The No. 12 Texas men’s tennis team traveled to Athens, Georgia, this past weekend to face No. 11 Georgia on Friday, No. 13 USC on Saturday and No. 7 Virginia on Sunday in its first action of the new season. 

While the Longhorns had a forgettable performance Friday after splitting their singles and doubles matchups against Georgia, Texas outdueled its competition over the days that followed. Nobody contributed more to Texas’ success against USC and Virginia than junior Eliot Spizzirri, who notched two wins over top-five opponents over the weekend.

Spizzirri came into the weekend as a projected top performer for Texas. He’s the only player on Texas’ roster to be ranked nationally in both singles (No. 35) and doubles (No. 16). Even with these high expectations, he managed to outperform his rankings in the weekend’s bouts.

Spizzirri began his tough stretch of games Saturday against the No. 2-ranked doubles duo nationally, USC’s Stefan Dostanic and Bradley Frye. Spizzirri and his partner in crime, redshirt junior Cleeve Harper, were up for the challenge, beating the USC duo 8-6 in Saturday’s opening match. 

When singles play began, Spizzirri then secured another ranked win, this time decisively beating singles No. 44 Bradley Frye 6-4, 6-0.

Sunday also proved to be fruitful for Spizzirri, as he convincingly took down the No. 4-ranked singles player nationally, Virginia’s Inaki Montes De La Torre, 6-3, 6-2.

But not everything was perfect for Spizzirri over the weekend. De La Torre and his doubles partner Ryan Goetz enacted revenge against Spizzirri and Harper in an 8-6 win. 

Spizzirri faced trouble Friday against unranked Georgia competition. He dropped both of his matches to begin the weekend, falling to the Bulldogs’ Ethan Quinn in both a hard-fought singles match and their doubles match. 

Even though Spizzirri and much of Texas’ roster struggled Friday, with the Longhorns going 6–6 overall, Spizzirri and the team displayed resilience as the weekend progressed. Spizzirri finished 3-1 Saturday and Sunday and the team captured 13 wins out of its 18 matches in the final days.

Other noteworthy performances over the weekend included junior Siem Woldeab, ranked No. 98 in singles, sweeping his three singles matches over ranked opponents, junior Evin McDonald, going a perfect 5-0 across his three singles and two doubles matches, and junior Eshan Talluri going undefeated in his three singles matches.

Next up for the No. 12 Longhorns is the Commodore Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The event will take place from Sept. 23-25.