March 10, 2010

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX-- The University of Texas-Pan American men's tennis program defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 4-3, Wednesday (March 10), at the Corpus Christi Country Club.

Once again, the Broncs captured the doubles point as the brothers Bernstein defeated Dmitry Novikov and James Langford, 8-4 at line one and at line two, Aswin Vijayaragavan and Nirvick Mohinta defeated Andrew Maingot and Duje Janjic, 8-4. Marcus Dornauf and Andrew Irving's match with Alex Pavlov and Robert Raguz at line three doubles went unfinished.

"The guys played outstanding doubles today. They are doing a great job of seeing the court, creating opportunities, and executing," said head coach Chris Taylor.

The Broncs opened up singles with a loss line four as Raguz defeated Dornauf 6-1, 6-1. Irving put the Broncs back on top, 2-1 at line five with the win over Janjic, 7-5, 7-5. Langford defeated Brett Bernstein at line two, 6-3, 7-5 evening the score at 2-2. Beau Bernstein defeated Pavlov, 7-5, 7-6 at line three, putting UTPA up 3-2. Novikov defeated Aswin Vijayaragavan at line one making it 3-3. The match came down to Mohinta for UTPA and Nathan Robinson to battle it out to see which school would win the match. After dropping the first set, 3-6, Mohinta came back and won the next two sets, 7-6, 7-5, to bring home the conference victory for the Broncs.

"We had all the momentum after doubles, but Corpus did a very good job of regrouping and coming out strong in the singles. Our guys knew that it was going to be a battle to the end and they stayed focus throughout," said Taylor.

"Nirv (Mohinta) was really up and down in his level of play today. But he did a great job of keeping his emotions steady throughout the ups and downs. It was his ability to manage the highs and lows of the match that saw him through to the win," added Taylor.

"I think we all played well. We've been working very hard over the past month, especially in doubles, and I think it is showing. Everyone was very motivated to get this win today," said Nirvick Mohinta. "I was struggling some today, but the guys really got behind me in the third set and that really motivated me to get the job done."

The Broncs return to action on March 20, as they travel to Thibodaux, Louisianna to take on Southland Conference foe, Nicholls State.