ABILENE –The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis team defeated the Seattle U Redhawks 4-3 in a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) match Friday at Abilene Christian's Eager Tennis Pavilion.   
 
UTRGV (5-14, 2-3 WAC) swept the doubles courts to lock up the early 1-0 lead. Junior Chris Lawrance worked quickly in his No. 6 match to take a dominant 6-1, 6-1 win. Senior Alberto Mello took a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the No. 5 flight to put the Vaqueros within one match of the team victory at 3-0. 
 
Seattle U (4-19, 0-5 WAC) trimmed its deficit to 3-2 with wins in the fourth and second flights.  
 
Junior Misha Kvantaliani clinched the victory for UTRGV with a hard-fought win in the No. 1 spot. He won a tightly contested first set 7-5, then dropped the second 3-6. Kvantaliani finished strong with a 6-2 win in the third. 
 
Junior George Hutchings was resilient in his No. 3 match. He bounced back well from a 4-6 loss in the first set to win the second 6-3. In the third frame, Hutchings and Seattle U's Veselin Kiselkov exchanged blows to a 6-6 tie, forcing a tiebreaker to decide the bout. Despite a good battle from Hutchings, Kiselkov held on for the 7-6 (7-3) win. 
 
UTRGV plays its final WAC regular season match on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against Grand Canyon back at the Eager Tennis Pavilion.  

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