FORT WORTH, TX: The Texas Wesleyan University men and women's tennis teams swept matches against the University of the Ozarks and Howard Payne University at Arlington Tennis Center on Friday. The Lady Rams (4-3) defeated UO (0-10) 9-0 and HPU (3-8) 7-2, while the Rams (2-4) took their first wins of the season 5-4 over OU (4-6) and 9-0 over HPU (1-10).
The men's match with Ozarks proved to be a thriller. The Eagles took two of three doubles matches to lead 2-1.
Florian Schmitt and
Linus Richter trailed 5-0 on the first line before coming back to force a tiebreaker. Although, OU"s Melle van Duijn and Spencer Turner held on to win that tiebreaker, the comeback provided confidence for Schmitt and Richter heading into singles action.
No. 2 doubles also came down to a tiebreaker, while
Adam White and
Ryan Watterson got the Rams on the board with an 8-4 win.
In the singles draw, Richter, White and Watterson won on lines two, four and six to bring the match to a 4-4 tie. The match came down to No. 1 singles between Schmitt and Van Duijn. Van Duijn took the first set 6-3, but Scmitt rallied for a 7-5 win in set number two and then took the tiebreaker 10-6 to seal Texas Wesleyan's first victory.
The Rams then turned in a dominant performance against Howard Payne, topping the Yellow Jackets 9-0.
In women's action, the Lady Rams opened with a 9-0 win over Ozarks and finished with a 7-2 win over HPU. The two losses to the Yellow Jackets came down to tiebreakers in No. 1 and No. 2 singles.
After starting the season 0-3, the Lady Rams have ripped off four consecutive wins to move to 4-3 on the season.
The Rams are back in action on Thursday, March 22, when they host UT-Permian Basin. That match is scheduled for a 3:00 pm start at Arlington Tennis Center.
