at #4 (6-4, 6-0) and Llosa at #6 (7-5, 6-4) win in straight sets.
 
The lone three-set win for the Gold & Blue was by sophomore Daniel Matheu Baldor (Madrid, Spain) at the #3 position in a retirement. Baldor won 2-6, 7-5, 3-2 ret.
 
"Today was really just a difference of a few points," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "We could have had the doubles point and most of the singles matches. The guys are improving with each match this week, so hopefully we get our best tennis of this trip tomorrow against Palm Beach Atlantic."
 
The Rattlers take on the Sailfish at 11 a.m. in Satellite Beach to wrap up the four matches in five days swing through Florida. PBA is 0-10 on the season but has faced four teams ranked inside the top-15.