Box Score PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – The 4th-seeded UT Arlington men's tennis team dropped a back-and-forth intensity-filled Sun Belt Tournament semifinal to top-seeded Georgia State Saturday at Peachtree Tennis Center, 4-2, putting an end to the Mavericks' season.
 
The battle was knotted at 2-2 with three singles matches remaining on courts 3, 4 and 5 – and all three delivered in exhilarating fashion, despite UTA not being able to shut the door.
 
Georgia State took a 3-2 lead in the match with a tiebreak win in the 3rd set on Court 4, turning the focus to Court 3 and Court 4, where the Panthers held leads of 5-4 on each. Miguel Cabrera was serving to hold, while Mauricio Rio was looking for a break. However, Rio's service return of match point was short, and the Panthers escaped with the 4-2 victory.
 
The matches were contested outdoors – a scenario which didn't seem likely given the rainy and overcast conditions most of the day. However, the teams got a break in the weather and contested the matches outdoors despite temperatures hovering in the high-40s to low-50s, with a real-feel temperature most of the late afternoon and early evening in the mid-40s with light wind.
 
GSU breezed through No. 3 doubles, 6-1, but UTA put up stern tests on both Court 1 and Court 2. Guanarteme Nuez and Rio were tied at 5-5 on Court 1, but Enrique Pardo and Eduard Simo couldn't stave off the Panthers' attack on Court 2 en route to a 5-7 setback which gave GSU the crucial doubles point.
 
The Panthers grabbed a quick 2-0 lead with a victory at No. 2 singles. But after Nuez fell, on the court directly next to him in the clubhouse shadows just as sun peaked through the clouds for the first time in nearly two days, Pardo delivered a straight-set 6-3, 6-3 victory at No. 1 to pull the Mavs back within one, 2-1.
 
UTA evened the match up thanks to a straight-set, but hard-fought 7-6, 6-3 win at No. 6 singles by Jakub Grzegorczyk to set the stage for the final trio of 3rd-set matches.
 
Originally scheduled to start at 3 p.m. local time, with the women's semifinal matches running long due to being moved indoors and with only six covered courts available, the men's semifinals got delayed nearly two hours. While the men's teams were warming up, coaches and conference staff met and agreed to move the matches outdoors, and after some more court-drying maintenance the first doubles serves went up in the air at around 4:45 p.m. local time.
 
The Mavs finish with a 15-9 overall record having reached the SBC Tournament semis for the second-straight year.
 
2019 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Singles
1. Enrique Pardo (UTA) def. Giles Hussey (GSU): 6-3, 6-3
2. Roberts Grinvalds (GSU) def. Guanarteme Nuez (UTA): 6-3, 6-1
3. Quentin Couland (GSU) def. Mauricio Rio (UTA): 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
4. Bailey Showers (GSU) def. Alejandro Hayen (UTA): 6-3, 3-6, 7-6
5. Miguel Cabrera (UTA) vs. Andrei Duarte (GSU): 2-6, 6-4, 4-5 (Unfinished)
6. Jakub Grzegorczyk (UTA) def. Kevin Huynh (GSU): 7-6, 6-3
Order Of Finish: 2, 1, 6, 4, 3
 
Doubles
1. Rio/Nuez (UTA) vs. Hussey/Jack MacFarlane (GSU): 5-5 (Unfinished)
2. Duarte/Grinvalds (GSU) def. Pardo/Eduard Simo (UTA): 7-5
3. Couland/Showers (GSU) def. Hayen/Cabrera (UTA): 6-1
Order Of Finish: 3, 2