No. 7 Men’s Tennis preview: No. 6 Texas A&M
When: Wed., March 31, 2021, 6 p.m. CT
Where: Texas Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Team Records: Texas (14-3, 0-0 Big 12), Texas A&M (13-4, 5-3 SEC)
TV: Longhorn Network (Tyler Denning, pxp; Jon Wiegand, analyst)
Broadcast Digital Link: hookem.at/MTN-Watch
(Due to the broadcast, there will be no court cam live stream)
Live Stats: hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Fan Information: hookem.at/Tennis-Fans
Updated Team Stats
Notes
-Texas A&M Series: Texas leads, 93-17-3
Texas leads the all-time series with Texas A&M, 93-17-3 with the two teams last facing each other in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, which was a 4-3 win for Texas in College Station. The last regular season meeting in Austin came in 2012 and was also a 4-3 win for the Longhorns. The teams met four times that year, splitting those meetings as they have the last 10 overall.
Last 10 Meetings
2016
May 15 – NCAA Tournament Second Round (College Station): W, 4-3
2013
May 11 – NCAA Second Round (College Station): L, 4-3
2012
April 27 – Big 12 Championships First Round (College Station): L, 4-2
April 14 – at Texas (Austin): W, 4-3
Feb. 18 – ITA National Indoor Championships (Charlottesville, Va.): W, 4-1
Feb. 10 – Texas Cup (in Corpus Christi): L, 4-3
2011
April 29 – Big 12 Championships Semifinals (Waco): L, 4-0
April 23 – at Texas A&M (College Station): L, 5-2
2010
May 2 – Big 12 Championships Finals (Austin): W, 4-3
April 21 – at Texas A&M (College Station): W, 7-0
Last Meeting
No. 18 Texas 4, No. 12 Texas A&M 3
Sun., May 15, 2016
Mitchell Tennis Center • College Station, Texas (NCAA Second Round)
Singles – Order of Finish: (5,2,3,4,6,1)
1. #68 George Goldhoff (UT) def. #18 Arthur Rinderknech (A&M), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5)
2. Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. #52 Shane Vinsant (A&M), 7-5, 6-1
3. Harrison Scott (UT) def. Jordi Arconada (A&M), 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
4. Harrison Adams (A&M) def. Rodrigo Banzer (UT), 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Michael Riechmann (UT) def. Jackson Withrow (A&M), 6-4, 6-4
6. Max Lunkin (A&M) def. Julian Zlobinsky (UT), 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,2,1)
1. #89 Aleksandre Bakshi/Jackson Withrow (A&M) def. George Goldhoff/Michael Riechmann (UT), 7-6 (3)
2. Adrian Ortiz/Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Harrison Adams/Shane Vinsant (A&M), 6-4
3. Max Lunkin/Arthur Rinderknech (A&M) def. John Mee/Harrison Scott (UT), 6-4
-Texas vs Texas A&M in 2021 tournament play
TCU Invitational
Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Noah Schachter (TAMU), 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
Barnaby Smith (TAMU) def. Chih Chi Huang (UT), 6-2, 6-3
Pierce Rollins (TAMU) def. Leighton Allen (UT), 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
Stefan Storch (TAMU) def. Nevin Arimilli (UT), 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
Pierce Rollins/Barnaby Smith (TAMU) def. Micah Braswell/Jacob Bullard (UT), 8-6
-Ranked No. 7
Texas is ranked No. 7 in the latest Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Rankings released March 30 by the ITA. It marks the 33rd-straight week the Longhorns have been ranked in the top 10 dating back to the beginning of the 2019 season.
