RIO GRANDE VALLEY – On a day when The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis team was honoring its two seniors, it was a freshman who came through to send his teammates off with a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Higlanders in their final home match at the Orville Cox Tennis Center. 
 
UTRGV (3-10) freshman Sam Whitehead rallied from a 2-6 loss in the first set of his No. 5 match to win the second 6-1. He and Ashwin Kanetkar exchanged blows throughout an extremely competitive third set, which was heightened in its intensity by two other matches also in third sets and a team victory hanging in the balance. 
 
With the deciding set tied at 6-6, Whitehead hustled and fought to earn a 7-5 win in the tiebreaker, securing a victory for the Vaqueros on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. He fell to the court and was swarmed by his teammates – including senior Carlo Izurieta and junior Te Kani Williams, who quickly abandoned their courts to celebrate with the team. 
 
UTRGV picked up the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 1. The top duo of junior Misha Kvantaliani and Izurieta had a battle on their hands but came away with a solid win to clinch the point. 
 
The atmosphere throughout the match was electric, thanks in part to the women's teams from both schools cheering loudly in the stands, seemingly competing against each other for the second straight day. 
 
The Vaqueros fed off the energy, often letting out throaty roars and pumping their fists to the crowd after a big point and even waving their arms to get the crowd cheering louder. 
 
Kvantaliani looked unstoppable in his No. 1 singles bout, cruising to a dominant 6-0, 6-0 victory. Junior Chris Lawrance impressed at No. 6, also handily taking set one 6-0 then winning the second 6-4 to give UTRGV a 3-0 lead. 
 
Izurieta, Williams, senior Alberto Mello and Whitehead all had to fight back from first-set losses on courts 2-5. Izurieta came back from a 0-4 deficit but dropped his frame 7-5 to Amine El Kholti. Mello also pushed his match against Oscar Callo von Platen to extra games, but fell 5-7. Callo von Platen took the win to make the score 3-1. 
 
Whitehead, Williams and Izurieta won their second sets to force a third. Williams and Izurieta had leads in the deciding frames of the No. 3 and No. 2 matches, respectively, but both went unfinished once the victory was secured on court five. 
 
The high-energy, competitive match was just what UTRGV needed before opening Western Athletic Conference play this weekend. The Vaqueros will play New Mexico State at 9 a.m. Friday and Chicago State at 9 a.m. Saturday in their first WAC Cluster in Las Cruces, NM. 
 
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