No. 3 Texas Holds On To Defeat CU Men's Tennis, 5-2

BOULDER ? The University of Colorado men’s tennis team nearly pulled off their biggest upset in their history falling to No. 3 Texas, 5-2 Sunday afternoon in front of almost 350 fans at the South Boulder Tennis Courts. The Longhorns (15-1, 4-0 Big 12) were one step ahead of the Buffaloes all day starting with the doubles point then winning four of the next six singles slots.

CU’s win streak stops at six matches and falls to 15-6 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12.

Over the last two weeks the Buffs reeled off six straight wins and started the conference season with four consecutive victories, a school best since the 1992-93 season.

“We ran into a buzz saw today,” said Texas head coach Michael Center. “We’re really fortunate to get out that match with a win. They (Colorado) have done a tremendous job under these circumstances.”

The Longhorns struck first on the scoreboard winning the doubles point in dramatic fashion. After Texas jumped ahead winning the No. 2 slot, the Buffaloes rebounded with Marko Bundalo and Eric Molnar defeating Callum Beale and Travis Helgeson, 8-6 at No. 1 for their third victory in a row.

The doubles match came down to a tie-breaker at No. 3 as Texas’ Miguel Reyes Varela and Milan Mihailovic outlasted Geoffrey Chizever and Marek Dvorak, 9-8 (7-4). The match see-sawed back and forth with the Longhorns playing to a 5-2 advantage and then going on to win 7-4 in a tie-breaker.

Trailing 1-0, CU quickly evened the match at one behind Chad Tsuda’s straight-set winner at No. 5. Tsuda defeated Miguel Reyes Varela 7-5, 6-1 for his 20^th singles win of the year. The win by Tsuda sets a school record for a number of student-athletes winning 20 matches in a single year joining teammates Peter Bjork, Marek Dvorak, Eric Molnar and Jan Zelezny.

The Longhorns made it 2-1 on the scoreboard taking the No. 6 slot before Molnar evened the score once again upsetting No. 7 Travis Helgeson 6-4, 7-6(5) at the No. 1 slot. Molnar continues his red-hot streak winning his fifth straight. It’s also Molnar’s second straight upset winner over a top-10 ranked opponent after upsetting No. 8 Jerry Makowski of Texas A&M on Friday.

From there UT pushed ahead to a 3-2 advantage winning the No. 3 slot.

The final two singles matches came down to the final third set as Texas’ Milan Mihailovic outlasted CU’s Marko Bundalo 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 6-4 at No. 4, and No. 36 Roger Gubser rallied to defeat Peter Bjork 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 at No. 2 to close out the final tally.

“Today was certainly the biggest crowd we’ve had here at CU and that’s credit of how these guys have handled themselves and how hard they compete,” said head coach Sam Winterbotham. “It was a couple of points here and there. We win a couple of points in doubles, we win the match. I firmly believe a couple of points either way with the matches left on, it’s just a dog fight. Give a great deal to Texas, they came in and fought hard and that’s what’s it’s all about.”

Colorado continues their homestand this Friday, April 14 against No. 22 Boise State and in-state rival and No. 62 ranked Denver to close out the home schedule on Sunday. Both matches start at 1 p.m.

No. 3 Texas 5, No. 28 Colorado 2

Texas (16-1, 4-0 Big 12), CU (15-6, 4-1 Big 12)

South Campus Tennis Courts, Boulder, Colo.

1d) Bundalo/Molnar (CU) def. Beale/Helgeson 8-6

2d) Chodkiewicz/Gubser (UT) def. Tsuda/Zelezny 8-3

3d) Varela/Mihailovic (UT) def. Chizever/Dvorak 9-8(4)

Order of finish: 2, 1, 3

1s) Eric Molnar (CU) def. (7) Travis Helgeson 6-4, 7-6(5)

2s) (36) Roger Gubser (UT) def. Peter Bjork 5-7, 6-1, 7-5

3s) (39) Callum Beale (UT) def. Jan Zelezny 7-6(5), 7-5

4s) Milan Mihailovic (UT) def. Marko Bundalo 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 6-4

5s) Chad Tsuda (CU) def. Miguel Reyes Varela 7-5, 6-1