Texas Tech Athletics
SMU
Red Raiders fall in close match to SMU
January 28, 2024 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES – Seniors Reed Collier and Olle Wallin won their singles matches at the top two courts, but the Texas Tech Red Raiders dropped a close contest to the SMU Mustangs, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at Marks Stadium in the consolation round of ITA Kickoff Weekend.
In doubles, Texas Tech (2-3) jumped out to an early lead when the Red Raider tandem of Reed Collier and Jonas Gundacker defeated Adam Neff and Trevor Svajda of SMU (5-2) by a score of 6-4 at court one. Then, the Mustangs evened things up after taking the match at court three.
It all came down to court two for the point as Tech's Sebastian Abboud and Piotr Pawlak were taking on Callaway Clark and Eric Hadigian. It was a back-and-forth match all the way through, but the Red Raiders would break and hold serve at 5-all to clinch the doubles point by a 7-5 score.
SMU got things going immediately in singles when the Mustangs won their matches on courts three and six for a 2-1 advantage. Over at the top court, No. 71 Olle Wallin was competing against Svajda. Wallin went down early in the first set, 3-1, but rallied back to win five of the next six games to earn a 6-4 first set win. Then, the Sweden native posted another 6-4 score in the second set to tie the match at 2-2.
The tie was short lived, however, when SMU got another point at court five. Down to the last two singles matches, Tech needed to win out in order to beat the Mustangs. At court two, No. 114-ranked Collier was locked in a battle with No. 88 Neff from the start as he won set one, 7-6 (5). The Mustang was able to even things up when he won, 6-2, in the second set. Needing this win, the senior Red Raider delivered. Collier was able to record his second ranked victory of ITA Kickoff Weekend with a 6-3 third set to tie the match at 3-all.
All eyes were on court four now as freshman Niksa Arsic and Liam Krall were going at it. The Serbia native fell in the first set by a 6-2 score, before holding Krall off in set two when he won the grueling tiebreaker, 7-6 (7). In the third and final set, Krall was able to take a 4-2 lead, but the freshman never backed down. Arsic battled Krall, saving multiple match points, but the Mustang pulled off the 6-4 third set to clinch the match for SMU.
Up next, the Red Raiders are back at home when they host UTRGV for a doubleheader on Friday, February 9 at 12 and 5 p.m.
RESULTS
Singles
1. #71 Olle Wallin (TTU) def. Trevor Svajda (SMU) 6-4, 6-4
2. #114 Reed Collier (TTU) def. #88 Adam Neff (SMU) 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-3
3. #98 Jerry Barton (SMU) def. Jonas Gundacker (TTU) 6-1, 6-3
4. Liam Krall (SMU) def. Niksa Arsic (TTU) 6-2, 6-7 (7-9), 6-4
5. Maks Silagy (SMU) def. Piotr Pawlak (TTU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
6. Louis Cloud (SMU) def. Takeyasu Sekiguchi (TTU) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
1. Reed Collier/Jonas Gundacker (TTU) def. Adam Neff/Trevor Svajda (SMU) 6-4
2. Sebastian Abboud/Piotr Pawlak (TTU) def. Callaway Clark/Eric Hadigian (SMU) 7-5
3. Huntley Allen/Maks Silagy (SMU) def. Takeyasu Sekiguchi/Olle Wallin (TTU) 6-3
Order of finish
Doubles (1, 3, 2); Singles (3, 6, 1, 5, 2, 4)
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,3,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
3,6,1,5,2,4
Players Mentioned
