Texas Men’s Tennis Advances to SEC Championship Final
Columbia, S.C. – With a 4-2 win over the 5-seed No. 14 Tennessee, the No. 4 Texas Men’s Tennis team has moved on to the SEC Championship final. The match took place at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C. The Longhorns are set to face the 3-seed host, No. 13 South Carolina, on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT. This victory also served as a rematch, as it avenged Texas’ only SEC loss of the season.
Similar to their quarterfinals encounter with Auburn, Texas quickly took to the doubles court. Senior Pierre-Yves Bailly and freshman Sebastian Eriksson, ranked No. 78, opened with a win. However, Tennessee managed to secure the doubles point after victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots.
Tennessee initially took a 2-0 lead with their first singles win at No. 6, but the Longhorns turned the match around. Bailly at No. 3, Eriksson at No. 5, junior No. 72 Jonah Braswell at No. 4, and freshman No. 2 Timo Legout at No. 1 all earned singles victories.
Legout clinched the match after a challenging second set where he faced a match point against him. He persisted and ultimately won, defeating No. 31 Alex Kotzen with scores of 5-7, 7-5, 6-3. Though Texas led 3-2 overall at that moment, junior No. 22 Sebastian Gorzny faced challenges in his match at No. 2 while battling an injury.
Earlier in the match, Braswell had given Texas a 3-2 overall lead with a strong comeback against Jose Garcia, winning 4-6, 6-0, 6-0. The other singles matches leading up to this point also showcased dominant performances, notably Eriksson, who tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jan Kobierski, and Bailly, who opened Texas scoring with a decisive 6-0, 6-1 victory against Alejandro Moreno.
In the doubles competition, Texas lost the doubles point with the No. 11 duo of Legout and sophomore Lucas Brown falling to No. 9 Kotzen and Moreno, 6-4. The Volunteers capitalized on early breaks to secure their lead. With this victory, Texas now holds a record of 24-4 this season.
