Wichita State men’s tennis traveled to Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday and lost their 10th straight match against Texas Tech, 5-2. The 10-win streak for Texas Tech over the Shockers dates back to March 9, 2003.
The loss against the Red Raiders is also the third in a row for the Shockers in the spring season, dropping their record to 1-3 overall.
The Shockers started the afternoon by dropping two of the three doubles matches, amounting to an early 1-0 deficit overall and leaving the third match unfinished.
Freshman Vanja Hodzic and senior Misha Kvantaliani lost 6-1 in their first match. Sophomore Richey King and senior Marcelo Sepulveda lost their match by a score of 6-4.
Wichita State then went on to win two of the first four singles matches, but this would not be enough to stifle the Red Raiders.
Junior Kristof Minarik swept his opponent on the third court 6-3 and 6-1 in sets one and two, as the Shockers tied the event at 1-1 overall.
Kvantaliani was swept on the second court with scores being 6-4 and 7(7)-6(4) in sets one and two.
Sophomore Alejandro Jacome’s match ended in another Texas Tech win and was the first match that went to three sets. Jacome was bested in sets one and three by a 6-4 score while Jacome stole set two with a score of 7(10)-6(8).
Court four was Wichita State’s last hope for victory with a Hodzic win in a reverse sweep. Hodzic lost set one with a score of 7(7)-6(5), but would stay strong and win sets two and three with scores of 6-4 in both.
Sepulveda and sophomore Luke Bracks were beaten in their respective matches to put a stamp on the meet for Texas Tech.
Bracks was beaten by scores of 7(9)-6(7) and 6-3 in the two sets of match 6. Sepulveda was defeated by scores of 7-5 and 7(9)-6(7) in sets one and two.
Wichita State must now shift focus to its match against the University of Nebraska Omaha on Friday, Jan. 26. That match will be played at Genesis Rock Road in Wichita at 1 p.m.