HARLINGEN, Texas – The men’s tennis teams put on a show today at the HEB Tennis Center, as two high-intense games came down to the wire. No.1 UT Arlington and No.2 Grand Canyon proved why they were the two highest seeds in the tournament as they conquered their opponents in today’s matches and look towards to the championship match.
 
No. 1 UT Arlington 4, No. 5 UTRGV 3
 
The Vaqueros gave UT Arlington a run for their money, as the team that went winless in conference forced the undefeated Mavericks to go all the way to the final match to determine the outcome of this game.
 
UTA got the early 1-0 lead by notching the pivotal doubles point. Meethre Barot and WAC Player of the Year, Joan Torres Espinosa, won doubles court number two 6-2 followed by Solano Caffarena and Pedro Sasso capturing the first court 6-4.
 
Barot quickly padded the Mavericks lead by winning singles court number five 6-0, 6-4, giving the team a 2-0 lead. That’s when UTRGV turned up the pressure, as they won the next three singles matches: Emilien Burnel on court one 6-3, 6-4, Paolo Bonaguro on court six 6-1, 6-4, and Agustin Salazar on court four 6-4, 6-3. UTA’s Caffarena was able to stop the bleeding for the Mavericks and captured a comeback win on court three 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 to tie the match at 3-3 and put everyone’s attention on UTA’s Dante Teramo and UTRGV’s Ivo Isqueiro on court two. Isqueiro made a valiant effort to try and finish the upset for the Vaqueros, but Teramo was able to stand strong and came out on top 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to send the Mavericks to the championship to defend their title.
 
No. 2 Grand Canyon 4, No. 3 Abilene Christian 2
 
Grand Canyon got their revenge from last year’s semifinals and took down Abilene Christian to punch their ticket to the championship.
 
The Lopes had to play from behind early on as the Wildcats claimed the doubles point thanks to Cesar Barranquero and Daniel Morozov on court one 6-4 and Merse Deli and Jose Maria Rastrojo on court three 6-3.
 
Jonathan Da Silva began the comeback for GCU as he claimed singles court five 6-1, 6-1. From there the Lopes picked off the singles courts one at a time as Alfred Almasi won court four 6-3, 6-4, Gerhard Sullwald won court two 6-3, 6-3, and David Wekesa finished it off with a 7-6 (10-8), 6-1 win on court three.
 
WAC Freshman of the Year, Martin Delnido, snagged the lone singles match win for Abilene Christian on court six 6-3, 6-2.
 
Championship Match
 
The #1 seed UT Arlington and #2 seed Grand Canyon will face off tomorrow at 9 AM CT to battle for the WAC Men’s Tennis Championship.