(The Daily Campus)

The SMU men’s tennis team took on the University Texas Pan America on Saturday afternoon at Turpin Tennis Center.

The highlight of the day was number one player David Costa from Spain’s come back, he was down 5-1 in the first set and came back to win 7-5 and then went on to win the second set 6-2.

“Costa is one of our top players, he’s also a senior so there will be a lot of leadership coming from him this season. He played a great match, and this win against Texas Pan American was a great way to start the season” head coach Carl Neufeld said.

The team won two lines of doubles and lost one. Winning at line two was Gaston Guadranti and Adham El-Effendi and at line three David Costa and Mischa Nowicki.

Line one of Artem Baradach and Joseph Hattrup lost, but since the Mustangs pulled off two wins they were successful at earning the doubles point.

“Artem Baradach is ranked 27 in the country, and is also a senior, I’m really excited to watch him play as well as see the rest of the team develop” Neufeld said.

The Mustangs won all five lines of singles and only lost one. This made the score 7-2 for the afternoon, and put them at 1-0 for the season in conference play and 0-0 in C-USA. The Mustangs have a tough schedule this season, and Neufeld claims “it’s probably the most challenging one we’ve ever had. We will be playing a lot of top ranked teams like Baylor, Texas, Notre Dame, Alabama and TCU. That’s what makes our schedule so exciting and gives us an opportunity to really prove ourselves on a national level.”

The Mustangs are excited to host many of these top teams, as well as get the season really started this weekend in Arkansas where they will travel to play University of Nevada at Las Vegas on Saturday and Arkansas on Sunday.

“Both teams will be good matches for us, and I’m anxious for the season to really pick up because I feel we have an exciting future ahead” Neufeld said.