Men's Tennis Drops Lone Star Conference Opener

SAN ANTONIO — Despite the 5-2 score, the St. Mary's University Tennis team pushed #25 Midwestern State to the edge on Friday evening at Rohrbach Tennis Stadium.
 
"The guys pushed MSU to the limit so they should be proud of that," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "Winning the doubles point would have definitely put more pressure on MSU, however, the guys ran after every ball in singles and were a solid threat on the court and made it a tight match."
 
The Mustangs (7-7, 2-0 Lone Star Conference) won the doubles points via victories at line two and three, but the Rattlers (2-5, 0-1 Lone Star) duo of Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) and Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) upset the seventh-ranked team in the country of Luis Diaz and Stephen Slocombe, 6-3 on court one. 
 
MSU stretched the lead to 2-0 with a lopsided win at number two before senior Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) won 6-1, 6-2 on court four for the first Rattlers point.
 
Sophomore Aaron Ben Anton (Remseck, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany) also won in straight sets, though he needed a first-set tiebreak to do so on court five, winning 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. 
 
The other three singles matches all went the distance as junior Daniel Matheu Baldor (Madrid, Spain), senior Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) and Soler all dropped three-set matches. Both Soler and Faryniarz forced the third set by winning set two, while Baldor won set one before dropping the final pair.
 
The Rattlers host Lubbock Christian on Saturday at approximately 2 p.m. The Chaps dropped a 5-2 decision at Midwestern State on Wednesday in their Lone Star Conference opener.