Men's Tennis Doubles Teams Take Down Pair of Top-Five Foes

TYLER, Texas — In only their third match of the season, the St. Mary's University Men's Tennis doubles teams pulled off upsets over the third- and fourth-ranked teams in the nation in a 4-3 loss to #23 Ouachita Baptist.
 
"The guys made a great improvement today in doubles," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "They put in a high percentage of shots to beat the number three and four ranked teams in the nation. We just came up a little short in singles, but we were so even throughout the match. We now have a strong idea of the level at which we can compete."
 
Senior Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) and junior Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) got things going for the Rattlers (1-2) with a 6-2 win on court one over the fourth-ranked team of Alex Blanchar and Phil Exner. Seniors Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) and Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) rolled that momentum into a 6-3 win over third-ranked Fernando Docters and Ramon Strassman on court two for the first point of the afternoon.
 
The Tigers (4-2) won four of the six singles matches to pull out the victory. The two Rattlers wins came on courts four and five. On four, Faryniarz improved to 3-0 on the year, using a pair of tiebreak sets to stay undefeated. He allowed only one point in the first tiebreaker, 7-6 (1) and pulled off the 7-6 (5) win in the second set. At No. 5, junior Daniel Matheu Baldor (Madrid, Spain) won 6-4, 6-2 in his first singles match of the spring.
 
The Rattlers return home to host Our Lady of the Lake on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 2 p.m.