-ITA Individual National Rankings (March 30)
Texas
Singles
No. 16 Micah Braswell
No. 23 Eliot Spizzirri
No. t-99 Siem Woldeab
Doubles
No. 12 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab
No. 57 Payton Holden/Siem Woldeab
Texas A&M
Singles
No. 2 Hady Habib
No. 5 Valentin Vacherot
No. 64 Juan Carlos Aguilar
No. 77 Noah Schachter
No. 78 Pierce Rollins
No. 85 Barnaby Smith
Doubles
No. 8 Juan Carlos Aguilar/Bjorn Thomson
-ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year
Sophomore Siem Woldeab was honored as the ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year in May after he posted a 21-10 overall record in singles, including 11-3 in dual matches, stepping into the starting lineup for a defending National Champion Texas team and playing mostly at No. 3. He registered a high singles ranking of 37 and a high doubles ranking of 11 during the year and collected eight wins over ranked opponents in singles, including four against the top 40, two in the top 17 and one over teammate Yuya Ito in the championship match of his first collegiate tournament at the Gamecock Fall Invitational. He then paired with Ito to win the doubles title at the same tournament, and later paired with Christian Sigsgaard to win the doubles title of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships. In dual match play, Woldeab clinched matches against No. 43 Tulane, Nebraska and Tulsa. In the first dual match of his career on the road at No. 1 Florida, he played No. 3 singles and downed No. 17 Duarte Vale in straight sets to secure the team’s first point in a 5-2 win. Woldeab won his last six singles matches of the season, including against opponents on two top-10 teams in No. 8 Stanford and No. 9 NC State. Woldeab has started this dual match season 3-6 in singles, including a straight sets win over No. 12 Duarte Vale of ninth-ranked Florida, while also leading No. 24 Adam Walton of Tennessee in an unfinished match and tied with No. 46 Adrian Boitan of Baylor in the third set of another. He has also posted a 8-5 doubles record, all with Eliot Spizzirri, that includes four top-15 wins with one over No. 3 Matej Vocel and Emile Hudd of Oklahoma State, two over No. 10 Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen of Baylor and one over No. 14 Rithvik Bollipalli/Jakub Wojcik of South Florida, along with coming up just short in a tiebreaker to No. 1 Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith of USC. However, Woldeab had missed the last three matches in singles and two of the last three in doubles due to injury. In his return against South Florida he came up just short in a third-set superbreaker against No. 69 Jakub Wojcik.
-Spizzirri Out of the Gate
So far in his early career as a Longhorn, sophomore Eliot Spizzirri has had an excellent start, registering a 30-9 singles record that includes an 22-6 mark in dual match play. In 2021, he is 11-5 in dual match singles play and clinched a 4-3 win for the team over No. 9 Florida by downing No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. He later helped Texas to a victory over No. 1 USC with a win over No. 19 Riley Smith. He has played No. 1 in his last six matches and is 3-3 in those with a win over No. 45 Chase Ferguson of South Florida. In his first collegiate dual match he opened with a win over No. 72 Andy Andrade at No. 1 Florida to help Texas to a win last year. He had joined the team in January and made an immediate impact, playing primarily the No. 4 spot in the lineup. In tournament play in this season, he recorded a 7-1 mark in singles. He claimed the co-championship of the top flight in singles and the championship of the top flight of doubles with Siem Woleab at the Bama Spring Shootout. He has an 28-16 overall career record in doubles to this point, including 11-6 this season in dual match play where he has combined with Siem Woldeab for four top-15 wins with one over No. 3 Matej Vocel and Emile Hudd of Oklahoma State, two over No. 10 Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen of Baylor and one over No. 14 Rithvik Bollipalli/Jakub Wojcik of South Florida, along with coming up just short in a tiebreaker to No. 1 Daniel Cukierman and Riley Smith of USC.
-And Here Comes Braswell
True freshman Micah Braswell posted a 12-1 singles record in his first action as a Longhorn this fall, on his way to winning the championship of the Lakes Tennis Invite and co-championships of the TCU Invite and the Big 6 Fall Invite. That included wins over players in the last rankings of last season: No. 48 Parker Wynn, No. 77 Luc Fomba, No. 87 Ilgiz Valiev, No. 104 Mason Beiler and No. 107 Charlie Broom. He followed that up with a 3-0 start to spring play at the Bama Spring Shootout to earn the co-championship with teammate Eliot Spizzirri, along with dual match wins against Louisiana, SMU and Liberty before dropping his first against No. 85 Andy Andrade of No. 9 Florida. Since then he has won 11 straight, including over No. 104 Stefan Dostanic in Texas’ victory over No. 1 USC, a clinch against No. 86 Henrik Korsgaard in a win at No. 26 Oklahoma State and over No. 54 Filip Malbasic to help down No. 15 Arizona. He also clinched Texas’ 4-3 win in its first dual road match of the season at Tulane. He’s now 29-2 overall in singles play, including 14-1 in dual matches, along with holding third-set leads when play stopped in two unfinished matches against No. 43 Sven Lah of Baylor. He’s also 20-7 overall in doubles with an 8-3 mark in dual matches, playing No. 3 in all but the match at No. 28 Oklahoma where he and Cleeve Harper combined for a 6-1 win.
