Men's Tennis Almost Pulls off Upset Over #20 UT Tyler

SAN ANTONIO — Battling both the wind and a talented UT Tyler team, the St. Mary's University Men's Tennis team almost pulled off the upset over the #20 team in the country, falling 4-3 on Friday afternoon.
 
"Today we had a lot of positives," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "We played some of our best doubles of the season and did a much better job competing in singles. We are getting better each match, and I believe we can play at an even higher level the rest of the way."
 
Macom shook up the doubles pairings for Friday's match and it paid off. Freshman Louis Hein (Hamburg, Germany) and senior Nicolas Llosa (Lima, Peru) teamed up for the first time all year and got the Rattlers (2-7, 0-3 Lone Star Conference) started with a 6-4 win at line three.
 
Junior Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) and senior Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) also played together for the first time since 2022, winning 6-3 on court two to clinch the first point of the day.
 
Local seniors Jake Faryniarz (San Antonio) and Ryan Koth (Boerne) took to court one and improved to 1-1 on the year with their 6-4 victory over #32 Daniil Felker and Egor Shestakov.
 
The Patriots (12-4) won the first three singles matches in straight sets on courts six, five and two to take a 3-1 edge. 
 
On court three, all three sets were 6-2 as Irdoja won sets two and three to remain undefeated in league play.
 
Llosa knotted the team score at 3-3 with his come-from-behind 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory at number four.
 
The two number ones battled back-and-forth through three sets with #19 Bianchi eventually pulling off the 4-6, 6-5, 7-5 victory over Soler to give the Patriots the win.
 
St. Mary's hosts another Patriot opponent on Saturday, as DBU comes to town for a 2 p.m. first serve. DBU won at both Schreiner, 8-1 and faced Our Lady of the Lake on Friday.