No. 13 Men's Tennis outlasts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 5-2
AUSTIN, Texas -- No. 13 Texas seized a tightly-contested doubles point and fought a scrappy Texas A&M-Corpus Christi team to collect four singles victories, including an upset from Dimitar Kutrovsky, to earn a 5-2 victory over the 39th-ranked Islanders Wednesday evening at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center. "It was a great effort on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's part," said UT coach Michael Center. "They're underrated, and if they played the same schedule we played, they would be in the top 20. It looked like we were down and out, but Dimitar Kutrovsky came up with a great effort to clinch against a tough opponent like Andrey Kumantsov. It was an unbelievable effort...a really gutsy effort." Texas outlasted Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in doubles action and narrowly seized the doubles point. The Longhorns' 17th-ranked tandem of freshman Dimitar Kutrovsky (Sofia, Bulgaria) and Josh Zavala (Amarillo, Texas) scored an 8-5 victory at the first slot over the Islanders' Andrey Kumantsov and Dmitry Novikov to open the doubles session. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi picked up a victory at second doubles, but UT junior Luis Diaz Barriga (Cordoba, Mexico) and sophomore Jonah Kane-West (Free Union, Va.) topped Jose Zunino and Jose Ycaza in a tiebreak at third doubles to take the match and the doubles point for Texas. The Islanders evened the match at one point apiece when Zunino topped UT's Kane-West in straight sets at the sixth slot. UT freshman Rook Schellenberg (Dallas, Texas) pushed the Longhorns back on top with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Islanders' Joey Farias at the fifth slot. Texas pushed its lead to 3-1 when Diaz Barriga held off Dmitry Novikov by a 7-5 margin in the first set before dominating in the second set, 6-1, at third singles. The Islanders threatened the Longhorns' lead when Mikhail Pavlov dealt UT's Zavala a three-set defeat at the fourth slot, setting the stage for UT's Kutrovsky. Facing the Islanders' 31st-ranked Kumantsov, Kutrovsky dropped the first set but battled back to take the second set, 6-4. On serve at 4-3, Kutrovsky broke Kumantsov to assume a 5-3 lead, but Kumantsov broke back to pull within 5-4. Kutrovsky came up with one more timely break to pull the upset and clinch the match for the Longhorns. UT junior Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia) was engaged in a tight battle in the third set with Raul Morant-Rivas, but Morant-Rivas defaulted in the third set after the Longhorns clinched the match. Texas returns to action on Friday, April 13 when it heads to Stillwater, Okla., to take on 14th-ranked Oklahoma State. First serve is set for 2 p.m. Central. Singles - Order of Finish: 6, 5, 3, 4, 1, 2
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