Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
Texas
Red Raiders win two singles matches, fall to No. 1 Texas
April 06, 2023 | Men's Tennis
LUBBOCK, Texas – Reed Collier and Lorenzo Esquici picked up comeback wins, but the No. 37 Texas Tech Red Raiders fell to the No. 1 Texas Longhorns on Thursday evening, 5-2, in a close loss at the McLeod Tennis Center.
The chilly evening contest between the Red Raiders (12-8, 0-2 Big 12) and the Longhorns (19-2, 3-0 Big 12) started with Texas capturing the doubles point with a 2-0 victory.
Court one showcased a top-100 matchup between Tech's No. 80 Dimitrios Azoidis and Collier against Texas' No. 3 pairing of Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri that ended with a Longhorn victory, 6-1.
At court three, Isaac Arevalo's and Olle Wallin's rally attempt came up just short against Texas' Chih Chi Huang and Evin McDonald as they dropped the match, 6-3, giving Texas the doubles point.
Court two featured No. 77 Piotr Pawlak and Franco Ribero taking on the Longhorns duo of Pierre-Yves Bailly and Siem Woldeab. The Red Raiders were up a break, 5-3, while leading 30-love before the match went unfinished due to the court three clinch.
Close and competitive games defined the evening in singles.
First, court one started off with Tech's No. 58 Wallin keeping it close throughout his match, but eventually falling to No. 1 Spizzirri, 6-3, 6-3. Ribero kept his match against No. 27 Bailly close through multiple comeback attempts, but ended up falling short at court two, 6-3, 6-3.
Court four showed off the biggest comeback of the day in a matchup between Collier and Harper. In their first set, Collier fell behind 1-4 before fighting back to win the set and capturing the Red Raiders' first point of the evening to best Harper in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5.
At court three, Arevalo won his first set off of No. 33 Woldeab, but eventually fell in three, 6-3, 2-6, 1-6, as Woldeab clinched the match for Texas.
At court six, both Azoidis and McDonald battled it out after playing three tiebreaker sets. The Red Raider won the first set, 7-6 (6), before falling to McDonald, 7-6 (5), in set two. The final set went into a 10-point breaker, where it was tight throughout, but Azoidis would drop the match, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 0-1 (7)
Court five was a fight through and through between Tech's Esquici and Texas' Nevin Arimilli. Arimilli won the first set before Esquici came back to force a third set after winning set two by a 6-4 score. Down 4-2 in set three, the Brazil native would come back to tie things up at 4-all, then won the next two games, to complete the comeback, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Up next, the Red Raiders host the No. 2 TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. for Senior Day in their last regular-season home match of the season.
RESULTS
Singles
1. #1 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #58 Olle Wallin (TTU) 6-3, 6-3
2. #27 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. Franco Ribero (TTU) 6-3, 6-3
3. #33 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Isaac Arevalo (TTU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
4. Reed Collier (TTU) def. Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 7-5
5. Lorenzo Esquici (TTU) def. Nevin Arimilli (UT) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
6. Evin McDonald (UT) def. Dimitrios Azoidis (TTU) 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 1-0 (10-7)
Doubles
1. #3 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #80 Dimitrios Azoidis/Reed Collier (TTU) 6-1
2. #77 Piotr Pawlak/Franco Ribero (TTU) vs. Pierre-Yves Bailly/Siem Woldeab (UT) 5-3, unfinished
3. Chih Chi Huang/Evin McDonald (UT) def. Isaac Arevalo/Olle Wallin (TTU) 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (1, 3); Singles (1, 2, 4, 3, 6, 5)
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,3
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,4,3,6,5
Players Mentioned
