ABILENE - A season-long seven-match road trip rolls on for the Abilene Christian men's tennis team this week as the Wildcats will face Prairie View A&M and Rice in Houston Thursday before stopping in Kerville, Texas on their way back home to battle Schreiner University Friday at 1 p.m.
ACU's matches at Rice's Jake Hess Tennis Stadium are scheduled for 10 a.m. (vs. the Panthers) and 5 p.m. (vs. the Owls). Rice also will play host to its Conference USA rival Texas-San Antonio that afternoon at 1 p.m.
The Wildcats begin this week, which also includes a Southland Conference home dual Saturday vs. Nicholls, with an 8-8 record after splitting last Sunday's doubleheader vs. Temple College (W, 7-0) and No. 6 Baylor (L, 0-7). ACU was doubled up by the Bears, 8-4, in each of their two completed doubles matches before losing three very close singles matches at the No. 4, 5 and 6 positions.
Junior
Guilherme Gesser sent his match at No. 4 against Vince Schneider to a third set with a 6-3 win in the second, but ultimately lost, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2; and at No. 6, sophomore
Marco Bensley lost a third-set super tiebreaker to Robbie Korth, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 10-5.
Freshman
Nico Agritelley came close to sending his match at No. 5 vs. Robert Verzaal to a third set before bowing in the second-set tiebreaker, 6-2, 7-6 (2).
Agritelley and senior
Borja Cortés share the team lead in singles victories with nine, while Gesser and Agritelley each have 10 wins in doubles. As a tandem, Gesser and Agritelley are 6-4 at No. 2 doubles.
Rice is 7-10 overall, including 4-4 on its home court, and recently had a five-match winning streak snapped by Texas A&M in College Station, 7-0.
Owls Srikar Alla and Tommy Bennett have split time at the No. 1 position. Alla joined Rice last fall after transferring from Fordham and is 11-14 this season, while Bennett, a sophomore from England, is 14-9.
Schreiner University, which is a NCAA DIII member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, enters this week at 7-7 after losing 9-0 at home last Saturday to Hardin-Simmons.
Prairie View's record is 4-11 after splitting a pair of duals at last weekend's SWAC Tennis Round Up in Montgomery, Ala., where the Panthers lost 4-1 to Alcorn State and shut out Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 7-0.
