SAN ANTONIO – No. 8 Trinity University Men's Tennis will play once more at the
Butch Newman Tennis Center as they host their final regular season match of the season against Schreiner University.
The Tigers (12-6; 3-1 SCAC) faced two West region foes in No. 19 Southwestern University (April 14) and UC Santa Cruz (April 15), and went 1-1 on the weekend.
Trinity fell just shy of a win in their match against Southwestern with a mark of 5-4. Senior
Alessio Azzalini (Rome, Italy / Istituto Paritario G. Visconti) and first-year
Rafa Candelas Ruiz (Zacatecas, Mexico / American School [Spain]) posted the Tigers' only doubles win with a mark of 8-4, giving the Pirates the edge going into singles play.
Senior
Hao Nguyen (Sugar Land, Texas / Strake Jesuit) quickly got Trinity back in the match with his straight-set win at line one singles, but Southwestern fired back quickly with a win in line four. Senior
Cal Hunter (Lafayette, Calif. / Campolindo) and Azzalini both notched wins in lines six and two respectively to bring the match to a tie at 4-4, but the Tigers were bested by the Pirates as Candelas Ruiz fell just short in the three-set clinching match.
Trinity returned home to face the UC Santa Cruz and quickly bounced back from their loss to Southwestern, posting a 6-3 victory to close out their weekend of play.
The Tigers had a 2-1 lead after doubles, their first win coming from Azzalini and Candelas Ruiz as they put up an 8-6 mark. Doubles play was capped by a thrilling 8-7 (7-5) line one victory by the duo of Nguyen and Liao who improved to 11-4 overall this season, and 8-2 from the top line.
Sophomore
Connor Whittington (Lake Oswego, Ore. / Lake Oswego) started the scoring for singles play with his straight-set 6-2, 6-0 win at line four, putting Trinity ahead 3-1. Whittington's victory was followed closely by Azzalini in line two, putting the Tigers one point from the clinch with his mark of 7-5, 6-0.
Nguyen posted his seventh consecutive singles win in his own straight-set victory (6-1, 6-2), improving his record to 8-1 from line one this year. Liao also posted a win shortly after the clinch, while the Banana Slugs collected the final two points of the match.
NCAA III Rankings: Tigers Break Into the Nation's Top Ten
The latest poll from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association has ranked Trinity Men's Tennis at No. 8 in the nation – still second in the West behind No. 6 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (CA).
Nguyen leads the Tigers in the newest regional player rankings, up two spots now as the seventh ranked singles player in the West, while Azzalini also remains within the top half of the ranked players – falling just behind his teammate in eighth. Whittington also made a two-spot jump to sit at No. 20. The duo of Nguyen and Liao also found themselves moving up, now the fifth-ranked doubles team in the region.
Preview: Final Regular Season Matchup
On the Mountaineers: Schreiner is currently 12-9 on the season, with a winning record of 4-1 in conference play. Before falling to UC Santa Cruz on April 16 the team had a six-match win streak with two 9-0 sweeps of fellow SCAC competitors Texas Lutheran University and Austin College.
Five of the Mountaineers' losses have come in shutouts, including two home losses to No. 18 Southwestern (March 3) and No. 20 Colby (March 21).
In their last nine matchups since 2010, Trinity has dished out goose eggs to Schreiner each time for a complete set of clean sweeps.
Up Next: Post-Season Play is Soon Underway
No. 8 Trinity Men's Tennis will compete in the 2023 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, hosted by Southwestern in Georgetown, Texas, April 28-30.
