HOUSTON – The Prairie View A&M men's tennis team opened 2016 schedule Friday with a pair of dual matches at Rice University's George R. Brown Tennis Center.
 
The Panthers opened play in the morning against Abilene Christian, and then concluded the day against Rice, ranked No. 58 among NCAA Division I teams by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
 
The matches were the first under the direction of PVAMU head coach Duane Williams, who was hired at the start of the 2015-16 academic year. Williams had previously served as an assistant coach for the Prairie View A&M men's and women's tennis teams, and was on staff for the men's tennis team's 2012 Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
 
Abilene Christian 5, Prairie View A&M 0 (Box Score)
ACU won enough individual matches to claim victory without completing all seven competitions. The Wildcats would not get the doubles point easily, as the Panthers claimed victory in flight two while ACU took flights one and three.
 
Anirudh Yadov and Ulrick Boyogueno's 6-4 victory in flight two highlighted the morning session for the Panthers. The pair defeated Jason Proctor and Henry Adams.
 
In flight one, PVAMU's Sergio Avella and Christian Waldron were competitive in a 6-3 setback to ACU's Josh Sheehy and Paul Domanski. Flight three saw the Panthers' Santiago Quintero and Mosaab Ali fall 6-0 to Brad Gleason and Sebastian Langdon.
 
The Wildcats prevailed in the bottom four singles flights to clinch the match. Domanski prevailed 6-3, 6-3 over Yadov in flight three, and Quintero gave a well-fought performance in a 6-4, 6-2 setback to Adams.
 
Flights one and two were unfinished, which was unfortunate for fans of both teams in attendance. The top flight featured ACU's Sheehy edging Waldron in the tiebreaker of the first set 7-6. The players each won a game in set two before the match was abandoned for time constraints.
 
Flight two saw Proctor of ACU also needing a tiebreaker in the first set to edge Avella 7-6 before that match was also abandoned.
 
Rice 7, Prairie View A&M 0 (Box Score)
The nationally-ranked Owls won all nine matches played in the afternoon session to improve to 2-0 on the season.
 
Yadov and Ali each took four games in their singles competition. Yadov lost 6-0, 6-4 to David Warren in flight three, while Ali absorbed a 6-3, 6-1 setback to Dongwei Peng.
 
Flight one doubles saw Avella and Waldron within striking distance trailing 4-2 to Warren and Adam Gustafsson before it was abandoned, as Rice won the other two doubles matches to claim the point.