Sept. 15, 2013

MIDLAND, Texas - The UT Arlington men's and women's tennis team completed play at the season-opening The Racquet Club Invitational in Midland.

On the men's side, Carlos Arbiza went 2-1 with wins over Matt Campell of OSU (6-4, 6-3) and Ghillerme Gesser of ACU (6-3, 6-3). Arbiza fell to No. 2 Andy Bettles of Boise State (6-0, 6-3).

Marek Pesicka and Daniel Echeverry each went 1-1in the tournament. Pesicka opened with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Evan Nix before falling to No. 1 Hess Olesen of Texas 6-1, 6-3. Echeverry defeated Nicklas Wingord of ACU 6-3, 6-4 and fell to Texas Tech's Francisco Zambon 6-3, 6-2.

In doubles, Arbiza combined with Pesicka to defeat a doubles team from Rice 8-6 and lost to OSU's Saens and Campbell 8-3.

Echeverry and Perez lost to Tulsa 8-6.

"I feel very good about the way that all four players competed this weekend," tennis coach Diego Benetiz said. "Arbiza had a great touranment in winning two big rounds and then unfortunately drawing the No. 2 seed in which he played a tough second set. For being the first tournament of the year, I feel like we started in the right direction."

For the women's team, Astrid Gehre went 2-1 in the tournament with a 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 win over Anastasija Trubica of Kansas and a 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 win over TCU's Monika Sirilova.

Gianda D'ortona, Angeles de lo Rios, Ekaterina Tugarinova and Jessica Birowski each went 0-1 in the tournament.

"It was a hard tournament for the ladies," Bentiez said. "Midland is always a very high level of competition and that is what we want. We feel the freshmen got their feet wwet on what to expect in this type of competition."