No. 4 Texas continued its momentum with two victories in three days on a whirlwind road trip. Although the team had limited rest from playing BYU on Thursday and Texas Tech on Saturday, the Longhorns increased their win streak to seven with 4–0 and 4–1 wins, respectively.
In Provo, Texas struggled early as BYU juniors Wally Thayne and Zach Fuchs stunned the No. 53 pair of Texas seniors Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab, 6-2. However, Texas junior Pierre Yves-Bailly and senior Eshan Talluri’s 6-4 victory over BYU’s pairing of Australian senior Jack Barnett and sophomore Redd Owen evened the score.
This turned all eyes to Court Four, as Texas redshirt senior Cleeve Harper and redshirt freshman Lucas Brown were leading freshman doubles pairing Tygen Goldammer and TJ Wells, 5-4. Although BYU battled throughout and forced a tiebreaker, Harper and Brown remained resilient to win 7-5.
The lone lopsided singles victory came from Woldeab’s quick 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Owen. While Owen had a few great returns in the second set, Woldeab’s powerful serves and forehand proved to be far too much for the sophomore, giving Texas a 2-0 lead.
Belgian freshman Gilles-Arnaud Bailly was challenged in both sets of his 6-4, 6-3 win over Thayne, but Bailly kept his poise as he has all season to improve his singles record in dual matches to 11-2 on the year.
Texas needed just one more match to secure the victory, which was done by No. 1 ranked singles player Eliot Spizzirri over Jack Barnett. After Spizzirri cruised through the first set, Barnett battled to force a second-set tiebreak. However, with the breaker tied at 2, he sailed an easy overhead at the net long. This proved to be the difference, as Spizzirri won the breaker 7-5 to seal the sweep for Texas.
In Lubbock, the Longhorns started doubles strong, as Brown and Harper secured a 6-3 victory over Niksa Arsic and Olle Wallin. On Court 3, with Talluri and Pierre-Yves Bailly up 5-4 on Reed Collier and Takeyasu Sekiguchi, Tech was serving with the score tied at 40 but double-faulted to give Texas its second doubles match and a 1-0 lead.
Singles began poorly for the Longhorns, however. Although Harper and Brown dominated their first sets (6-1 and 6-2) against Sebastian Abboud and Takeyasu Sekiguchi, respectively, Texas was down in four other matches, leaving it in a dire situation.
Momentarily, however, things began trending up for Texas. Brown and Harper clinched the second and third points, each getting 6-1 second-set wins, and Braswell battled to win the first set over Pawlak, finishing with a clean ace down the line.
Spizzirri was in a first-set tiebreak after battling back from 1-4 down with No. 56 Olle Wallin when he had set point. However, Wallin fought it off and eventually won the set on an overruled call. Spizzirri couldn’t bounce back, as he quickly dropped the second set 2-6, marking his third singles loss in dual match play. It didn’t matter, however; as Braswell dominated the second set 6-2 to win the match for Texas despite its struggles.
Texas’ streak of sweeping their opponents was broken, but it remains hot with three matches remaining in the regular season. After some much-needed rest, it faces another two-game road trip in Oklahoma against the Cowboys on Friday and the Sooners on Sunday.
