Owls Edged Out by Texas Tech

Saturday, March 20

Houston, Texas

1 PM

Florida Atlantic

Texas Tech

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

3/20/2021 4:39:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

HOUSTON – Florida Atlantic University men's tennis battled No. 26 Texas Tech Saturday in the Owls' first match at the 62nd Ralph O'Connor Rice Invitational. All doubles and most of the singles matches were closely contested, with the Owls leading on two of the three remaining courts when the result was decided.

Notables:

Each doubles decision came down to two points. The first final went the Owls' (5-7) way, as Alvaro Fernandez Horta and Kevin Huempfner won on No. 2, 6-4
However, the Red Raiders (10-2) flipped the script with two 6-4 wins of their own to move ahead, 1-0
TTU won on No. 2 and No. 1 singles, one after the other, to extend the lead, and then on No. 3 to clinch
Gerard Escandell nearly earned a point as he was a game away from a win on the No. 5 court, 6-3, 6-5
Fernandez Horta had forced a third set and was leading on No. 4 (3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 3-0)
Finn Stodder's No. 6 match too was undecided, though it had gone out to a first-set tiebreaker and he was up in the second (6-7 (5-7), 3-2)

Quotable
Head Coach Ricardo Gonzalez:
"As competitors, losing is always disappointing, but today we will look at the positives. Today we took steps in the right direction. We are growing and building momentum. I am confident the best is right ahead of us. Shout out to the bottom of the lineup today. They put themselves in a position to win before the match got clinched."

Full Results:
#26 TTU 4, FAU 0
Doubles
1. Franco Ribero/Parker Wynn (TTU) def. Filip Krolo/Maxime Lapraille (FAU) 6-4
2. Alvaro Fernandez Horta/Kevin Huempfner (FAU) def. Isaac Arevalo/Reed Collier (TTU) 6-4
3. Dimitrios Azoidis/Ilgiz Valiev (TTU) def. Hunter Robbins/Finn Stodder (FAU) 6-4

Singles
1. #37 Parker Wynn (TTU) def. #122 Maxime Lapraille (FAU) 6-4, 6-4
2. #93 Ilgiz Valiev (TTU) def. Kevin Huempfner (FAU) 6-4, 6-4
3. Franco Ribero (TTU) def. Filip Krolo (FAU) 7-5, 6-2
4. #115 Reed Collier (TTU) vs. Alvaro Fernandez Horta (FAU) 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 0-3, unfinished
5. Dimitrios Azoidis (TTU) vs. Gerard Escandell (FAU) 3-6, 5-6, unfinished
6. Isaac Arevalo (TTU) vs. Finn Stodder (FAU) 7-6 (7-5), 2-3, unfinished

What's Next:
The Owls play Conference USA's other Owls, Rice, on their home court Sunday to wrap up the invitational. First serve is at 1 p.m. Eastern.