The men’s tennis team lost two grueling matches at home last Saturday against Tyler Junior College and Laredo Community College.
“Every time we walk out on the court we are trying to win “” that is TU tennis,” said sophomore Jordan Mayer in an email. “The teams we played were very good Junior Colleges and are always fighting for a national championship in their respective divisions.”
Despite beating TJC 7-2 earlier in the season, the Tigers fell to the Indians 6-3 last weekend.
“We played them a couple weeks ago, but they didn’t have their full lineup,” said head coach Russell McMindes. “From a doubles standpoint, we looked pretty sharp and got some pretty convincing wins. In singles we competed well, but came up short on results. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but just couldn’t quite get it done.”
Trinity won two of the three doubles matches, with wins coming from junior Nicolas Moreno and sophomore Aaron Skinner in the No. 2 spot and junior Greg Haugen and first year Connor Dunn in the No. 3 spot. Senior Erick de la Fuente in the third position was the only singles win for the Tigers.
“We were able to get some good wins on the doubles matches,” Moreno said. “Overall, competing in singles, everyone had great energy and competed as best as they could and gave it their all.”
After a quick break, Trinity was back on the court, where they lost in a close 5-4 match against Laredo.
“That was more of a tough one, just because we finished our match against TJC, gave the guys 30 minutes for lunch and got back on the court,” McMindes said. “We rebounded well and did really well in doubles, but we just kind of ran out of gas in singles. Their top players were strong and had a little more juice at that point in the day.”
Once again in doubles, Moreno and Skinner won in the No. 2 spot, while Haugen and Dunn clinched a victory in the third position. Mayer [in the No. 5 spot] and sophomore Charlie Curtis [in the No. 6 spot] both won their matches in singles play respectively.
“I thought we handled adversity very well and continued to fight through the entire match, which I was extremely pleased about,” Mayer said.
This weekend, the Tigers head to their biggest tournament so far this season, the ITA Indoor National Championships in St. Peter, Minn.
“I have a great feeling for this weekend,” Moreno said. “I think we have a really great team and we can do a lot of damage.”
