RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis team was defeated 2-5 by the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Cardinals on Friday at the Orville I. Cox Tennis Center. 
 
The doubles matches were extremely competitive. UIW (6-5) took the first of three matches with a 6-3 win at No. 1. UTRGV (1-7) seniors Carlo Izurieta and Alberto Mello were relentless at No. 2, emphatically coming back from down 1-4 to take five straight games and win their match 6-4. 
 
Junior Chris Lawrance and freshman Sam Whitehead fought hard at No. 3 but dropped the match 5-7 and UIW took the 1-0 lead with the doubles point. 
 
The Cardinals clinched the match with straight set wins at No. 4, No. 6 and No. 5. 
 
Junior Misha Kvantaliani, senior Carlo Izurieta and junior George Hutchings battled on the top three courts.
 
Izurieta took the opening set of his No. 2 match with a score of 6-3. He found himself locked in another back-and-forth affair in the second set and took command late, winning three straight games to secure the win at 6-4 and put UTRGV on the board, trailing 1-5. 
 
Kvantaliani dropped the opening set of his No. 1 match after forcing a tiebreaker, then bounced back for a solid 6-1 second set win. The result had not been decided yet, so the match went to a full third set. Kvantaliani erased an early 0-1 deficit and earned a hard-fought 6-4 win. 
 
The No. 3 match between junior George Hutchings and UIW's Tomas Reche also needed a rubber match, but with the Cardinals victory secured, the final frame was a 10-point tiebreaker. Reche walked away with the 10-3 win. 
 
UTRGV's next match will be Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. at Oklahoma State. 
 
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