This past weekend, the men’s and women’s tennis teams competed against Louisiana and UT Arlington.

Men’s tennis earned their first win of the season, 5-2, with an impressive 6-3 doubles win from freshmen pair Joao Alcantra and Sebastian Rodriguez and a 7-5 victory from Kai Breitbach and Javier Gonzalez. The Roadrunners posted wins in singles as well, lead by Breitbach (6-1, 5-7), Rodriguez, (6-7, 6-0, 6-3) and senior Juri Reckow (6-2, 4-6, 6-4).

“We put a lot of hard work in the last two weeks, and it paid off,” men’s tennis head coach Sergey Avdeyev said of the first win of his tenure as coach.

“We need to recover and hit the practice courts again because we still have things to improve. We are looking forward to next week and playing our first match at home.”

Facing tough opponents in UT Arlington, the women’s team fell short, 2-5. The ‘Runners struggled in doubles, with pair Kylee Kato and Catalina Cabrique losing 2-6 to UT Arlington duo Takeuchi and Amikova, while Sophie Omoworare and Diya Menon lost to UTA opponents Almudena and Pons, 1-6. Sophomore Jasmin Starr and freshman Keegan McCain highlighted doubles for the ‘Runners when they swept pair Chileno and Horiguchi, 6-0. In singles, Starr came out strong, 6-4, 6-3, against Akimova. Following Starr’s victory, senior Kato fought hard in her match, losing the first set, 3-6. Coming back from her setback in the first set, Kato won her second set, 6-4, and finished out the match strong with a win against Takeuchi, 6-2.

The men’s tennis team will be back in action on Sat, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. when they host Laredo Community College. The women’s tennis team will host Sam Houston State on Feb. 14 at 2 p.m.