Men's Tennis Matches 7 & 8

Las Vegas, NV—The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team (2-6) dropped a 4-2 decision to Weber State University (2-3) Saturday morning, and fell 4-1 to New Mexico State (4-3) Saturday afternoon.

UCR 2, Weber State University 4
Weber State University won two of the three doubles matches to take the doubles point, despite partners Kyle McCann and Filip Engstrom winning their doubles match 6-2 at the No. 2 position. Kyle McCann has now won five of six doubles matches on the season, four of which paired with Filip Engstrom.

Filip Engstrom defeated Hou-En Chen in singles (6-4, 6-1) to tie the match at one all. Weber State took the second singles match, but Vignesh Subramanyan won his singles match against Cezary Walkusz (6-3, 6-2) to tie the score for the Highlanders once more at two points each. The Wildcats prevailed winning the next two singles matches, and Kyle McCann's exciting battle was left unfinished.

"A tough loss- did not play great in doubles, and it ended up being the difference since Kyle was up 5-2 in third set when Weber got their fourth point. Benjamin and Nabil both had set points in their first sets, so with a little luck we would have pulled out a win. Again, UCR lost 7-0 last season to this team, so we are definitely closing the gap with many teams." said Coach Mattias Johansson.

UCR 1, New Mexico State University 4

The New Mexico State Aggies won the first two matches in doubles, leaving Anderson Ju and Nabil Abdallah's match against Enrique Asmar and Louis Menard unfinished, with the Highlanders ahead 5-3.

Vignesh Subramanyan was the lone victor for the Highlanders against the Aggies as opponent Mauri Benitez retired while Vignesh led 6-1, 2-0.

Vignesh leads the Highlanders in singles with a 7-1 record on the season. He is 2-0 in the No. 5 position and 5-1 in the No. 6 position.

"We came out flat in doubles at No. 1 and 2 and New Mexico State took advantage of that. The guys put up a great fight in Singles. Benjamin and Filip had both won the first set when NMS got their fourth point, so the match was actually much closer than 4-1 especially considering that Kyle had to retire early in his match. Obviously, three losses are not fun, but we definitely played pretty good tennis, and we can build upon these matches and look forward to the rest of the season." said Coach Johansson.

NEXT UP
The UC Riverside Men's Tennis Team hosts Biola University at the SRC Tennis Courts on Saturday, February 10 at 10 am.