ABILENE - Abilene Christian men's tennis is in the Metroplex this weekend for back-to-back Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m. duals at UT Arlington (3-5) and SMU (12-8).
The SMU match was originally schedule for February 13 when Texas was affected by the polar vortex.
ACU comes into this weekend at 6-8 overall following a 1-1 Southland Conference homestand. The Wildcats lost 6-1 to New Orleans but bounced back Sunday with a 5-2 triumph over Nicholls.
Freshman
Mihaly Deli went 3-0 at the No. 3 positions with one doubles match vs. UNO left unfinished. He played one spot up in singles due to an teammates' injury, but came away with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over UNO's Espen Lagarde and dispatched Nicholls' Ricardo Machado, 6-3, 6-3,
In doubles, he and classmate
Jose Maria Rastrojo beat the Colonels' duo of Martin-Thirat and Sasso, 6-4.
ACU's loss to the Privateers was exceptionally close as five of the six singles matches involved either a tiebreaker, a third set or both. Three days later against the Colonels, however, the Wildcats were able to win four singles in straight sets and swept doubles by scores of 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Following the Nicholls victory Sunday, Director of Tennis Juan Nunez said, "This was a huge victory, especially for the confidence of the players. They played well Thursday vs. New Orleans with four three-setters but couldn't quite get it done. That score was hard on us with everything happening to our lineup, but that's the way it is in college tennis.
"Now, for us to know that we can win a conference match with two guys out, and pull the No. 8 guy in - that's just a huge confidence booster. You can hear it in the guys. It's a big relief."
ACU won its most recent meeting at SMU in 2019, 4-3, but have yet to play UTA during its DI tenure. The Mavericks and Wildcats competed against one another four times from 1989 to 1991, splitting the series at 2-2. ACU was victorious in their last meeting, 5-4.
