The No. 8 Texas Tech men’s tennis team was handed a 4-2 defeat by No. 30 SMU during Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Second Round at the McLeod Tennis Center.
The Red Raiders (28-6) had their 14-match home winning streak come to a close and dropped to 3-1 in NCAA Tournament home matches. The start of the match was delayed four hours and 30 minutes due to rain. SMU (22-8) advances to face No. 9 Florida in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Friday
Texas Tech finished the 2016 season with a program single-season record 28 wins, the program’s first share of the Big 12 regular season title and the program’s first appearance in the Big 12 Tournament championship match.
“Definitely not the way we wanted to end our season,” Texas Tech head coach Brett Masi said. “It’s very disappointing. I’m at a loss for words right now. We didn’t play at the level we’ve played at all year. We broke down mentally in a lot of ways and weren’t there for the fight that SMU gave us. Give credit to them – they stepped up and took it to us. We just weren’t ready to counter them in a few spots. Credit to SMU and congratulations to them.”
SMU swiped the doubles point and the 1-0 advantage courtesy of victories on courts one and three. Hunter Johnson and Yates Johnson grabbed four of the first five games and never looked back in a 6-3 win over Alex Sendegeya and Bjorn Thomson at the top of the lineup. The Mustangs used a rally from Samm Butler and Ronald Slobodchikov, who claimed the final three games in a 7-5 decision versus Carlos DiLaura and Hugo Dojas in the No. 3 spot. When play was stopped, Tech’s Connor Curry and Felipe Soares just began a tiebreaker with Nate Lammons and Markus Kerner in the No. 2 hole.
The Mustangs extended their lead to 2-0 when Hunter Johnson upended Soares by a 6-4, 6-2 margin at the No. 1 position. SMU stretched its advantage to 3-0 courtesy of Samm Butler’s 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sendegeya on the No. 3 line.
Thomson put Texas Tech on the board with a tightly-contested 6-4, 6-4 victory against Yates Johnson from the No. 6 slot. Thomson secured the final two games in each of his sets to collect his team-leading 22nd dual match win of the season.
The Red Raiders trimmed the deficit to 3-2 as Jolan Cailleau battled to a hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 triumph versus Kerner on court four. He built a 4-0 edge in the deciding third set and ripped a forehand winner on match point to secure the clinching service break.
“When you’re getting beat down, I hope you can show some toughness,” Masi said. “Bjorn and Jolan have been tough all year. They’ve stayed out there the whole time and given us their all. Bjorn has had a great first season. You’re going to see a lot of great things from this kid for years to come. The future is bright which is a huge positive for our program.”
SMU answered with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 win from Lammons against Dojas at the No. 2 position to secure the 4-2 victory. Curry and Slobodchikov were on-serve in a 4-6, 6-2, 3-4 matchup in the No. 5 spot when the match was halted.
“Today obviously wasn’t our best,” Thomson said. “I just want to say thank you to the whole team for making me part of the family, and a thank you to my coaches. My first season was so much better than I expected it to be. We lost today, but we’ve made some memories this season. We’ve got to push forward from here.”
Next up for Texas Tech, Soares will compete in the NCAA Singles Championships. He’ll be joined by Dojas for the NCAA Doubles Championships which run from May 25-30 at the Case Tennis Center on the University of Tulsa campus.