Texas men's tennis team sweeps into NCAA Tournament Elite Eight with win over Texas A&M

Texas' men's tennis team won its NCAA super regional over Texas A&M on Friday night, advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA championships with a 4-0 sweep.

After winning the doubles point, UT earned victories from Micah Braswell, Cleeve Harper and Gilles-Arnaud Bailly, who sealed the deal for the Longhorns. The Aggies were without Raphael Perot, their top-20 player, who missed singles and doubles with an injury.

Here are some observations from the match:

Another exciting doubles duel

The doubles matches were tightly contested on all three courts, with Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab winning the first match against A&M's 14th-ranked pair, Togan Tokac and Giulio Perego, 7-5.

Initially, it looked as if UT's Eshan Talluri and Pierre-Yves Bailly were on their way to a comfortable win on line two, taking an early 3-0 lead while Texas' line three of Braswell and Harper were struggling early with a 4-1 deficit.

Things quickly changed, however. A&M's Lathan Skrobareck and JC Roddick managed to tie Talluri/Bailly at 6-6 and took a 4-2 advantage in the tiebreak. They won 7-6 (3), but their triumph was short-lived as Braswell and Harper had stormed back to defeat Tiago Pires and Luke Casper 7-5.

"They hung in there, and they fought back, and in the end we needed them," Texas coach Bruce Berque said.

The Longhorns' 16-match winning streak started with a change in the doubles lineup, and the magic continued vs. A&M. Even with their dominance, the tight contest within doubles showed that the veteran group is comfortable with its backs up against the wall

"I saw that it had gotten to a tiebreaker and that they got down the first few points," Braswell said. "Me and Cleeve looked at each other, and we knew it was going to be on our rackets. So we were ready to go."

A luxury of depth

Texas has five players ranked in the ITA's top 100 singles, including Spizzirri and Braswell, who are both in the top 10. UT was missing one, though, as Pierre decided to skip singles due to injury. Berque was completely comfortable with that. Why? Because Texas' depth has given him the luxury of resting his players. With the way Texas dominated singles, Pierre's absence was barely noticeable.

"We've got about four or five guys that aren't in the lineup that all could play and that all have played and won huge matches for us," Braswell said.

Granted, A&M sorely missed Perot. However, it goes to show that most teams simply don't have the ability to replace top 100 players the way Texas does. In the end, that strength can cause some headaches for Berque, who's comfortable putting 11 guys in his lineup.

"It also creates some stressful nights trying to decide who to put in the lineup because I truly don't even know," Berque said. "I just do the best I can to make a decision each match."

Who's next?

Texas will face No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The Volunteers feature the current No. 1 player in the country, Johannus Monday, the only player currently ranked better than Spizzirri. Monday and Angel Diaz combine to form the No. 6 team in the country, with a 13-7 record.

Texas women are eliminated

Meanwhile, UCLA held serve on its home courts Friday, knocking No. 9 Texas (23-6) out of the NCAA women's tournament with a 4-1 third-round victory in Los Angeles. The No. 8 Bruins (21-5) won two matches to take the doubles point before adding three singles victories. Tanya Sasnouskaya picked up the lone point for the Longhorns on the No. 4 line in singles with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Elise Wagle.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas men's tennis team advances past Texas A&M to NCAA Elite Eight