Men’s tennis team sweeps UTA in opener

By John Weyand
Staff Reporter

When the men’s tennis team went to Arlington Monday, coach Joey Rive said the Frogs didn’t plan on messing around.

The nation’s No. 6-ranked Frogs went 7-0 in the season opener against Texas-Arlington without losing a single set.

“We really stuck it to them,” Rive said. “We came out here and took care of business today.”

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was postponed until Monday because of bad weather.

Despite the delay, Rive said the Frogs came into the match ready to play.

“Everybody was really well-prepared,” Rive said. “The whole team came through. We played the way we wanted to.”

Sarah Kirschberg/PHOTO EDITOR Senior Trace Fielding lines up a shot during Monday’s match against Texas-Arlington. The No. 6 Frogs won all seven points in the season-opening match, which had to be postponed Saturday and Sunday due to rain.

Senior Trace Fielding helped lead the Frogs by winning both of his matches. Fielding and sophomore doubles partner Jimmy Haney defeated juniors Per-Erik Karlsson and Tomasz Zarzeczny, 8-4. Fielding also defeated junior Andy Leber in singles play, UTA’s top-seeded player.

Fielding said he felt the Frogs performed well despite poor weather conditions and the absence of TCU’s No. 1-seeded player, Esteban Carril, due to injury.

“It was a great day,” Fielding said. “The wind made it tough, and we have some key injuries. But a lot of guys stepped up and did their jobs.”

Fielding also said the team couldn’t afford to get too confident about beating the Mavericks.

“You can’t take teams like (UTA) for granted,” Fielding said. “These guys beat us two years ago, so we had to make sure we were focused.”

The UTA men’s team has been champions of the Southland Conference the past two seasons.

UTA head coach Patric DuBois said there were several factors that hurt the Mavericks throughout the match.

“We gave up free points,” DuBois said. “We can’t do that if we expect to win against teams like (TCU).

“They got some good angles on us, and we didn’t make changes when we needed to make them. Overall, we just weren’t ready for them.”

DuBois said the Frogs’ play surpassed his expectations.

“They are better than I thought,” DuBois said. “I think when all of them are healthy, they have the ability to win nationally.”

Sophomore Antonio Gordon and junior Daniel Wajnberg, two of the team’s three nationally-ranked members, won as a pair in the doubles competition as well as their individual matches. Gordon and Wajnberg defeated freshman David Corrie and sophomore Alon Goldshuv before separating. Gordon went on to defeat Tomasz Zarzeczny (6-0, 6-1), while Wajnberg defeated junior Ola Bentzen (6-2, 6-3).

John Weyand
j.h.weyand@student.tcu.edu