The Texas A&M men’s tennis team defeated the Wagner Seahawks with a 4-0 sweep in the first round of the NCAA Championships on May 2 at the George P. Mitchell ’40 Tennis Center.
This win marks the Aggies’ 20th victory of the season and secures their place in Sunday’s second-round match against Stanford, which previously won against Penn. The next match is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start.
Head coach Steve Denton made changes to his lineup for this opening round, including senior Ethan Silva in doubles and redshirt sophomore Ritesh Patil and freshman Kriish Tyagi in singles matches. “Everything starts over and we know what’s at stake,” Denton said. “Our guys were able to comfortably win the doubles point, which gave them a bit of confidence. We were able to get a couple of guys in matches today that hadn’t been playing that much, which was really important for them to get a taste of the tournament as well.”
Silva played his first career NCAA match alongside Togan Tokac, securing a doubles victory with a score of 6-3 on court two. Shortly before, Lathan Skrobarcek and Markus Molder also won their doubles match by the same score on court three.
In singles play, Theo Papamalamis achieved a quick win over Eddie Schmidt (6-0, 6-1), while Tyagi defeated Vibhu Challagundla (6-2, 6-1). Alex Frusina clinched Texas A&M’s advancement with his own straight-set victory against Lukas Escher (6-0, 7-5).
The Aggies held leads on all remaining courts when play concluded after reaching four points. They now prepare for their upcoming second-round matchup as they continue through NCAA competition.
