The afternoon started leisurely at the Texas Tennis Center as both teams waited for the courts to dry causing a lengthy hour and a half delay.
Texas chose to throw around a football as South Carolina kicked around a tennis ball to pass the time, but this was the end of the friendly competition. Drama quickly ensued as soon as the doubles competition began.
In the first game of doubles, both courts three and five went to deuce but ultimately fell in favor to the Gamecocks, giving South Carolina a 1–0 lead on both courts. On court five, Longhorn senior Pierre-Yves Bailly and freshman Sebastian Eriksson trailed 30–40, but won the following two points to take a 3–2 lead. Similarly on court three, Texas juniors Sebastian Gorzny and Jonah Braswell were behind 15–40, but won three straight points to avoid the first break of the afternoon and to tie the match 3–3.
All three matches sat at 3–3 with high intensity.
Bailly and Eriksson broke South Carolina freshman Max Stenzer and sophomore Sean Daryabeigi’s serve to retake the lead at 4–3. On court one, No. 8 redshirt freshman Timo Legout and sophomore Lucas Brown were in an intense battle all match against South Carolina pairing No. 15 graduate Connor Thomson and junior Lucas Andrade da Silva. Legout and Brown were up 40–30 to break Thomson and Andrade da Silva and to take a potential 5–3 lead, but the Gamecocks duo won back to back points to tie the match 4–4.
No. 87 Gamecock sophomore Jelani Sarr and freshman Atakan Karahan broke Gorzny and Braswell en route to a 6–3 victory causing the Longhorns to have to win the remaining two matches to secure the doubles point. In a must win deuce point, Legout and Brown picked up another game to retake the lead 5–4. A spectacular backhand return from Brown put Texas just one point away from its first doubles win. In a very emotional match, Legout and Brown broke Thomson and Andrade da Silva to secure the 6–4 win.
Now with the entire team watching, Eriksson’s powerful serve put away Stenzer and Daryabeigi, securing the Longhorns’ 6–4 victory, giving Texas the doubles point and a 1–0 lead heading into the singles competition.
In his last home match as a Longhorn, No. 46 Bailly put away No. 82 Daryabeigi 6–1, 6–2 on senior day. Bailly gave the Longhorns another point, extending the lead to 2–0 and clinching his first ranked win since he took down TCU’s No. 15 Lui Maxted on March 11.
South Carolina’s No. 54 Thomson had a frustrating day having to compete against Legout in both the singles and doubles play. No. 3 Legout took care of Thomson, winning both sets 6–3 and increasing the Longhorn lead to 3–0.
On court six, Brown defeated freshman Gabe Avram 6–1, 7–5, clinching the Longhorns’ 4–0 win.
With this win, Texas submits an undefeated 14–0 home record. No. 4 Texas improves to 19–3 as they prepare for a difficult road match against Oklahoma on Thursday. The Sooners are coming off an impressive 4–3 road win against No. 34 Alabama.