-Harper Leading the Way
Sophomore Cleeve Harper has been one of the Longhorns’ most consistent leaders and so far in his sophomore season has put together a 17-8 overall singles record and an even more impressive 12-4 dual match singles mark, primarily at No. 4. Harper won his first four singles dual matches and nine of his first 10, which includes a victory over No. 79 Ryder Jackson to clinch the team’s match over then No. 1 USC at the ITA Indoors. To highlight his consistency, Harper has put together a matching 12-4 dual match record in doubles, including nine of the last 11. That stretch includes three different partners in Micah Braswell, Jacob Bullard and Chih Chi Huang. In those nine wins, no opponent has won more than three games in a match, and in fact, that has been the case in all 12 dual match doubles wins for Harper.
-Getting Back on Track
Junior Chih Chi Huang has been a regular in both the Longhorns’ singles and doubles lineups throughout his career. So far in 2021 dual match play, he has posted an 8-5 record, primarily at No. 5, but played the last three of the last four matches at No. 4. After winning his first three dual singles matches of the season and four of his first five, including over Ben Shelton of Florida, Huang fell in three straight, however he has since recovered for four wins in his last five matches and was key in Texas’ 4-3 win at No. 28 Oklahoma. Huang has also posted a winning record in dual match doubles play at 8-6 and has won his last four of his last five when paired with Cleeve Harper.
-First Clinch
Sophomore Evin McDonald came up with the most clutch performance of his early career to this point when he clinched the match at No. 28 Oklahoma with a gritty 7-6 (6), 5-7, 7-5 win at No. 5 singles. He has won four straight with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 victory at Rice, a third-set tiebreaker win against Arizona and a superbreaker win against South Florida. He is now 8-6 in dual match singles play for the season.
-Coming Up Clutch
So far this season Texas is 5-0 in matches decided in the final singles contest with 4-3 wins over No. 9 Florida and No. 15 Arizona in Austin, No. 1 USC at the ITA Indoor Nationals, and on the road at Tulane and No. 28 Oklahoma. The Longhorns are 2-3 in the doubles point in those matches, but picked up the clinching point in singles from five different players including Eliot Spizzirri against Florida, Cleeve Harper against USC, Micah Braswell at Tulane, Evin McDonald at Oklahoma and Nevin Arimilli against Arizona.
-Berque at the Helm
Bruce Berque is in his third season as the head coach at Texas having taken over midway through the 2019 season. From there, he has led the Longhorns to a 42-8 overall record that includes 14-3 so far this season, 13-3 in a season shortened by the pandemic last year, and 15-2 in 2019 en route to the guiding Texas to its first team National Championship. The Longhorns also earned the Big 12 regular season championship that year.
-Spizzirri – Three-time Big 12 Player of the Week
Eliot Spizzirri was been named Big 12 Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending March 28 after leading Texas to a decisive 6-1 win over No. 29 South Florida, including top-50 wins for him in both singles and doubles. It was Spizzirri’s third conference weekly honor of the season and of his career after he also earned the honor for the weeks that ended Jan. 24 and Feb. 28. It is also the fourth for the Longhorns this season after freshman Micah Braswell received it for the week ending March 7.
-Horns over Bulls
The Longhorns earned a 6-1 win over No. 29 South Florida on March 27. It was their sixth-straight win with four of those coming against ranked opponents. Texas used the doubles point and straight-set singles wins by junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 5, freshman No. 18 Micah Braswell at No. 3, and sophomores Cleeve Harper at No. 4, No. 32 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1 and Evin McDonald at No. 6 for the victory.
-Going the Distance
Texas bested No. 15 Arizona, 4-3, on March 19 in a hard-fought thriller that saw all six singles contests go to three sets. The Longhorns took the doubles point that had two matches finish at 7-5 and then added singles wins by freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 2, sophomore Evin McDonald at No. 5 and junior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6. In addition to all singles matches going three sets, two of those were decided by tiebreakers, including McDonald’s, and Arimilli clinched the match at 7-5 in his third set.
