ARLINGTON – The University of Texas-Pan American Broncs men's tennis team is set to face off against the No. 63 University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks on Thursday at the UTA Tennis Center.
 
After facing the ranked Cowboys on Wednesday, the Broncs face their second straight ranked opponent in the Mavericks. The Broncs will also face No. 22 St. Edwards on Saturday and No. 8 Texas on Sunday.
 
Last Time Out
The Broncs fell to the No. 31 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys 0-4 in a neutral site match.
 
The Cowboys (14-3) jumped out in front of the Broncs (3-7) as they clinched the doubles point with wins on court one and two.
 
In singles, the Broncs continued to battle but the Cowboys controlled the rest of the way. Sophomore Juan Cruz Soria fell to Jakob Sude 1-6, 2-6 at No. 1 singles. Freshman Koby Jansen dropped his match to Lukas Finzelberg 4-6, 1-6 at No. 3 singles and then junior Hector Ramirez fell at No. 2 singles 5-7, 3-6 to Arjun Kadhe to clinch the match. The rest of the matches went unfinished once the match was clinched.
 
Back-to-Back Athletes of the Week
Juan Cruz Soria and Koby Jansen have earned Western Athletic Conference Athletes of the Week this season. They did so in back-to-back weeks.
 
Soria earned his second career athlete of the week honor after defeating Southern Mississippi's Tarun Surat for his ninth win overall. Soria also picked up his third doubles victory after teaming up with Nikola Crvelin at the No. 2 position.
 
Freshman Koby Jansen earned his athlete of the week honor last week for his performance against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He defeated Ricardo Mayagoitia 4-6, 6-4, 10-2 at the No. 4 singles spot.
 
Scouting the Mavericks
The Mavericks are currently ranked 63^rd in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. They enter Thursday's match with the Broncs with an 8-4 record. They are currently on a two-match win streak after defeating Penn and New Mexico State.
 
Carlos Arbiza, Daniel Armengol and Johnathan Gonzalez each have posted seven singles victories in the dual match season for the Mavericks.
 
Arbiza has mainly played at the No. 5 singles spot while posting a 5-1 record in that position. He also has wins at the No. 3 and 6 spots. He has won five straight matches.
 
Armengol has picked up six of his seven victories at the No. 3 spot and has won six straight matches. Gonzalez has a 2-1 record at the No. 2 spot, 1-0 record at the No. 3 spot and a 4-0 record at the No. 4 spot.
 
In doubles, the team of Gonzalez and Sebastian Erimicioiu has posted a 3-2 on the season. Arbiza and Armengol have a 2-2 record in doubles matches while Arbiza has also teamed with Gonzalez for a 2-0 record. The Mavericks have used 14 different doubles teams while posting a doubles record of 9-19.
 
The Series
The Broncs are 7-21 all-time against the Mavericks in a series that dates back to 1983. These two teams faced off against each other last season with the Mavericks coming away with the 6-1 victory.
 
The last time the Broncs defeated the Mavericks was in 1993.
 
Globetrotters
The Broncs have seven student-athletes representing six countries including, Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Mexico, Spain and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
Next Up
The Broncs are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Austin to face No. 22 St. Edwards at 11 a.m.

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