Early Lead Slips Away for TCU vs. Texas in Regular Season Finale

Saturday, April 15

Austin, TX

7 PM

TCU

Texas

Early Lead Slips Away for TCU vs. Texas in Regular Season Finale

4/16/2023 12:30:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

AUSTIN – No. 3 TCU came within a pair of set three singles victories of hoisting its fourth straight Big 12 regular season championship chalice, but ultimately fell 5-2 to No. 1 Texas on Saturday at the Texas Tennis Center.

The Horned Frogs (20-2, 4-1 Big 12) rolled to a 1-0 head start behind doubles victories on the top-two courts. Texas (21-2, 5-0 Big 12), though, rallied to take four of the six opening singles sets, slowly shifting momentum before a raucous audience of 1,332 announced spectators.

Five-of-six matches saw a decisive third frame. Sander Jong hung a 6-0 bagel in the No. 4 post to briefly give TCU a 2-1 edge. Needing two courts to win, TCU was unable to capture any. Texas countered with consecutive wins on courts six, one and two to clinch the match and the outright conference regular season crown.

"Incredible college match," head coach David Roditi said. "Great crowd, one of the biggest crowds I've seen. Great atmosphere. It's unfortunate that we came out on the losing end. Our guys left it all on the court. We got off to a good start in doubles, and then a bunch of three-set matches that we just weren't able to get through. Credit to Texas. Hell of a job to come back from the doubles point, and again, great college match. The big winner was college tennis.

"For us," Roditi continued, "and I can't speak for Devin [Bowen], but myself as a coach, it just stings that I wasn't able to help some of my courts, help them through that third set. That just stings and it hurts. Obviously, we're so lucky to be a part of a match like this, but at the same time, it hurts to lose it. We'll learn, we get another shot in the conference tournament."

Texas, whom the Horned Frogs shut out 4-0 to win the ITA Indoor National Championship in February, remains the only team to defeat TCU this spring.

The rivalry is likely to see a fourth installment in 2023 in just eight days' time. Both the Horned Frogs and Longhorns earned first round byes in the six-team Big 12 Tournament, which runs from Apr. 21-23 in Lawrence, Kansas. TCU will face Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, whom it swept on March 31-Apr. 2 in Fort Worth, in the semifinals, with a win setting up a near-certain quadrilogy with the Longhorns for the tournament title.

Doubles Rundown

Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives landed the first blow, winning four of their final games vs. Pierre-Yves Bailly and Siem Woldeab on court two on their way to a 6-3 win. Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba, the nation's No. 4 doubles tandem, then picked up their second win in three tries this season vs. No. 2 Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizziri. Fearnley and Fomba claimed three straight points to take control of the set at 5-3, then won on serve at 40-love two games later.

Sander Jong and Lui Maxted built a 4-2 advantage in the No. 3 flight vs. Chih Chi Huang and Evin McDonald. Their match was left unfinished 5-6.

TCU has claimed the doubles point in two of its three meetings with Texas and in 19-of-21 tries this season. Saturday's result marked the first time this season TCU lost a match when winning the doubles point.

Court-by-court, the Horned Frogs are 10-5 in the top flight, 11-6 out of the second post and 16-1 on court three.

Fearnley and Fomba improved to 11-2 in doubles in 2023 and 34-9 all-time. Harper and Spizziri are the highest ranked tandem the duo has ever defeated.

Gorzny and Vives halted a two-match doubles skid with their performance vs. Bailly and Woldeab. They lead TCU in doubles victories this spring (14) and in 2022-2023 (17).

Doubles Results

#4 Jake Fearnley / Luc Fomba (TCU) def. #2 Cleeve Harper / Eliot Spizziri (UT): 6-4
Sebastian Gorzny / Pedro Vives (TCU) def. Pierre-Yves Bailly / Siem Woldeab (UT): 6-3
#16 Sander Jong / Lui Maxted (TCU) vs. Chih Chhi Huang / Evin McDonald: 5-6

Order of finish: 2, 1

Singles Rundown

Texas evened the score at one-all after Harper downed Gorzny 6-3, 6-4 on court five.

Jong got the better of Woldeab for the second time this season, as he defeated the nation's No. 38 player 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 in the fourth flight to regain the Horned Frogs' advantage.

The Horned Frogs twice came painstakingly close to opening up a 3-1 lead.

Fearnley faced off with Spizziri, the nation's No. 1 singles player, for the fourth time in 2022-2023. He took set one, then clawed out of a 5-2 hole in the second frame to force a tiebreaker. Fearnley, No. 15 in the ITA singles rankings, alternated 3-0 runs with Spizziri to begin the breaker but dropped the ensuing two points with Spizziri on serve before dropping the tiebreaker 7-4.

Fomba led 6-5 over Braswell on court three and failed to close the show at 30-love. Braswell took the tiebreaker 7-5 to go up a set.

Pinnington and Vives, playing on courts two and six, respectively, extended their matches to a third frame shortly before Jong's clinch. Pinnington responded from a 4-6 opening set defeat to Bailly with a 7-5 triumph in the second set. Nevin Arimilli got the better of Vives 6-3 in set one, but the Spaniard went 6-2 in set two to even the contest at one set apiece.

But from there, TCU fell behind on all four courts in the final frame.

Arimilli knotted the scoreboard at 2-2 after downing Vives 6-1. Spizzirri closed out Fearnley 6-2 behind four straight points. Bailly clinched his head-to-head with Pinnington and the match 6-1. Fomba played his match out, but fell in another tiebreaker, this time 7-3.

Singles Results