COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Hwang Donghyun and Danil Panarin both earned their second singles victories of the SEC Tournament for No. 22 Vanderbilt men’s tennis, but fifth-seeded Texas A&M rebounded to close out the No. 12 seed Commodores and claim a 4-2 win in the second round of the event Thursday at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
After falling behind 2-1, the Aggies (18-8) took matches on Courts 5, 2 and 1 to pick up the victory.
“Overall, I’m very happy with our performance,” head coach Scott Brown said. “First off, credit to Texas A&M and coach Steve Denton and his staff, they’re a good team and they played a good match. That was their best lineup, that’s a team can beat anybody in the country and we just showed we can go up against anybody with how we played.”
For the second night in a row, Hwang put the first point on the board for Vandy (17-12) after sweeping both sets at No. 6 singles. When Panarin followed with a straight-sets victory on Court 3 the Dores held a 2-1 advantage.
The Aggies bounced back with victories on Courts 5 and 2, respectively, by Togan Tokac and Kholo Montsi to go back ahead 3-2. The match ended when No. 10 Theo Papamalamis won a second-set tiebreaker to sweep at the No. 1 position.
A slow start in doubles saw the Dores fend off multiple match points on all three courts before Texas A&M went ahead 1-0 following victories from Lathan Skrobarcek and Markus Molder at No. 3 and the fifth-ranked tandem of Papamalamis and Tokac on the No. 1 court.
“To be honest, that was not a great doubles point by us,” said Brown. “They played a good doubles point, they came ready to go and we weren’t on our best energy level the first three, four games of the match. We started getting going a little bit at the end, but it was too late. If you don’t get a good start in doubles, it’s tough to come back.
“We dug ourselves a little bit of hole, but I give our guys credit. They came out like lions in singles, and they weren’t going to leave this place until they left their heart and soul on the court. I’m really proud of how it was in singles, not so proud about the doubles, but we competed the right way and fought like dogs.”
Vanderbilt will now await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament on April 27.
“Right now, our full focus is on NCAAs. If we want to be pros down the road, we have to act like pros and, win or lose, start getting our bodies ready for NCAAs,” said Brown. “We will take a couple days off, recharge the mind and the batteries, and then we start getting back to work and start building. We have two weeks, we just need to keep getting better from this match, keep pushing and working so that when it gets to the NCAAs, we’re a well-oiled, finely-tuned machine ready to take on anybody.”
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Doubles
1. No. 5 Papamalamis/Tokac [Texas A&M] def. No. 11 Nathan Cox/Hoyoung Roh [Vanderbilt] 6-3
2. Pablo Martinez Gomez/Callum Markowitz [Vanderbilt] vs. Alex Frusina/Montsi [Texas A&M] 3-5 unfinished
3. Skrobarcek/Molder [Texas A&M] def. Panarin/Jack Satterfield [Vanderbilt] 6-3
Singles
1. No. 10 Papamalamis [Texas A&M] def. No. 68 Martinez Gomez [Vanderbilt] 6-4, 7-6 (4)
2. No. 41 Montsi [Texas A&M] def. No. 85 Hoyoung [Vanderbilt] 7-6 (3), 6-4
3. Panarin [Vanderbilt] def. No. 100 Frusina [Texas A&M] 6-2, 6-4
4. Cox [Vanderbilt] vs. Molder [Texas A&M] 6-3, 2-6, 4-5 unfinished
5. Tokac [Texas A&M] def. Satterfield [Vanderbilt] 6-4, 6-3
6. Hwang [Vanderbilt] def. Tiago Pires [Texas A&M] 6-1, 6-4
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (6,3,5,2,1)
