LAFAYETTE, La. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's tennis team is returning to the Louisiana Winter Classic to play a pair of matches Friday at the Cajun Courts. 
 
The Vaqueros (3-4) will take on the hosting Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (0-5) at 8:30 a.m. followed by a match against the North Alabama Lions (0-3) which will begin after 2 p.m. UTRGV is 0-13 all-time against the Ragin' Cajuns in a series that began in 2001. The last match between these squads was at the Cajun Courts in 2022, a contest won 6-1 by Louisiana. Friday's match will be the first meeting between UTRGV and North Alabama. 
 
"We're expecting good competition. We like going to this event because Louisiana head coach Luc Godin does a great job of getting good teams there. It'll be a good level for our guys to compete against," UTRGV head coach Nathan Robinson said. "We're looking forward to building the momentum we have coming off last week. We feel like our guys are in a good place mentally and physically to continue to take that next step." 
 
The Vaqueros are riding high after earning a massive win Sunday at home, defeating rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the first time in 14 years. Sophomore McAllen Memorial alum Agustin Salazar clinched the 4-3 victory, while junior Sam Whitehead and freshman Santiago Serrano picked up nice singles wins to aid the victory. Robinson was impressed by the young No. 2 doubles team of freshmen Paolo Bonaguro and Will Roberts. 
 
Robinson is pleased with the way his team is believing in their playing styles and implementing things worked on in practice in matches. Friday's doubleheader begins a five-week streak of road matches that will see the Vaqueros play away from the Orville Cox Tennis Center for nine consecutive matches. UTRGV wants to come out strong behind the momentum from Sunday's win to set the tone for the tough stretch upcoming. 
 
"Understanding our game style and trusting it, I think that's the biggest thing we saw against Corpus. While we didn't win every court, we were playing our game style," Robinson said. "Then it just comes down to execution. Execution is much easier to fix than trying to fix your game style. We saw it come through in a big way from our No. 2 doubles team, those are two guys that haven't practiced much together but have been working on our doubles strategies and mentalities. Our guys have done a really good job of buying into that and we're hoping to build on that throughout the rest of the year." 

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