SILVER CITY, N.M. — The St. Mary's Men's Tennis team continued the strong start to the road trip, winning 5-2 at Western New Mexico on Friday afternoon for its second-straight victory.
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"We got off to a difficult start trying to figure out the flight paths of our shots," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "But, fortunately, we were able to lock into a better shot selection. Ryan and Bernhard did a great job coming back after being down in their singles."
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The Mustangs (5-16, 1-7 Lone Star Conference) scored the first two points of the match, winning the doubles point and line three of singles, but the Rattlers (6-8, 3-4 Lone Star Conference) fought back to score the final five points of the day.
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Senior
Oskar Irdoja (Tallinn, Estonia) got the Rattlers on the scoreboard with his lopsided 6-0, 6-2 win at number two. Freshman
Leonardo Fabbri (Faenza, Italy) tied the match with a 6-0, 6-4 win on court five.
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Junior
Alvaro Soler (Alicante, Spain) gave the Rattlers the edge after his 6-4, 6-2 win on court one and for the first time this season, senior
Ryan Koth (Boerne, Texas) collected the clinching point. He dropped the first set 6-2, but battled back to win a second-set tiebreaker, 7-3 and got one break in the third set for the 6-4 win.
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Sophomore
Bernhard Hauer (Vienna, Austria) also dropped his first set, 6-3, but got a late break in the second set to win 7-5. In the third set, he broke serve to take a 6-5 lead and held in the next game for the 7-5 victory.
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StMU remains on the road for the final match of the regular season as they take on UT Permian Basin in Odessa on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Bush Tennis Stadium.
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