Live Stats

DALLAS – The University of Texas-Pan American Broncs men's tennis team is set to face off against the No. 67 Southern Methodist University Mustangs on Friday at 6 p.m. at the SMU Tennis Center.
 
After having their match against Lamar cancelled last week, the Broncs are playing their fourth straight match away from the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
 
Last Time Out
The Broncs dropped their neutral site match to the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles 2-5 at the Thompson Family Tennis Center, located on the campus of Lamar University.
 
The Broncs (2-5) grabbed the early advantage in doubles as Juan Cruz Soria and Nikola Crvelin defeated the duo of Alex Doleac and Brad Marriott 6-1 at the No. 2 position. The Broncs had their opportunities on courts one and three but the Golden Eagles (7-3) won both matches to clinch the doubles point.
 
In singles, Alvarez-Hevia got the Broncs on the board with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Mikhail Esipov at the No. 4 position.
 
Soria got another point for the Broncs after he defeated Tarun Surat 6-3, 4-6, 10-3 at the No. 2 position before the Golden Eagles closed out the match with a win on court three.
 
Back-to-Back Athletes of the Week
For the second week in a row, the Broncs had a student-athlete named Western Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week as sophomore Juan Cruz Soria earned the honors.
 
Soria picked up his second dual match singles victory of the season after defeating USM's Surat and it was his ninth win overall. Soria also picked up his third doubles victory after teaming up with Crvelin at the No. 2 position.
 
Freshman Koby Jansen earned athlete of the week honors last week for his performance against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Scouting the Mustangs
The No. 67 Mustangs enter their pair of matches on Friday with an 11-2 record. They are scheduled to face Sacramento State at 2 p.m. before facing the Broncs.
 
It is the second straight week that the Mustangs find themselves in the ITA rankings. The Mustangs are coming off of a pair of home victories last weekend after defeating Wisconsin and Incarnate Word.
 
Samm Butler leads the Mustangs with a 12-1 record while mainly playing at the No. 3 singles position, where he holds a 9-1 record. Butler has won eight straight matches.
 
Arkadijs Slobodkins has a 10-2 record while mainly playing at the No. 5 singles position, where he is has an 8-2 record during dual match play.
 
In doubles, the team of Slobodkins and Nate Lammons lead the Mustangs with a 7-0 record in dual match play while playing all their matches at the No. 1 position. Butler has teamed with Tony Russell to post a 6-1 record while playing in all three doubles positions but mainly playing in the No. 3 spot.
 
The Mustangs have not lost a doubles point all season long while posting a 21-3 doubles record.
 
The Series
The Broncs are 1-14 all-time against the Mustangs in a series that dates back to 1969. Both teams faced off last season as the Mustangs came away with the 6-1 victory in Dallas.
 
The Broncs picked up their only win against the Mustangs back in 1977.
 
Globetrotters
The Broncs have seven student-athletes representing six countries including, Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Mexico, Spain and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
Next Up
The Broncs next head to Abilene on Saturday to face the Abilene Christian Wildcats at 3:30 p.m. at the Eager Tennis Center.    

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