WACO, Texas – Jacksonville State's men's tennis team split Saturday's matches in the Lone Star State. They dropped a morning match with No. 24 Baylor before bouncing back with a sweep of Incarnate Word just a few hours later.
"It was a tough match today," head coach
Trey Morris said. "We had a physical, emotional, and mentally-draining match against Baylor this morning. For our guys, we had less than an hour-and-15-minute break to shovel some food down and get ready for a tough battle against Incarnate Word. Our guys responded really well and found a way to compete."
Jax State (3-3) opened its day with a 6-1 loss at No. 24 Baylor (5-1). Although
Vanja Dobrnjac and
Lucius Soller battled to a 5-5 deadlock in No. 2 doubles, quick wins by the Bears on the other two courts clinched the opening point. Dobrnjac, a third-year Gamecock by way of Charlotte, was the only Jacksonville State competitor to tally a win at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis. His 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, three-setter over BU's Oskar Brostrom was the lone point in the setback.
The Red-and-White rolled by Incarnate Word (3-1), 4-0, in their afternoon pairing in Waco. They dominated doubles play, scoring 6-4 and 6-3 wins in the two final courts. After
Ivan Marrero Curbelo, who made his season debut on Saturday, picked up a 6-2, 6-3, victory in No. 1 singles, Dobrnjac (7-5, 6-1) and
Marko Milosavljevic (6-1, 6-2) added results in the third and fifth courts to hand the Cardinals their first loss of 2024. Furthermore, Dorbnjac's win came over UIW's Emilio Vila, who is currently ranked No. 124 nationally by the ITA.
"We're very happy with the guys," Morris said. "We're going to enjoy this one. We'll celebrate this tonight as we travel back to Jacksonville, and we're going to build off this one into training next week and get ready for Kennesaw State."
The Gamecocks return to play on Sun., Feb. 11, as they head to the Peach State for a non-conference test with future CUSA foe Kennesaw State. That match will start at 2 p.m. in Cobb County, Ga. The team finally comes home on Sat., Feb. 17, to play host to Troy in the 2024 home opener.
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