Final Stats

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - The hole was dug too deep for the UT Arlington men's tennis team, falling to South Alabama 4-2 on Friday evening in the Sun Belt Quarterfinals.

The Mavericks, claiming the crucial doubles point it knew it would need, were unable to come back from a 3-1 deficit after the final two singles matches went into a tiebreaker. UTA closes the season with a 10-13 overall record.

"I am proud of the way that we fought tonight against a good team in South Alabama," UTA coach Diego Benitez said. "We came out fighting and got the early point, but couldn't keep it going early in singles. Once we fell behind, we battled back and made it close, but we could not finish it out."

The Mavs split matches at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, each going to a 6-3 finish, Enrique Pardo and Sanshidh Kommaruju picking up the win for UTA. Guanarteme Nuez and Mauricio Del Rio forced a late serve break, clinching the doubles point with a 7-5 win.

The Mavs went down 3-1 quickly in singles play as No. 6 singles closed at 6-1, 6-2 and No. 5 finishing 6-0, 6-3.

Having lost the first set in five of the six singles matches, UTA knew it had work to do to climb back into the match. The lone set victory came from Eduard Simo at 6-0. Nuez rallied back at No. 1 to claim a second-set tiebreak and raced to a 6-1 third to pull UTA within a point. Pardo and Del Rio each claimed their second, while Simo fell 6-2 in the second, sending the matches into the third with UTA needing two of the three.

Simo was unable to rally back, falling 7-5, while both Pardo and Del Rio went into a tiebreaker to decide the match. Pardo fell down early, and was unable to surmount a comeback, falling in the tiebreaker.

UTA's nationally ranked player Nuez, the SBC Player of the Year, will await a possible postseason berth into the NCAA Singles Championship, released in May.