Sept. 15, 2014 ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington's men's and women's tennis teams had a successful weekend at the Marco and Co. Catering Islanders Open in Corpus Christi, bringing home both men's and women's doubles titles.
Atrid Gehre and Augustina Serio opened play defeating Maider Martin and Celia Rodriguez of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 8-6 in the semifinals to advance to face Jacobea Junger and Miriam Rosell of UTSA in ther finals. Gehre and Serio won 8-5, bringing home the women's doubles championship.
"Astrid stepped up and showed great leadership on the court, and I couldn't be prouder of how well Augustina did in her first college tournament," UT Arlington coach Diego Benitez said. On the men's side, Carlos Arbiza and Daniel Echeverry took on Leonard Ivic and Josip Smoljan of Incarnate Word in the semifinals, defeating them 8-4. They advanced to the finals to take on Kevin Bettendroffer and Guillaume Rauseo of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The pair in orange and blue did not waiver defeating the duo 8-2. Benitez said they learned a lot about the different options they have as far as pairing certain players up to get a different style of play going.
"Arbiza and Echeverry played an amazing level of tennis and I am very proud of the way they competed, bring home the title was our goal and they did it," he said.
After a long and rainy Saturday singles results did not fall in the Mavericks favor. On the women's side Christine Foote and Gehre defeated their opponents in the first round, however, came up short in the quarterfinals. Verena Scott made it to the quarterfinals of the consolation draw, defeating her opponent (6-3, 6-3).
It was a similar story on the men's side, Arbiza and Echeverry beat their opponents in the first round of the men's single draw but were then defeated in the quarterfinals. Pablo Colvee had a good run in the men's consolation draw defeating his first two opponents, but then fell short losing in the semi-finals. The men and women also competed in the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational this weekend in Midland, Texas and did well before the tournament was cancelled due to rain.
Jonathan Gonzalez made his debut as a Maverick defeating Guillermo DeVilches of Wichita State 6-2, 6-1 in the first round but then lost in the second round before the tournament was cancelled to Trey Daniel of TCU 8-6.
Sebastian Erimicioiu went 2-0 in Midland defeating Jocelyn DeVilliers of Wichita State 8-3 in round one followed by Daniel Santos of Tulsa in round two. The women's team had a great showing by Angeles de los Rios this weekend. Despite the weather conditions De los Rios made it to the third round after defeating Lisa Anderson of Nebraska 9-8 then Hristina Dishkova of SMU 8-3. However, she struggled against number one ranked Lorraine Guillermo of Pepperdine falling 8-3. The Mavericks will continue fall play this weekend when the men travel to Houston for the Rice Invitational.
"We're on a roll for now and will take advantage of practice this week as the men prepare to play against great competition in Houston this weekend," Benitez said.
