EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's tennis team outlasted the Laredo Community College Palominos to pick up the 4-3 victory on Thursday at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
 
The Vaqueros (10-12, 1-2 WAC) fell behind early as they lost the doubles point. The Palominos recorded wins on courts one and three to take it but that didn't stop the duo of freshman Andres Hernandez and sophomore Elliot Johnstone from picking up a 7-5 win over Osni Junior and Bruno Juarez on court two.
 
"It was a tough, tough match," Vaqueros head coach Brett Bernstein said. "Laredo Community College is a good team. I am a little disappointed in our doubles because we spent a lot of time on it and we will continue to work on it this week. Going into singles, we had a big hill to climb and we came up big on four matches."
 
In singles, Johnstone evened the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Victor Bravo on court four but the Palominos answered right back with a win on court two to regain the lead.
 
Sophomore Koby Jansen then tied it with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Matias Vargas on court three. Freshman Yehonatan Kaufman then gave UTRGV the lead with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Myrohn Miranda on court five but Laredo Community College got a win on court six to tie the match at three.
 
It all came down to court one where junior Juan Cruz Soria dropped his first set 3-6. In the second set, Soria battled through leg cramps and took the second set to the tiebreaker where he won 7-6 (6) to force a third set. The cramps didn't stop Soria as he went on to win the set 6-3 giving the Vaqueros the win.
 
"Juan at one was fighting off cramps in the third set and did a great job of holding serve," Bernstein said. "That was clutch on his part. We fought hard all the way through and it was a huge team effort. Elliot came up big. Koby came up big and Yehonatan came up big. There were big efforts from Ethan and Harry on their lines. I was happy that a lot of our preparation showed today so we will have to keep hitting on that as well."
 
The Vaqueros will be back in action on April 8 when they travel to Kansas City, Missouri for the final WAC cluster of the season to face Chicago State.
 
Complete Results:
Singles (4,2,3,5,6,1)
1. Juan Cruz Soria (UTRGV) def. Osni Junior (LCC) 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3
2. Gabriel Evans (LCC) def. Ethan Ammon (UTRGV) 6-4, 6-3
3. Koby Jansen (UTRGV) def. Matias Vargas (LCC) 6-2, 7-5
4. Elliot Johnstone (UTRGV) def. Victor Bravo (LCC) 6-2, 6-2
5. Yehonatan Kaufman (UTRGV) def. Myrohn Miranda (LCC) 7-5, 6-4
6. Bruno Juarez (LCC) def. Harry Wells (UTRGV) 7-6 (5), 6-4
 
Doubles (1,3,2)
1. Gabriel Evans/Matias Vargas (LCC) def. Juan Cruz Soria/Koby Jansen (UTRGV) 6-4
2. Andres Hernandez/Elliot Johnstone (UTRGV) def. Osni Junior/Bruno Juarez (LCC) 7-5
3. Chutian Wen/Myrohn Miranda (LCC) def. Yehonatan Kaufman/Ethan Ammon (UTRGV) 6-2

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