The SMU men’s tennis team returned to the clay yesterday after splitting two matches on Jan. 16, dropping the first to No. 40 California before sweeping Oral Roberts.

Despite a heated match, the Mustangs were victorious over Texas-Pan American at Turpin Tennis Stadium, 5-2.

The number one doubles team, senior Bryan Griffin and freshman Tobias Flood, lost 8-5 against UTPA players, Beau Bernstein and Brett Bernstein. Both the number two and number three double pairs, juniors Adham el-Effendi, Darren Walsh (2) and juniors Artem Baradach, Pablo Perez-Esnaola (3) brought back two crucial points for the Mustangs during their matches, which both went into tiebreakers.

In singles, once again, the number one SMU spot was unable to clench the win when Baradach lost to UTPA’s Ashwin Vijayaragavan. However, the first and fourth single players were the only losses the Mustangs suffered.

Picking up the slack were David Costa, Darren Walsh, Adham el- Effend and Pablo Perez-Espanaola, who all won yesterday. Perez-Espanaola continued his singles winning streak and now has a record of 4-1.

As of yesterday afternoon, the team officially has a winning season: their record is 3-2.
The Mustangs have a little over a week before a trip to Waco to take on the Baylor University Bears on Febuary 3. The Bears are 2-0 when playing at home and the team just defeated the No. 11 ranked University of Florida on Sunday. Prior to playing the Mustangs, Baylor will compete against Iowa University at home on Jan. 30.