Fahgen leads Mustangs to dominating sweep
The No. 44 SMU men’s tennis team moved its home record to 7-0 Saturday, sweeping the Lamar Cardinals and the Centenary Gents at Dallas’ Bent Tree Country Club.
Led by No. 1 singles player Robin Fahgen, the Mustangs defeated Lamar 6-0 in the opener and shut out Centenary 7-0 in the nightcap.
SMU (8-2) will face No. 57 Minnesota at home on Saturday before beginning a brutal road stretch. Starting Feb. 29, the Mustangs will play ranked teams in three consecutive games.
SMU – which is 0-2 against ranked opponents this season – will face No. 34 Virginia Tech, No. 20 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 21 Oklahoma State in a one-week frame.
Fahgen, who has played brilliantly this season, went 2-0 Saturday, dominating Lamar’s Filip Kanczula 6-2, 6-0 and Centenary’s Mark Rodgman 6-0, 6-0.
Fahgen is 7-1 this season and has defeated two nationally-ranked opponents.
Adolfo Solares moved to 7-0 this season by defeating the Cardinals’ Allan Gomes 6-2, 6-3 in No. 5 singles competition.
No. 2 singles player David Kuczer swept his weekend opponents in impressive fashion. Kuczer defeated Lamar’s Mario Janjic 7-6, 6-2 and the Gents’ Alejandro Ahuja 6-0, 6-2. He also teamed with Bryan Griffin in No. 3 doubles to beat Centenary’s Oscar Medellin and Seva Kostelanetz 8-2.
The Mustangs were equally as impressive in doubles play.
SMU’s No. 1 doubles team of Taylor St. Eve and Darren Walsh downed Centenary’s Rodgman and Jason Dawson 8-2. Fahgen and Oivind Alver combined to beat the Gents’ Alejandro Ahuja and Gerry Lozano 8-0 in No. 2 doubles.
The Mustangs will hope for a similar effort from their doubles teams when they begin facing its stretch of ranked teams.
SMU’s doubles teams have combined to go 0-6 in the Mustangs’ two losses. No. 9 Notre Dame narrowly defeated SMU 4-3 on Feb. 10, thanks to dominating doubles play.
Women drop two on Tobacco Road
The SMU women’s tennis team dropped two games to nationally-ranked teams from North Carolina over the weekend.
No. 44 North Carolina State gave the Mustangs their first loss of the season with a 6-1 victory on Friday. The No. 15 Duke Blue Devils shut out SMU 7-0 on Saturday.
After being swept, the No. 60 Mustangs dropped to 6-2 this season.
The No. 3 doubles team of Kseniia Tokarieva and Nicole Briceno provided SMU’s highlight of the weekend when they upset No. 21 Duke’s team of Elizabeth Plotkin and Ellah Nze in a tiebreaker, 8-7 (6).
That would be the only victory in either doubles or singles competition the Mustangs would eek out against the Blue Devils.
Pairing at No. 3 singles on Friday, Briceno and Tokarieva nearly gave SMU the edge in doubles competition against the Pack. However, the pair lost in a tiebreaker to Kristen Bleakley and Catherine Grotz 9-8 (6).
The Mustangs’ No. 1 doubles team of Natalia Bubien and Pavi Francis dominated NC State’s team of Berkeley Brock and Daria Petrovic 8-1. The pair put up a good fight against Duke’s fifth-ranked pair Amanda Granson and Melissa Mang before losing 8-5.
Francis defeated the Pack’s Lenka Hojckova 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4 at No. 3 singles, but her doubles partner would not be quite as fortunate.
Bubien lost twice in three sets at No. 1 singles. No. 79 Petrovic downed the 5-foot-7-inch junior 4-6, 6-2, 6-1; Duke’s Tara Iyer defeated her 6-1, 1-6, 6-2.
The Mustangs return home to face Houston on Friday and Texas A&M- Corpus Christi on Saturday.
