CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Freshman Itay Feigin came up with a colossal come-from-behind singles win to help the NM State men's tennis team put an end to a seven-match losing skid with a 4-3 triumph over Big East foe DePaul on the opening day of the H-E-B Tournament of Champions at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.
NM State dropped a 5-0 decision to UTSA to open the H-E-B Tournament of Champions earlier in the day but bounced back in their second match of the day.
Match One | UTSA 5, NM State 0
Doubles
• Things didn't start off well for the Aggies as Louis Menard and Jordy Visser secured only a single game in their 6-1 loss to UTSA's Joao Ceolin and Javier Gonzalez in top-flight tandem play.
• UTSA locked up the doubles point with another win on line three. Martin Simecek and Luca Fe d'Ostiani kept things close before ultimately falling by a 6-4 score against Maxim Groysman and Garrett Skelly.
• Gijs Akkermans and Corey Clarke were denied an opportunity at a doubles win over their own as they led the second-line duo of Sebastian Rodriguez and Tiago Torres by a 5-4 score at the time play was halted.
Singles
• The Roadrunners continued their shutout bid once singles action got going as Simecek took only three games in his 6-1, 6-2 third-flight setback at the hands of Rodriguez.
• UTSA's lead continued to grow after Itay Feigin was denied his second-straight singles triumph. Feigin fell by a 6-2, 6-3 score against Torres in flight four action.
• Matches five and six of singles play wrapped up at roughly the same time, accounting for the 5-0 final score. Fe d'Ostiani and Danijal Muminovic found themselves locked in a tight battle, but the Roadrunners got the match-clinching point when Muminovic earned a hard-fought 6-4, 6-3 win.
• Akkermans and Groysman duked it out in flight six action, but the close match went to UTSA's competitor by a 7-5, 6-4 tally.
• Both Menard (3-6, 6-2, uf) and Clarke (2-6, 2-5, uf) didn't record a singles decision for the match.
Match Two | NM State 4, DePaul 3
Doubles
• After a doubles point loss earlier in the day, NM State came out strong in tandem action to get an early upper hand.
• Moving up to the top flight, Akkermans and Clarke scored a 6-3 triumph over Marino Jakic and Vito Tonejc.
• Down on line two sat Menard and Visser who, like their top-line teammates, picked up a 6-3 win in their tilt against Jona Gitschel and Lars Peder Minsaas to give the Aggies a 1-0 lead.
Singles
• Back-and-forth play ruled for the remainder of the match as NM State extended its lead thanks to some strong performances on the lower lines.
• Simecek was a 7-6, 6-3 winner against Minsaas in flight four while Visser secured a 7-5, 6-3 win against Matteo Iaquinto in flight six play.
• Though Fe d'Ostiani was on the wrong end of a 6-4, 7-5 decision against Leon Huck in flight five, NM State still needed just a single point to lock up the win.
• DePaul had other ideas, though. The Blue Demons got the job done on line one and line two to knot matters at 3-3.
• Feigin wound up playing the role of hero for the Aggies. After suffering a 6-3 loss in the opening set, the freshman battled all the way back in the final two frames to earn a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win against Tripp Tuff to lock down NM State's first win since the opening day of the 2022 portion of the year.
COMING UP NEXT
• Saturday marks the Aggies' final day at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center as they close out their two-day run in the H-E-B Tournament of Champions. NM State is slated to take on WAC foe Abilene Christian in a non-league tilt at 8:00 a.m. MT.
++NM State++
