No. 18 Men’s tennis falls to No. 10 Texas A&M 4-3

Box Score
No. 18 Men’s tennis falls to No. 10 Texas A&M 4-3No. 18 Men’s tennis falls to No. 10 Texas A&M 4-3

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 18 Auburn men’s tennis was narrowly defeated by No. 10 Texas A&M 4-3 on Thursday afternoon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn won the doubles point and two singles matches from Alan Bojarski and Billy Blaydes in the loss.

Texas A&M claimed the doubles match at the No. 1 position, and Auburn won the match at the No. 3 position to set up a winner-take-all for the doubles point on court two.

The Auburn pair of Nicholas Heng and Alan Bojarski held serve throughout the match against Texas A&M’s Alex Frusina and Kholo Montsi, leading to a tiebreaker. The two sides continued to go back and forth in the tiebreaker until the Auburn duo won two consecutive points to take a 6-4 lead before ultimately winning 7-5 to claim the doubles point for the Tigers.

Texas A&M responded in singles, claiming the opening set on five courts. The Aggies converted one of those into a straight-set victory at the No. 6 position to quickly tie the match at 1-1.

At the No. 5 singles position, Auburn’s Alan Bojarski and Texas A&M’s Togan Tokac held serve in the opening set until it was tied at 4-4. Bojarski then earned a break before holding to love in the final game to claim a 6-4 win. The Auburn freshman won three consecutive games to open the second set and went on to win 6-4, 6-2 to give Auburn a 2-1 advantage. Bojarski is now 11-4 in singles this spring and 7-3 in conference play.

Frusina then defeated Heng 6-2, 6-4, and Texas A&M’s Theo Papamalamis downed Auburn’s Hamza Nasridinov 6-2, 6-3 to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead with two singles matches remaining.

At the No. 4 position, Texas A&M’s Markus Molder earned a late break on a deciding point over Auburn’s Freddy Blaydes to take a 5-4 lead in the opening set before claiming it 6-4. Molder then won each of the first five games of the second set before Blaydes battled back to narrow the deficit to 5-3. Molder ultimately won 6-4, 6-3 to clinch the team victory for the Aggies.

Auburn’s Billy Blaydes and Texas A&M’s Kholo Montsi had entered a third set at the No. 2 position when the team match was clinched. Montsi won the opening set 6-2, then Blaydes responded with a 6-2 win in the second set to force a decisive third. Blaydes jumped out to a 3-1 lead and went on to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The loss drops Auburn’s record to 15-7 overall and 5-6 in conference play.

The Tigers will host their final regular-season home match Saturday at noon CT against No. 2 Texas. Fans in attendance will receive free Auburn men’s tennis T-shirts while supplies last. Following the match, Auburn will honor manager Kate Rees, Billy Blaydes, Nicholas Heng and Thomas Kennedy during a Senior Day presentation on the court.

Live video and live scoring of both matches will be available at AuburnTigers.com. More fan information is available at AuburnTigers.com/MatchDay.

 

#10 Texas A&M 4, #18 Auburn 3

Singles Results:

  1. #19 Theo Papamalamis (TAMU) def. #26 Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) 6-2, 6-3
  2. #78 Billy Blaydes (AUB) def. #32 Kholo Montsi (TAMU) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
  3. #94 Alex Frusina (TAMU) def. Nicholas Heng (AUB) 6-2, 6-4
  4. Markus Molder (TAMU) def. Freddy Blaydes (AUB) 6-4, 6-3
  5. Alan Bojarski (AUB) def. Togan Tokac (TAMU) 6-4, 6-2
  6. Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) def. Manel Lazaro (AUB) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles Results:

  1. #12 Theo Papamalamis/Togan Tokac (TAMU) def. #10 Billy Blaydes/Freddy Blaydes (AUB) 6-3
  2. Nicholas Heng/Alan Bojarski (AUB) def. Alex Frusina/Kholo Montsi (TAMU) 7-6 (7-5)
  3. Jake Kennedy/Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) def. Markus Molder/Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) 6-3

 

Time of match: 3:11 Order of finish: Doubles: 1,3,2; Singles: 6,5,3,1,4,2 Official: Donna Jerome