The seventh-ranked Trinity men’s tennis team finished its regular season schedule with 9-0 shutout victory wins against the University of Texas-Dallas and Colorado College last Saturday.
The Tigers are now 20-6 for the season and have won six consecutive games, five of them shutout wins. The Tigers are also now 21-1 in doubles matches in the last 10 matches.
Last Saturday’s matches honored the two Tiger seniors, Greg Haugen and Nico Moreno.
Haugen (15-8) won the No.2 singles line against UT-Dallas and the No.1 singles line against Colorado College. Moreno (11-11) won the No. 3 singles against UT-Dallas and the No. 2 line against Colorado College. Haugen and junior Jordan Mayer captured both No. 2 doubles matches, improving their record to 13-6 for the season. Moreno and sophomore Paxton Deuel also won both their doubles matches for the No.1 line; they are now 14-10 for the season.
“UT-Dallas is a team we know with a lot of talent,” said head coach Russel McMindes. They have a good roster and we never know what to expect from them so we always prepare very hard for them. Fortunately, our guys came out ready to play.”
The Tigers competed against University of Texas-Tyler and Texas Lutheran University April 12, earning two home wins against the teams.
Trinity beat UT-Tyler 9-0, wining all six singles matches and three doubles matches. The Tigers beat Texas Lutheran 8-1, taking five singles matches and three doubles matches. Doubles team of Curtis and first year Clayton Neiss were the only Tigers pair to win both doubles matches for the day. Against UT-Tyler, Haugen and Mayer won their doubles match 8-4 and Deuel and Moreno won 8-5. Sophomores Brandon Thompson and Eliot Guin won their doubles match 8-1 against Texas Lutheran, and doubles pair of sophomore Connor Dunn and first year Chas Mayer won their doubles match 8-4.
In singles play against UT-Tyler, Deuel took the No. 1 singles line winning 6-2, 6-2 and Haugen took the No. 2 singles line winning his match 7-5, 6-3. Moreno and Skinner took their respective No. 3 and No. 4 singles lines 6-3, 6-2. Mayer captured the No. 5 singles match 6-4, 6-2, while Curtis captured the No. 6 singles match 6-2, 6-1.
“UT-Tyler is always one of our most anticipated matches of the year since there is a bit of a rivalry between our schools,” Haugen said. “The last three years we have had crazy intense battles with the team with the outcome being settled by one or two matches.”
Against Texas Lutheran, Dunn defeated his opponent 6-3, 6-3 for the No. 1 singles match. Chas Mayer was victorious in the No. 2 line, winning 7-5, 6-2. Thompson took the No. 3 singles line (6-3, 6-1), junior Pablo Boom took the No. 4 singles (6-2, 6-0) and Manuel Brown took the No. 6 singles line (6-2, 6-4).
Trinity will host the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship this weekend. The Tigers are the defending champion and are the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
“I think we are going into the SCAC championship with the mindset of keeping the high expectations of winning it,” Moreno said. “We want to continue the trend from the past four years; I think we have the team to win it once again.”
