No. 30 Men's Tennis Drops Tight Battle to No. 13 TCU, 4-3

Sunday, February 24

New Orleans

1 PM

Tulane University

TCU

Photo by: Parker Waters

No. 30 Men's Tennis Drops Tight Battle to No. 13 TCU, 4-3

Feb 24, 2019 | Men's Tennis

NEW ORLEANS - In its first home match since February 1, the Tulane men's tennis team came up just short and suffered a 4-3 defeat to 13th-ranked TCU at the City Park Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.

The match marked the fourth consecutive opponent the Green Wave (4-7) have faced that ranks in the top 15 nationally and the seventh in their last nine matches.

"The encouraging thing for us is that I can see and hear how much our guys want (to win)," head coach and director of tennis Mark Booras said. "The steps that we are taking are positive steps. We're not going to get any freebies out there. We have to be sharp each day."

The doubles point was a tough battle for both teams, despite TCU (7-3) earning a comforting 6-3 win at No. 2 doubles to strike first, but Tulane countered with a 6-4 win at No. 1 by Ewan Moore and Tyler Schick. Despire trailing 5-3, the Hamish Stewart and Felix Ewers broke the Horned Frogs to make things interesting late. With the game tied 40-all, TCU was able to win the point, break back and clinch the doubles point.

"I tell this to our guys and the best way to look at it is how we are climbing a mountain every season and there are different paths to get to the top," Booras said. "We learn from those things and we try to find different ways. That's where we are at right now. We've been competing very well against very good teams. I don't just want to compete and our players don't just want to compete, we all want to win. In order to do that, we have to learn more about ourselves."

The Frogs struck again and extended their lead to 3-0 with a straight-set win at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively, to push the Wave to the brink.

Tulane got on the scoreboard with a pair of consecutive wins as Schick closed out court five, 6-2, 7-5, just moments before Akos Kotorman finished off an impressive 6-2, 6-2 triumph from the No. 6 spot in the lineup.

TCU would clinch however, hanging onto a second-set tiebreak at No. 1 singles to establish an insurmountable, 4-2 advantage.

Dane Esses was able to complete the lone remaining match on court four, battling back from a 5-3 deficit in the first set to complete a 7-6(5) comeback in the first frame. Despite falling in the second set, 6-1, the Houston native created an enormous, 8-2 advantage in a 10-point tiebreaker before closing it out, 10-7, to complete an upset victory over 83rd-ranked Bertus Kruger.

"In the long run, these experiences are going to benefit us a ton because in less than two months, we're going to be competing for an American Athletic Conference Championship," Booras said. "We're going to be able to work on stuff that we are learning now and that's what our goal is. This team is hungry."

#13 TCU 4, #30 Tulane 3

Singles competition
1. #6 Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. #88 Ewan Moore (TLN) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
2. #62 Alastair Gray (TCU) def. #70 Luis Erlenbusch (TLN) 6-3, 6-3
3. Reese Stalder (TCU) def. Hamish Stewart (TLN) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
4. Dane Esses (TLN) def. #83 Bertus Kruger (TCU) 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 1-0 (10-7)
5. Tyler Schick (TLN) def. Luc Fomba (TCU) 6-2, 7-5
6. Akos Kotorman (TLN) def. Sander Jong (TCU) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Ewan Moore/Tyler Schick (TLN) def. Alex Rybakov/Alastair Gray (TCU) 6-4
2. Reese Stalder/Bertus Kruger (TCU) def. Luis Erlenbusch/Akos Kotorman (TLN) 6-3
3. Sander Jong/Luc Fomba (TCU) def. Hamish Stewart/Felix Ewers (TLN) 6-4

Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (2,3,5,6,1,4)