Auburn falls in road match to No. 15 Texas A&M

Box Score
Auburn falls in road match to No. 15 Texas A&MAuburn falls in road match to No. 15 Texas A&M
David Gray/Auburn Tigers

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Men’s tennis dropped its road match on Thursday evening to No. 15 Texas A&M by a 5-2 score at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. Auburn claimed the doubles point and freshman Alex Frusina won a singles match at the No. 2 singles position in the team loss.

Will Nolan and Billy Blaydes started hot by winning each of their first three games against Theo Papamalamis and Togan Tokac at the No. 1 doubles position. Papamalamis and Tokac battled back to tighten the score to 5-4 before the Auburn pair won the next game to win 6-4. The win improved the duo’s dual match record to 12-2 this season. Texas A&M then claimed the match at the No. 3 doubles position to leave the doubles point to be decided on court two.

Alex Frusina and Joey Phillips went back-and-forth in their match with JC Roddick and Lathan Skrobarcek, which eventually went into a tiebreaker. Frusina and Phillips jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the breaker before claiming it to win the doubles point for the Tigers.

Texas A&M bounced back in singles, claiming straight set wins at the No. 3 and No. 4 singles positions to take the lead 2-1. All four remaining singles matches required three sets to be decided.

At the No. 2 singles position, JC Roddick of Texas A&M, who is ranked No. 45 in singles nationally, took an early lead over Frusina before claiming the first set 6-1. Frusina then won a crucial deciding point in a serve game to win the second set and force a third. In the decisive third set, Frusina claimed an early break and a 3-1 lead before Roddick closed the gap to 4-3. The Auburn freshman then won the next two games to win the match 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and tie the team score at two. 

Moments later, Luke Casper of Texas A&M completed a comeback after dropping the first set to Auburn’s Hamza Nasridinov 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead. The match was ultimately decided on court one, where Texas A&M freshman Theo Papamalamis defeated Nolan 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to clinch the win for the Aggies.

After the team win was clinched, Texas A&M also won the remaining match at the No. 6 singles position to make the final score 5-2.

Up next, the Tigers will stay in the state of Texas to face No. 4 Texas in Austin on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT. Live video and live scoring of the match will be available online at TexasLonghorns.com.

 

#15 Texas A&M 5, #32 Auburn 2

Singles Results:

  1. #38 Theo Papamalamis (TAMU) def. Will Nolan (AUB) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
  2. Alex Frusina (AUB) def. #45 JC Roddick (TAMU) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
  3. Alan Magadan (TAMU) def. Billy Blaydes (AUB) 6-2, 6-4
  4. Tiago Pires (TAMU) def. Joey Phillips (AUB) 7-5, 6-3
  5. Luke Cooper (TAMU) def. Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
  6. Togan Tokac (TAMU) def. Nicholas Heng (AUB) 6-0, 6-7, 6-4

Doubles Results:

  1. #13 Will Nolan/Billy Blaydes (AUB) def. #52 Theo Papamalamis/Togan Tokac (TAMU) 6-4
  2. Alex Frusina/Joey Phillips (AUB) def. JC Roddick/Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) 7-6
  3. Luke Casper/Giulio Perego (TAMU) def. Thomas Kennedy/Nicholas Heng (AUB) 6-3

 

Time of match: 3:25; Order of finish: Singles: 3,4,2,5,1,6; Doubles: 1,3,2