ABILENE, Texas – In the men's tennis version of the "crosstown showdown," McMurry University was defeated by Hardin-Simmons University, 6-3, at the Seidel-Swagerty Tennis Center. The War Hawks fell to 5-8 overall, 0-1 in the American Southwest Conference West Division.
McMurry managed to take a 2-1 lead in the team score after the three doubles matches to start the afternoon. At the No. 1 line, Sophomore
Carlos Martinez and senior
Clayton Pope dispatched of the Cowboys' Holt Fields and Jordan Davis, 8-3. The Martinez-Pope team improved to 5-2 on the year with the win.
HSU would take No. 2 doubles. The War Hawks won the No. 3 doubles bout, 8-6, behind the play of
Zach Miller and
Joseph Diaz, defeating the Cowboys' duo of Griffin Weinkamp and Hayden Keller. Miller and Diaz are also 5-2 in pairs play this season.
The Cowboys would wrangle the team victory by taking five of the six singles matches. McM's lone win in singles came from Martinez in the featured line No. 1 match versus HSU's Alex Hunt. Hunt tracked down a win in set one, 6-3. But it as Martinez who would bounce back to take the final two sets by scores of 6-2 and 6-4, improving his personal singles record to 10-2.
Of the five singles wins by HSU, two also split sets. At No. 2 singles, Pope easily won his first set, 6-0, but lost to Weinkamp in the final two (6-3, 6-0). At No. 5 singles, Miller and HSU's Davis split the first two sets, Davis winning 6-1 and then Miller 7-5 in the second. Davis won set three, 6-3.
McMurry will next be in action on Friday, April 6 at Howard Payne University (1 p.m.) in Brownwood.
Hardin-Simmons 6, McMurry University 3
3/29/2018 at Abilene, Texas (Seidel-Swagerty Tennis Center)
| Match Notes |
| Hardin-Simmons 2-10, 1-0 ASC |
| McMurry University 5-8, 0-1 ASC |
| A-53 |
