Middle Tennessee men’s tennis (17-7) took care of business against William & Mary (7-9) despite weather challenges on Friday night.
There was some movement in the lineup as head coach Jimmy Borendame chose to shuffle around his doubles lineup. Notably splitting up Karim Al-Amin and Ondrej Horak.
“Sometimes you just need to change it up, see how it goes and we were tinkering in practice, and seeing what worked and it worked out today,” assistant coach Josh McDermott said. “So maybe it’s something we look to do again next time or maybe not.”
However, with the shuffled lineup it was still business as usual for the Blue Raiders, as Al-Amin and Houston Jacques won 6-4, and Horak and Antoine Mayoral won 6-2, securing the first point for the Blue Raiders.
Singles saw the return of Freddy Murray, who won his first set handily 6-0 6-1and the Blue Raiders jumped out ahead early, leading on four-of-six courts to open the contest. However, weather was a big factor early into singles with windy conditions blowing around serves.
“In regards to weather there’s only so much you can do, you can’t get the ball to high up or the ball is going to move too much in the air,” Jacques said. “But I wasn’t too worried, I was just trying to make balls and make the other team play as much as possible, because they were dealing with the weather as much as we were.”
As the games continued, rain started to fall forcing the match indoors to the Adams Tennis Complex. The move indoors didn’t affect the Blue Raiders as they continued to breeze through singles play, with Mayoral finishing first on court 5,6-3,6-0.
“They’ve done a good job bringing the energy,” McDermott said. “And when we’ve come over here, I’ve never seen them dip and the captains do a good job of keeping up that standard.”
The Blue Raiders took the final three courts, to secure the 4-0 win over the Tribe, with the other singles wins from Murray 6-0,6-1 and Horak 6-0,6-1to close out the night.
The Blue Raiders will return to action at home on Sunday at 12 p.m. to face the Tulane University Green Wave and Tennessee State University Tigers.
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