March 21, 2010
EDINBURG, Texas - The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) men's tennis team traveled to Thibodaux, Louisiana this weekend to compete against Southland Conference foe Nicholls State at the Colonel Tennis Complex, where they fell 6-3 to the Colonels Sunday morning.
In doubles action the Broncs led the Colonels 2-1. Brothers Beau Bernstein and Brett Bernstein defeated Radu Ionescu and Vlad Popa 8-5, meanwhile Aswin Vijayaragavan and Southland Conference Player of the Week Nirvick Mohinta topped Phenyo Matong and Dmitry Kozionov 8-4. Partners Andrew Irving and Marcus Dornauf dropped a close set 7-8 to Nicholls' Eric Fisher and Roy Knight.
On the singles front, Vijayaragavan notched the only victory for the Broncs over Radu Ionescu 6-1, 3-6 and 6-3.
"That's a disappointing loss. I feel we were the better team out there, but small mistakes here and there in the singles really started to add up and we let things slip away. We'll hit the courts this week in practice with the aim of fixing those mistakes and we look forward to seeing that team again in the conference tournament," head coach Chris Taylor said.
However, the Broncs turned things around Sunday afternoon with a 6-1 victory over Xavier in a neutral site match at Nicholls State.
UTPA dominated the doubles with the brothers Bernstein defeating Steffen-Giles Osborn and Hassan Abbas 8-5, Vijayaragavan and Mohinta topping Sean Richardson and Cameron Knowles 8-4 and Dornauf and Irving over Mario Myles and Mikhail Vaval 9-7.
The Broncs also collected five singles wins against Xavier with Vijayaragavan over Giles-Osborn 6-2, 6-3, Brett Bernstein defeating Abbas 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (11-9) and Beau Bernstein topping Knowles twice 6-1. Also notching victories for UTPA were Dornauf with a 7-5, 6-2 sweep of Myles and Irving toppling Vaval 6-3, 6-4.
"After a tough loss to Nicholls, I'm happy with how the guys rebounded in the afternoon. I wouldn't say we're playing our best tennis right now. But the guys came out strong in the doubles, and did a great job of keeping the momentum through the singles," Taylor said.
The Broncs will be back in action Monday, March 22 when they take on New Orleans.
UTPA Athletics Media Relations
