The No. 3 Texas Longhorns — off an eight-day break from dispatching No. 1 Ohio State at home — continued their dominant home stand against No. 12 Columbia, dominating doubles play and making quick work of singles to take the match 6-1, and grabbing another top-15 win to remain perfect at the Texas Tennis Center this season.
“I think one of the things (tonight) shows is that (Texas) had a lot of respect for Columbia, and we know what kind of team they are,” Texas interim head coach Brent Berque said. “I was really impressed with the way we came out to start the doubles … to beat Columbia by that score is a really impressive effort for these guys.”
No. 7 doubles pair Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison Scott took command of the doubles point for Texas early, winning their match 6-1 over No. 12 Jack Lin and William Matheson. Texas’ Colin Markes and Leonardo Telles clinched the doubles point with a 6-2 win over Adam Ambrozy and Austen Huang, though Yuya Ito and Chih Chi Huang were on the verge of clinching the point themselves, leaving their match unfinished at 5-2 over Columbia’s Victor Pham and Rian Pandole.
“No. 1 doubles (Sigsgaard and Scott) did a terrific job,” Burque said. “They started off with great intensity, especially after playing a poor match against Ohio State, they were the first ones off the court today.”
No. 9 Ito would jump out and take down the Lions’ No. 16 Lin in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1 to give the Longhorns a 2-0 lead, and after No. 6 Sigsgaard took down No. 41 Pham 6-4, 6-3, Texas needed just one more point to clinch another dominant victory at home, in front of a crowd rivaling the size of last week’s match against Ohio State.
It was Telles who delivers the clinching point eight days after doing so against the Buckeyes, this time taking down Columbia’s Ambrozy 6-2, 6-4.
“I’m just happy to get another point for the team,” Telles said. “(Ambrozy) is a really good player, I remember I played him my sophomore year in another tough match. I was able to be more aggressive … Overall, I felt pretty good.”
The remaining matches were played out, but did not affect the outcome of the match, with the only dropped match for Texas being Pandole’s defeat of Scott, 6-4, 6-3. Texas grabbed the last two points, one of which was Chih Chi Huang’s 6-1, 7-5 win over Columbia’s Austen Huang after having sat out singles the past two matches.
Texas has a quick turnaround at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday as the No. 15 USC Trojans enter town for another top-15 matchup.
“Another great team, we have a great schedule,” Telles. “We have to get a good night of sleep, get ready and get a practice tomorrow and be ready.”