RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's tennis team defeated the Incarnate Word (UIW) Cardinals, 6-1, Monday in a Southland Conference (SLC) match at the Orville Cox Tennis Center to extend their winning streak to eight matches, the longest since 1987 when they won nine.
This is the first win over UIW for the UTRGV since March 2020. The Vaqueros (10-13, 4-0 SLC) have secured double-digit wins in a season for the first time since 2018, when they won 11 matches. They are tied with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at No. 1 in the conference standings.
The Vaqueros played with a lot of energy to win the doubles point. Sophomore
Ivo Isqueiro and freshman
Eduardo Menezes won their seventh match in a row, 6-2, in the third flight to get the session started. The first and second matches were tight as both went to tiebreakers. On Court 1, the team of sophomore
Santiago Serrano and freshman
Loic Young Kriegel scrapped for a 7-6 (7:1) win to clinch the doubles point. Redshirt junior
Sam Whitehead and sophomore
Paolo Bonaguro were up 1:0 in their tiebreaker but the match went unfinished.
Whitehead cruised in his No. 1 singles match to give the Vaqueros a 2-0 advantage. He was electric from start to finish, capping his Senior Day ceremony with a dominant victory.
Serrano extended the lead to 3-0 with a solid 6-2, 6-4 win on the third court. Then, sophomore
Will Roberts clinched the team win for the second match in a row with a 6-4, 6-1 win on Court 5, slamming down the final points with great pressure on the net.
The Cardinals (7-7, 1-2 SLC) got on the board with a win on Court 4 from
Rafael Candelas in a third set tiebreaker. UTRGV came right back to get wins from Isqueiro and Menezes in the second and sixth flights to create great momentum heading into a massive regular season finale Saturday at Corpus. The Vaqueros and Islanders face off at 2 p.m. in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
Results
Doubles (3, 1)
1.
Santiago Serrano/
Loic Young Kriegel (UTRGV) def. Alejandro Hernandez/Emilio Vila (UIW) 7-6 (7:1)
2.
Sam Whitehead/
Paolo Bonaguro (UTRGV) vs. Alexandre Chauvel/Marco Rodriguez (UIW) 6-6 (1:0), unfinished
3.
Ivo Isqueiro/
Eduardo Menezes (UTRGV) def. Marcel Miralles/Christian Cuellar (UIW) 6-2
Singles (1, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6)
1.
Sam Whitehead (UTRGV) def. Emilio Vila (UIW) 6-2, 6-0
2.
Ivo Isqueiro (UTRGV) def. Alejandro Hernandez (UIW) 6-4, 6-4
3.
Santiago Serrano (UTRGV) def. Marcel Miralles (UIW) 6-2, 6-4
4. Rafael Candelas (UIW) def.
Loic Young Kriegel (UTRGV) 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (10:5)
5.
Will Roberts (UTRGV) def. Alexandre Chauvel (UIW) 6-4, 6-1
6.
Eduardo Menezes (UTRGV) def. Mateo Galvan (UIW) 6-4, 6-3
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