Texas experienced its fair share of highs and lows this weekend. Senior Ed Corrie and junior Jean Andersen had a strong showing at the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, and the other members of the team had a few mixed results at the Texas Invitational.
The unseeded duo of Corrie and Andersen advanced to the semifinals of the event where they fell to Mississippi’s fourth-seeded doubles team.
“Ed and Jean are proving they are one of the better doubles teams in college tennis,” head coach Michael Center said.
Corrie and Andersen fell in the first set 6-3 but took their opponents to a tiebreak in the second set where they eventually lost.
“Each team held its serve throughout the second set, and once we got to the tiebreak, it was a couple of points here and there that made the difference,” Corrie said. “They played well on those big points and executed slightly better than us.”
Despite a disappointing result in the semis, Corrie and Andersen likely turned a few heads with their play, and made big strides toward become a championship caliber team.
“In our first couple of matches we took chances to break our opponent and did that really well,” Corrie said. “That was one of our biggest strengths. We battled well in our service games and won some big points.”
Back in Austin at the Texas Invitational, the theme of the weekend continued with the doubles teams trumping the singles performances. In the singles draws, Texas wasn’t able to make much noise. Only redshirt freshman David Holiner and redshirt sophomore Alex Hilliard are able to advance in the consolation draws to the semifinals and finals, respectively.
In doubles play however, the Longhorns fared much better by setting up an all-Texas final between the teams of senior Kellen Damico and Holiner, and sophomores Ben Chen and Daniel Whitehead. Both teams were able to put together strong semifinal matches against a pair of teams from Texas A&M. Chen and Whitehead wound up winning the familiar final in a close match that went down to the final game.
“Ben and Daniel played really, really well this weekend, especially today,” said Texas assistant coach Ricardo Rubio, “They were putting on an exhibition with their returns and their volleys, and they earned their wins today.”
