The UTSA men’s and women’s tennis teams continued their seasons over the past two weeks and endured rough stretches. The men’s team played four matches, three of which came against ranked opposition, dropping all three of those games before getting in the win column with a 6-1 victory over Cleveland State. Meanwhile, the women’s team lost all four of their matches and ran their losing streak up to 12 games. 

The No. 70 men’s team Roadrunners (8-7) first took on the No. 43 Charlotte Miners (10-4) on March 12. The team secured the doubles point in a quick 2-0 sweep to go up 1-0 in the match, but could not hold on in singles play. The ‘Runners dropped the first three singles matches to go down 1-3 and despite Tiago Torres beating Coy Simon 6-3, 6-2 to stave off defeat, Joao Ceolin was beaten 6-1, 3-6, 4-6 to give Charlotte the victory in the match by a final score of 2-4. 

It was a much less competitive match a day later against No. 42 SMU (11-5). The ‘Runners were swept in doubles play, putting them in an early 0-1 hole and then they lost three straight singles matches to quickly fall 0-4. On March 17, against No. 67 Florida Atlantic (11-4), the team regained some competitiveness but was let down once again in singles play. The team won the doubles point to go up 1-0, but dropped three of the next four singles games to fall behind 2-3. Finn Stodder defeated UTSA’s Danijal Muminovic 4-6, 2-6 to secure the overall match win for Florida Atlantic by a final score of 2-5. 

After three straight losses, however, the team was able to get back on track on March 18 against Cleveland State (5-9). They secured the doubles point thanks to a win from the team of Sebastrian Rodriguez and Torres over Rail Teichmann and Clark Bilinovich 6-3. In singles play, the ‘Runners rattled off five consecutive wins before just missing out on a clean sweep to take the overall match by a final score of 6-1. 

Over on the women’s side (1-15), the team’s struggles continued. First on March 10, the team faced off against the Gonzaga Bulldogs (6-7) and got off to a good start, winning the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. In singles play, however, the team lost four of five and dropped the overall match by a final score of 2-4. On March 13 against the Liberty Flames (12-5), the team was swept 0-4, although they were not helped at all by two forfeits in singles competition.

The following week on March 18, the team traveled to Las Vegas, Nev., and first took on the Marshall Thundering Herd (10-9). Once again, they won the doubles point as that format is quickly becoming a bigger strength for the team as of late. It was another round of disappointment in singles competition, however, as the ‘Runners squandered their early advantage and dropped four straight singles matches to lose the overall match by a final score of 1-4. Finally, the following day on March 19, the team took on the UNLV Rebels (10-2) and the ‘Runners were never set up for success. A forfeit in doubles play led to a quick doubles point for UNLV and then two more forfeits in singles play essentially gave UNLV three free points before any tennis was actually played. A quick win by UNLV’s Zita Kovacs over Jasmin Starr 1-6, 3-6 ended things and UNLV walked away with a 0-4 victory.

The men’s team will return to San Antonio with a game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12-7) on March 23, before heading to College Station, Texas, for a match against No. 28 Texas A&M (14-8) on March 27. Meanwhile, the women will have the week off before playing Prairie View A&M (6-13) on April 3.