No. 20 Men's Tennis outlasts Arkansas on road, 4-3
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- No. 20 Texas overcame a late 3-1 deficit to top No. 45 Arkansas by a 4-3 count Sunday afternoon at the Dills Indoor Tennis Center. Texas improves to 2-0 on the season while dealing the Razorbacks their first loss of 2006. The Longhorns took a 1-0 lead after collecting victories at doubles positions two and three.Texas junior Hubert Chodkiewicz (Corpus Christi, Texas) and freshman Miguel Reyes Varela (Cuernavaca, Mexico) topped the Razorbacks' Austin King and Colin Mascall by an 8-2 margin at No. 3 before UT's 34th-ranked tandem of sophomore Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) and freshman Michael Venus (Orlando, Fla.) dealt Arkansas' Blake Strode and Adrians Zguns an 8-5 loss at No. 2 to secure the doubles point. Arkansas rebounded with singles wins at three of the top four positions to take a 3-1 lead. Arkansas' Adrians Zguns, once ranked in the ITA top 10, knocked off UT's 44th-ranked Helgeson at No. 1 by a 6-3, 6-4 margin. UA's 24th-ranked Matt Roberts set aside UT senior Callum Beale (Adelaide, Australia) by a 7-5, 6-4 count to give the Razorbacks the lead. Nineteenth-ranked freshman Blake Stroke topped UT sophomore Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia), 7-5, 6-3, to extend Arkansas' lead to 3-1. Texas quickly rebounded and evened the match at three points apiece before finally putting away the Razorbacks. UT senior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas) won his first set against Rohan Gajjar and took the ensuing second-set tiebreaker to win the match and close the deficit to 3-2. Likewise, Texas' Chodkiewicz captured his first set and held off Arkansas' Michael Jung in a second-set tiebreaker to even the match. UT's Venus rebounded from a first-set loss to Arkansas' Mascall to take the second set and force a third. One service break was all Venus needed, as he closed out Mascall in the final set, 6-4, to give Texas its second victory in as many matches. "This was a great college tennis match played with a lot of emotion," said UT coach Michael Center."We were fortunate to come out on top today. Arkansas is an underrated, top-15 caliber team that will have a chance to compete at Stanford (site of the NCAA Championships) later this season. Arkansas has a lot of leadership at the top of its lineup." Texas continues its season opening four-match road swing next weekend, Feb. 10 and 12 at Duke and Virginia. No. 20 Texas 4, No. 45 Arkansas 3 Singles - Order of Finish: 1, 2, 4, 3, 6, 5
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