LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley men's tennis team is set to face No. 2 UMKC in the second round of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the New Mexico State Tennis Complex for a spot in the championship match.
Last Time Out
UTRGV (5-20, 2-3 WAC) closed out their regular season with a 0-7 loss to New Mexico State back on April 9.
Koby Jansen and Clément Sarradin recorded a win in doubles as they defeated Enrique Asmar and Sergi Espias 6-4 on court three.
In singles, New Mexico State won on all six courts to clinch the win.
Elliot Johnstone took his match on court two against Luis Flores to three sets as he won 6-1 in the first before falling 2-6, 6-7 in the second and third.
Scouting UMKC
UMKC finished the regular season with a 12-8 record while going 3-2 in the conference play.
They wrapped up their season with four straight victories after defeating Chicago State, Creighton, Oral Roberts and Saint Louis.
Airam Castellano and Mike Psarros both earned All-WAC honors for their performance throughout the season. Castellano earned First Team All-WAC in singles play while also earning First Team All-WAC honors in doubles with Psarros.
Castellano leads UMKC with a 14-6 record in singles play and has won four straight matches while going 8-2 in his last 10. UMKC has three others with double-digit victories in Uldis Gaismins (10), Tom Kruse (11) and Psarros (10). As a team, UMKC is 65-51 in singles play this spring.
In doubles, UMKC is 29-25 in their matches as the team of Castellano and Psarros are the only duo to have posted double-digit wins with a 12-1 record. Gaismins and Amaury Navette have posted an 8-11 record while Kruse and Vinh Pham have posted a 6-4 record.
UMKC has only used seven different doubles combinations this year.
The All-Time Series
UTRGV is 3-2 against UMKC in a series that dates back to 2014.
The two teams faced off against each other earlier this year and it was UMKC who came away with the 4-3 win in Phoenix back on March 24.
The last time UTRGV defeated UMKC came back on March 29, 2015 when they picked up a 4-3 win at the Orville Cox Tennis Center.
Next Up
The winner of the second round match up will move on to the WAC Tournament championship match on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Support UTRGV Men's Tennis |
Become a Fan on Facebook |
Follow us on Twitter |
Follow us on Instagram |
Follow us on YouTube
