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Tennis
team extends winning streak to four The TCU men’s tennis team extended its winning streak to four matches by defeating No. 71 Santa Clara 4-1 at the indoor courts at Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center Wednesday. The TCU doubles teams swept the Broncos after losing all three of its matches to No. 30-ranked California Tuesday. Senior Trace Fielding and sophomore Jimmy Haney defeated Michael Bruggemann and Ryan Livesay, 8-4. Seniors Scott Eddins and Sebastian Iannariello defeated Adam Lewis and Rick Ruso, 8-6, and senior Esteban Carril and sophomore Antonio Gordon defeated Erich Chen and Michael Duong, 8-4. The Frogs took a 2-0 lead after Fielding defeated Duong 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 singles spot. TCU only lost one point during the afternoon, when Gordon lost by default to Federico Nattioli. During the second set of the No. 4 singles match, Gordon threw his racket down, which took an inadvertent bounce and hit the judge. Head coach Joey Rive said he was disappointed by the outcome.
“It was an unfortunate incident with Toni (Gordon),” said Rive. “It barely touched the judge, but that’s an automatic forfeit.” Gordon’s ranking had jumped to No. 59 in the most recent singles rankings. Still up 2-1, the Frogs started to bear down on Santa Clara. In the No. 5 singles spot, junior Daniel Wajnberg defeated Chen in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, to give TCU a 3-1 lead. Carril, who is ranked No. 8 in the nation, had to go to three sets to beat No. 25 John Paul Fruttero of California Wednesday. Carril defeated the Broncos’ Ryan Livesol, 7-6, 7-6 to clinch the Frogs’ victory. The win was Carril’s ninth straight. “(Livestay) is a tough guy, a big server and he doesn’t do a lot of rallying,” Rive said. “(Carril) handled him well and came through in big situations when he needed to.” The Frogs improved their record to 13-2. There are six more matches before the Frogs compete at the Western Athletic Conference Championships April 27 to 29 in Fresno, Calif. All of the Frogs’ remaining opponents are ranked. But Rive said he recognizes what the team needs to do to continue winning. “We have a big weekend with Pepperdine coming up on Sunday,” he said. “We’re just taking them one match at a time.” A 4-0 win over Nevada-Las Vegas on March 20 boosted the team’s ranking to second in the nation. The last time the Frogs were ranked No. 2 was in 1992.
Sam Eaton |
