Box Score

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's tennis team opened their spring dual match season with a 6-1 win over the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers on Wednesday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
 
"It was a big win for the team," Vaqueros head coach Brett Bernstein said. "I think we put in the work and it really showed. The guys are believing in assistant coach Andres Quijada and I. We mixed some things around and I think it really showed in the results. We had lost the past two times against this team. I thought if we did a few things differently then we might get a different result and we did. It is a good feeling when you have a lot of pressure on you and it delivers."
 
The Vaqueros (1-0) got out to the early lead after picking up the doubles points. Sophomore Koby Jansen and freshman Yehonatan Kaufman got things started with a 6-3 victory over Melker Svard and Alex Drean on court one. After the Retrievers (0-1) evened things up with a win on court two, freshmen Cosme Jubera and Harry Wells clinched things with a 6-4 win on court three over Kevin Hsieh and Biyik Akinshemoyin.
 
UMBC answered with a win on court three but Kaufman gave UTRGV the lead with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Eliot Loubatie on court four. Johnstone quickly added another point for the Vaqueros after defeating Hsieh 6-3, 6-4 on court six.
 
Jansen put the match away for UTRGV as he defeated Melker Svard 6-3, 6-3 on court two. Jubera found himself down 1-5 in his first set against Eliot Loubatie on court four but rallied back to take the first set 7-6 and then closed it out with a 6-4 win in the second.
 
Junior Juan Cruz Soria closed things out with a victory over Justin Carter on court one. He won the first set 6-1 and then after dropping the second 3-6, Soria bounced back with a 6-3 win in the third.
 
"The guys are stoked," Bernstein said. "We had a couple of freshmen that really came up big in the doubles. Cosme was thrown right into the middle of the lineup and he comes up big after being down 5-1. I know they are stoked. It is a good feeling and you can see it coming off of them."
 
The Vaqueros return to action on Sunday when they head to Corpus Christi to face the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at 3 p.m. at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.
 
Complete Results:
 
Singles (3,5,6,2,4,1)
1. Juan Cruz Soria (UTRGV) def. Justin Carter (UMBC) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
2. Koby Jansen (UTRGV) def. Melker Svard (UMBC) 6-3, 6-3
3. Alex Drean (UMBC) def. Ethan Ammon (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-2
4. Cosme Jubera (UTRGV) def. Eliot Loubatie (UMBC) 7-6 (3), 6-4
5. Yehonatan Kaufman (UTRGV) def. Biyik Akinshemoyin (UMBC) 6-2, 6-2
6. Elliot Johnstone (UTRGV) def. Kevin Hsieh (UMBC) 6-3, 6-4
 
Doubles (1,2,3)
1. Koby Jansen/Yehonatan Kaufman (UTRGV) def. Melker Svard/Alex Drean (UMBC) 6-3
2. Justin Carter/Eliot Loubatie (UMBC) def. Juan Cruz Soria/Elliot Johnstone (UTRGV) 6-2
3. Cosme Jubera/Harry Wells (UTRGV) def. Kevin Hsieh/Biyik Akinshemoyin (UMBC) 6-4

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