After being forced to stay in Champaign, Illinois for 10 days during the snowstorm, the No. 6 Texas men’s tennis team finally returned to action in New Orleans to face Tulane on Saturday.

Following victories at doubles and No. 6 singles to jump out to a 2-0 advantage, Texas was able to take No. 1 and No. 3 singles to hold on and secure a 4-3 victory over the Green Wave. 

No. 120-ranked sophomore Eliot Spizzirri continued his remarkable spring season after beating Tulane’s No. 40-ranked Hamish Stewart at No. 1 singles. The win is his third-consecutive against opponents ranked in the ITA top 50 after he beat No. 8-ranked Sam Riffice of Florida and No. 19-ranked Jake Sands of USC. 

No. 78-ranked freshman Micah Braswell held off graduate student Luis Erlenbusch at No. 3 singles, bringing his overall singles record at Texas to 23-2. 

While still adapting to college tennis’s competition level, Braswell said he likes his current approach to the matches.

“Sometimes I get a little nervous before the matches, but I kind of think that is a good thing for me,” Braswell said. “It kind of gets me ready to go before my match, and then once I step out on the court I usually forget about all that and just play tennis.”

Braswell narrowly took the first set 7-5, before dropping the second in a tiebreak. With the overall score knotted at 3-3, Braswell went on to resoundingly pick up the final set by a score of  6-1 to clinch the match for Texas.

“I wasn’t as aggressive as I should be, but I just talked to the assistant coach Brandon (Wagner),” Braswell said. “He just told me that he wants to see if I can bounce back. Luckily I was able to do that.”

After failing to secure a doubles point in any of their three matches at the ITA Indoor Championship, Texas bounced back in a big way today to win the No. 1 and No. 2 spots 6-2. 

Texas will look to gain some momentum heading into the conference season, as they face No. 23 Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Friday.