Horned Frogs dismantle Vols in commanding fashion

The No. 3 TCU Horned Frogs took care of business Thursday evening in Goodfriend Tennis Center against the No. 10 Vols, winning the match 4-1.

After moving up one spot in the ITA rankings from No. 11 to No. 10 the Vols were looking to spoil the evening for the undefeated Horned Frogs and add a statement win to the Vols resume in front of a crowd of 450. 

However, the Horned Frogs weren’t in the mood to deal with any spoilers.

Pedro Vives and Sebastian Gorzny got the scoring started for the match for TCU as they defeated Volunteers Shunsuke Mitsui and Tomas Rodriguez cruising to a 6-3 victory.

Vols Johannus Monday and Pat Harper weren’t letting TCU take the next court and get an easy overall match point as they took down the No. 4 nationally ranked duo in Lui Maxted and Sander Jong by a score of 6-3.

With the doubles courts all tied up at 1-1, the lone match remaining was between Vols Emile Hudd and Angel Diaz against TCU’s Luc Fomba and Jake Fearnley.

Although the Volunteers desperately needed to win the court to steal the doubles point and take a 1-0 overall match lead, Hudd/Diaz were unable to beat Fomba/Fearnley losing 7-5.

Heading into singles play, the Vols had to win four courts to win the match, which was a tall task to ask when playing the No. 3 ranked team.

Angel Diaz was the first Vol to fall as he was taken down by Sebastian Gorzny 6-1, 6-4, giving TCU a 2-0 lead for the evening.

TCU would advance its lead to 3-0 as Sander Jong squeezed past No. 86 nationally ranked Blaise Bicknell winning both sets 6-4.

With four courts in play and the Vols needing to win all four to win the match the Volunteers had found their backs pushed against the wall.

Red hot Jr. sensation Johannus Monday picked up where he left off Saturday afternoon as he took down No. 8 nationally ranked Jake Fearnley 7-6 needing a 7-5 tiebreaker in the first set and then slamming the door in the second set 6-4 to give the Vols hope making the match score 3-1 TCU.

A scrappy Vols team found themselves fighting back and at one point looked as if a miraculous comeback was going to happen.

Those dreams were ruined as TCU’s Tomas Jirousek took care of Martim Prata by a score of 6-2, 7-5 which gave the Horned Frogs the fourth point in the match winning 4-1.

Emile Hudd and Shunsuke Mitsui’s matches went unfinished. Hudd split the first two sets with Maxted and led 2-0 in the third set. Mitsui lost the first set but was tied 5-5 in the second set.

Head coach Chris Woodruff had no comments on the loss postgame.

The Vols hit the big city next in a big apple showdown to take on Columbia in New York, NY at Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. ET.