-4-0 On the Road
The Longhorns completed their four-match road stretch with a perfect record by downing Rice, 6-1, at the George R. Brown Tennis Center in Houston on March 12. Texas used the doubles point and five singles victories by sophomore Evin McDonald at No. 5, freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 2, sophomore Cleeve Harper at No. 3, sophomore No. 120 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, and junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 4 to take the victory.
-Braswell tabbed Big 12 Player of the Week
Micah Braswell was named Big 12 Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending March 7. It was the first conference weekly honor of Braswell’s career, giving it to the Longhorns for the second-straight week after sophomore Eliot Spizzirri received it last week. Spizzirri has earned it twice this season for a total of three for Texas players. Braswell helped lead Texas to two road win against ranked opponents as the Longhorns won non-conference matches at No. 26 Oklahoma State (4-1) and at No. 28 Oklahoma (4-3), including clinching the Oklahoma State match.
-Sweep in the Sooner State
Texas won a pair of non-conference matches against ranked Big 12 foes in the state of Oklahoma. First the Longhorns secured a 4-1 win at No. 26 Oklahoma State in Stillwater on March 5. Texas captured the doubles point, including a win at No. 1 by the sophomore duo of Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab over the No. 3 doubles pair in the country, and followed with singles wins by junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 5, sophomore Cleeve Harper at No. 4 and freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 3. Braswell clinched his second-straight match to finish the win.
The Longhorns followed that by fighting back for a 4-3 victory against No. 28 Oklahoma in Norman on March 7 to win the team’s third-straight road match and sweep its two matches in the state of Oklahoma. In tough, windy conditions with sophomore Siem Woldeab out of the lineup due to injury, the Longhorns used four singles wins by junior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6, sophomore Micah Braswell at No. 2, junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 4 and sophomore Evin McDonald at No. 5 for the win. For McDonald, it was his first clinch as a Longhorn.
-Spizzirri named Big 12 Player of the Week
Eliot Spizzirri was named Big 12 Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 28 after helping lead Texas to a 4-3 win at Tulane. It marked Spizzirri’s second conference weekly honor of the season and of his career after he also earned the honor for the week that ended Jan. 24 when he clinched a win over No. 9 Florida.
-Opening Strong on the Road at Tulane
Texas played its first true road dual match of the season and opened a four-match road stretch with a 4-3 over Tulane at City Park Tennis Center in New Orleans on Feb. 27. The Longhorns used a pair of 6-2 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to claim that point and followed with singles wins by junior Nevin Arimilli at No. 6, sophomore No. 120 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, and freshman No. 78 Micah Braswell at No. 3, who broke a 3-3 tie to clinch in three sets.
-Topping No. 1 at ITA Indoors
Texas made its third-straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships from Feb. 12-14, facing three top 10 teams and coming away with a 4-3 win over No. 1 USC on Feb. 13. The Longhorns overcame a 3-0 deficit to the Trojans with four singles wins, three of which went to three sets. The Horns almost pulled off an even more impressive comeback the next day against No. 10 Tennessee, having dropped the doubles point and all six first sets in singles, but came up just short, 4-2, with the clinching match going to 7-5 in the third set and leading 3-1 in the third set of the remaining match. In their opening match against No. 4 Baylor, the Longhorns fell, 4-0, but earned a win over the No. 10 doubles pair in the country and had leads in the ongoing sets of the three unfinished matches with the first sets of two of them going to the Bears in tiebreakers.
-Doubleheader Sweep Over UIW and Texas A&M-CC
Heading into the ITA Indoors, the Longhorns swept a doubleheader against UIW (6-1) and Texas A&M-Corpus Chrisiti (5-0) on Feb. 6. Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Cleeve Harper all earned two singles wins for the day, while Leighton Allen earned his first college singles win in dual match play against TAMCC.
-Split of Back-to-Back Versus No. 6 Baylor and Arizona State
In back-to-back matches on January 30-31, Texas lost a tight contest to No. 6 Baylor, 4-1, but rebounded the next day to defeat Arizona State, 4-3. The match against Baylor was closer than the score with the Bears winning the last match in three sets and the Longhorns leading and tied in the two remaining singles matches when play stopped, while the match against the Sun Devils was clinched at 4-1 before the teams played out the last two matches. Texas gave Baylor its first doubles point loss of the season and then used four singles wins over Arizona State.
