CORPUS CHRISTI – There will be a South Texas Showdown for the ages when The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's (UTRGV) men's tennis team faces off with rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (AMCC) Saturday at 2 p.m. with the Southland Conference (SLC) regular season championship on the line at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center. 
 
The Vaqueros (10-13, 4-0 SLC) and Islanders (19-4, 4-0 SLC) are both riding hot streaks into the match. UTRGV has won eight in a row for its longest winning streak since 1987. Corpus has won 11 in a row with six of those wins coming via doubleheaders against Trinity, Texas Wesleyan and Howard Payne.
 
The pivotal match won't only determine the regular season champion, but will have a big impact on tournament seeding and South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union, points. Corpus currently leads the Showdown, 28-22, with four events worth 10 points left on the schedule. 
 
The men's tennis team is trying to become the first Vaqueros squad to claim a team championship since UTRGV joined the Southland. 
 
"We're feeling extremely confident. The guys know there's pressure and expectation, but there always is when we play Corpus. They're very excited and they really believe that they've earned this opportunity to play for a Southland championship," head coach Nathan Robinson said. 
 
These teams played a non-conference match almost two months ago. Corpus won, 4-3, in Edinburg. But a lot has changed for the Vaqueros, who flipped a seven-match losing streak into the current eight-match winning streak as the young group started putting things together. 
 
Robinson said the Vaqueros are far more confident in their playing styles and strategies now than they were through the first month of the season, when they were 2-7 after the early loss to Corpus. They've figured out how to battle through the tough days and the tight matches and find ways to win. 
 
The Vaqueros know it's going to take everything they have to capture their first conference title since 1965. UTRGV is 14-46 all-time against the Islanders in a series dating back to 1961. It has one win over Corpus in the last 15 years. 
 
But this is a very different team with a new culture and a genuine desire to win. The Vaqueros aren't taking the opportunity in front of them for granted, and they're going to leave it all on the courts as they fight for the massive victory. 
 
"The goal from day one has been a conference championship. Even when we lost seven in a row, that goal never stopped. In their brains, they always knew it was coming. It was just going to take time and patience and hard work," Robinson said. "For me and a guy like Sam Whitehead who has been through the full four years, it's going to be really cool just to even have this opportunity. There was a turnaround that needed to happen. A lot of change in expectations, a lot of change in culture. To be in this situation is very gratifying and it's something I think we can all be proud of in the Vaquero family." 

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