March 28, 2003

ARLINGTON, Texas...The University of Texas at Arlington's men's tennis team defeated Texas-San Antonio 4-3 in a Southland Conference men's tennis match at the UTA Tennis Center in Arlington Friday to clinch a share of the SLC regular season title. The victory improves UTA's record to 8-5 overall and 4-0 in the SLC, while Texas-San Antonio drops to 5-8 overall and 3-1 in the SLC.

Texas-San Antonio was able to get a head start by winning the doubles point in dramatic fashion. After UTA's No. 3 doubles team of Javier Carrillo and Alon Goldshuv defeated the Roadrunners' Joe Michael Olfindo and Jon Jenkin 8-6, the Roadrunners pulled out 9-8 victories on courts one and two. First, the UTSA team of Ricardo Almeida and Dennis Andrade came back from a deficit to defeat Nathan McGregor and Sandy Farquharson at the No. 1 position, then the Mavericks' David Corrie and Niels Buksik owned triple match point but failed to end the match, eventually falling to Jonas Hogland and Hetori Chaves.

The close matches continued into singles play. Farquharson's match against Olfindo at No. 5 was the first match to end, with Farquharson pulling out a 6-4, 6-1 victory. UTA then took it's first lead when Corrie won his match against Almeida 6-3, 6-3 in the second position. But Andrade tied the match back up when he defeated Carrillo 6-3, 6-3 to give each team two points. Buksik was forced to come back from a set down at No. 4, but he was successful, finishing off Jenkin 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 to help UTA regain the lead momentarily. UTSA's Hoglund then won at No. 1 singles, defeating the Mavericks' McGregor 7-6, 6-4 to tie the score again.

At the same time Hoglund was finishing off McGregor, the No. 6 singles match had been brought to a temporary halt by an injury to UTSA's Chaves. Chaves had won the first set 6-2, but the Mavericks' Vazquez came back to tie the match with a 6-2 win in the second set. With Vazquez leading 3-1 in the third set, Chavez injured his foot. He courageously attempted to continue the match, but was severely hobbled by the injury and was forced to retire trailing 4-1 in the third set, giving the Mavericks the victory.

Texas-Arlington has one more match to be played on Friday, beginning at approximately 3:30 p.m. against Oral Roberts at the UTA Tennis Center.

Singles:
1. Jonas Hoglund (UTSA) def. Nathan McGregor (UTA) 7-6, 6-4
2. David Corrie (UTA) def. Rica Almeida (UTSA) 6-3, 6-3
3. Dennis Andrade (UTSA) def. Javier Carrillo (UTA) 6-3, 6-3
4. Niels Buksik (UTA) def. Jon Jenkin (UTSA) 6-7, 6-3, 6-2
5. Sandy Farquharson (UTA) def. Joe Michael Olfindo (UTSA) 6-4, 6-1
6. Ian Vazquez (UTA) def. Hetori Chaves (UTSA) 2-6, 6-2, 4-1, ret.

Doubles:
1. Almeida/Andrade (UTSA) def. McGregor/Farquharson (UTA) 9-8
2. Hoglund/Chaves (UTSA) def. Corrie/Buksik (UTA) 9-8
3. Carrillo Goldshuv (UTA) def. Olfindo/Jenkin (UTSA) 8-6