ABILENE – Abilene Christian's sixth ranked men's and women's tennis teams briefly return to their home courts of the Eager Tennis Pavilion Thursday for a 4 p.m. dual with South Central Region rival St. Mary's of the Heartland Conference.
Both men's and women's matches are expected to be played outdoors under sunny skies and a high temperature of 82 degrees. The Wildcats are a combined 13-1 at home this season.
The men's match vs. the Rattlers is their lone contest of the week; however, the women's team will hit the road afterward for Friday and Saturday matches at NCAA DI schools New Mexico State (8-5) and Texas-El Paso (2-14). The Wildcats are 6-2 against upper-division opponents and have not lost a match since Feb. 25 when they dropped a 4-3 decision at Eastern Kentucky.
The Wildcats have since been riding a season-best eight match winning streak that has lifted their spring record to 16-2. ACU's most recent victory was a 8-1 triumph at Cameron that capped a 4-0 Spring Break trip in which the Wildcats outscored their opposition, 32-2.
The ACU women have been nothing short of excellent since the calendar flipped to March as they've commanded all levels of competition whether at home or on the road, inside or out. In addition to being in the midst of a dominating win streak, the Wildcats also have won 15 of 18 top-line singles matches and have lost only once all year at the No. 3, 4 and 6 positions. Meanwhile, their No. 5 position players are a combined 14-3, and their No. 2s are 16-2.
ACU's doubles combinations, of which there have been many this season, have been equally superior as evidenced by an overall record of 43-10. The Wildcats have lost only twice at No. 1, and four times apiece at No. 2 and 3.
The Wildcats' men's team (14-7) played three matches last week, beginning last Wednesday with a 5-4 win over No. 20 Drury and ending Saturday with a 6-1 loss at No. 35 Baylor. In between the Wildcats squashed Temple College 9-0.
Highlights from the Baylor match included the 22nd-ranked team of
Hans Hach and
Nick Plum beating Roberto Maytin and Kike Grangeiro, 8-5, at the No. 1 line, and 43rd-ranked
Alfredo Desiati rebounding from a set down to beat Lars Behlen, 1-6, 7-5, 11-9, at the No. 5 position.
Desiati's doubles play was equally crucial in ACU's win over the Drury Panthers as he and partner Borja Cortes nabbed a pivotal second point after clipping Roman Gonda and Lukas Kriem at No. 2, 9-8. Their win was one of two doubles matches decided by two points or less.
Half of the six singles matches were then decided in a third set.
Hach and Plum were stretched to a third set at the No. 1 and 3 positions before coming back to win.
Hach dropped his first set to No. 31 Andy Blair, 4-6, but then won the next two by scores of 6-3 and 6-2 in clinching the fifth match point for ACU.
After losing 3-6 in the first set to Gonda, Plum came back to take the second set, 6-3, and the third, 6-2. Cortes was ACU's lone straight-set victor, beating Kriem at No. 2 singles, 7-5, 6-2.