-Three Straight Trips to ITA National Team Indoor Championships
Texas earned its third straight trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships by defeating Liberty (4-1) and No. 9 Florida (4-3) in the Austin ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 22-23. In a rollercoaster of a day against Florida that involved multiple weather delays and a late location change, the Longhorns persevered and topped the Gators on the strength of singles wins from Cleeve Harper, Chih Chi Huang, Siem Woldeab and finally Eliot Spizzirri over No. 8 Sam Riffice in three sets. The ITA Indoors will take place from February 12-14 in Champaign, Ill.
-Completing a Back-to-Back Sweep Against SMU
The Longhorns posted their second 7-0 sweep in as many days as they down SMU by that score at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 16. Texas didn’t drop a set to the Mustangs and only left one doubles match unfinished at 3-3.
-Season Opening Sweep Over Louisiana
Texas opened its 2021 dual match season with a 7-0 sweep of Louisiana at the Texas Tennis Center on Jan. 15. The Longhorns won all six singles matches on the day with four in straight sets and two that ended in third-set superbreakers. They also took two out of three doubles matches.
-Bama Spring Shootout
The Longhorns headed to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to open spring play in a tournament that was originally scheduled to host individual play between Texas, Alabama and Mississippi State. However, after Mississippi State withdrew, members of Texas and Alabama faced off with the Longhorns winning four out of five titles, including sweeping all 10 doubles matches played on the second day. All three singles champions for the Longhorns in Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell and Leighton Allen posted perfect 3-0 records.
Texas Singles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri, Micah Braswell (co)
Flight 3 – Leighton Allen
Texas Doubles Champions
Flight 1 – Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab
Flight 2 – Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper
-Defending National Champions (Still)
Without the NCAA Tournament being played last year, the Longhorns entered the season still as the defending National Champions. Juniors Chih Chi Huang and Nevin Arimilli and redshirt sophomore Cleeve Harper are the lone members remaining from the title team with an influx of new faces arriving since that time. Head coach Bruce Berque is in his third season after guiding Texas to its first team championship in school history.
-Simply the Best
This season Texas will be without two of its staples from the last four years that included a run to the program’s first team National Championship in Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard. Both players rank in the top 10 in all-time singles wins at Texas with Ito fifth (111) and Sigsgaard seventh (105) and would have been eligible to return, however Sigsgaard chose to begin his career in professional tennis, while Ito accepted a job opportunity in Japan.
Ito posted overall career marks of 111-34 (.766) in singles and 79-36 (.687) in doubles, including dual match records of 66-18 (.786) in singles and 48-27 (.640) in doubles. He was on pace to set the UT record for career singles victories had his final season not been cut short. His overall .766 career singles winning percentage is the best among the 22 players who have 90 victories or more. Ito was just the third three-time singles All-American (2017, ’19, ’20) in program history since separate singles and doubles honors began to be recognized in 1979. He finished in the top 10 of the ITA final singles rankings in both of the last two years at No. 8 in 2019 and No. 2 in 2020. He also paired with Christian Sigsgaard to rank as high as No. 4 in doubles in 2020.
Sigsgaard posted overall career marks of 105-41 (.719) in singles and 78-33 (.703) in doubles, including dual match records of 53-28 (.654) in singles and 51-21 (.708) in doubles. He departed Texas with three ITA All-America honors, earning them in singles in 2019 and 2020, and in doubles in 2019. He placed in the top 10 of the ITA final rankings in singles and doubles both of those years, finishing at No. 6 in singles in 2019 and 2020 and in doubles in 2019, along with No. 9 in doubles in 2020.
-Year Four at the Texas Tennis Center
Texas has begun its fourth season of play at the Texas Tennis Center and with an 9-1 mark in 2021 has compiled a 43-4 overall record, including a 9-0 mark in a shortened season in 2020 that featured wins against No. 8 Stanford, No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Florida State. The Longhorns finished 2019 with a 15-1 mark there, including wins over No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Baylor and No. 12 Columbia, along with three NCAA Tournament victories. The lone loss came to No. 15 USC. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.