BATON ROUGE, La. – The Prairie View A&M men's tennis team couldn't have picked a better time to claim their first victories of 2016, winning both of their matches Saturday at the first of two Southwestern Athletic Conference roundups.
 
The Panthers picked up a pair of 4-3 victories over Alcorn State and Alabama A&M.
 
Not having a full lineup didn't hurt the Panthers as they improved to 2-0 in SWAC play. PVAMU ceded the flight six singles contest in both matches, and needed to sweep the doubles matches being contested for to claim the doubles point. The Panthers did just that and won three out of five singles matches to take victories both times.
 
In the opening match against Alcorn State, the Panthers won the doubles matches by the narrowest margins to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Christian Waldron and Sergio Avella outlasted Nikita Kistikov and Nischay Rawal for 7-5 win in flight one.
 
In flight two, 12 games was not enough to determine a winner; PVAMU's Ulrick Boyogueno and Anirudh Yadav won a 7-5 tiebreaker over Vasudev Vijayaraman and Nuno Rocha to take a 7-6 decision and give the Panthers the doubles point.
 
In singles play, Waldron stormed to a 6-0 win to open play in flight one before edging Kistikov 7-5 to take the match. Flight three saw Yadav take a strong 6-4, 6-2 win over Rocha. Avella put the Panthers over the top with a flight two win over Vijayaraman, winning 6-2, 7-6, with a 7-5 tiebreaker to claim set two.
 
The Panthers barely had time to rest before returning to the courts to face Alabama A&M. The lack of rest didn't seem to stop them, however, as Waldron and Avella downed Carlos Salas and Nishangan Nadaraja 6-3 in flight one doubles play.
 
Flight two saw Yadav and Boyogueno breeze to a 6-1 win over Jarib Beazer and Mateo Monroy to give the Panthers the doubles point.
 
Avella eased to a 6-1, 6-0 win in flight two singles over Salas. Freddy Quintero won all 12 games over Armando Gray in flight four, winning 6-0, 6-0. Boyogueno's win over Beazer in flight five gave the Panthers a third win in singles and the match victory.
 
Waldron was forced to retire early from his flight one match with Nishangan Nadaraja.
 


PVAMU 4, Alcorn 3
SINGLES
1. Christian Waldron (PVAMU) def. Nikita Kistikov 6-0, 7-5
2. Sergio Avella (PVAMU) def. Vasudev Vijayaraman 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
3. Anirudh Yadav (PVAMU) def. Nuno Rocha 6-4, 6-2
4. Nischay Rawal (Alcorn) def. Freddy Quintero (PVAMU) 6-0, 6-0
5. Kilian Salgado (Alcorn) def. Ulrick Boyogueno (PVAMU) 6-4, 6-1
6. J. Yabrough (Alcorn) wins by default
 
DOUBLES
1. Waldron/Avella (PVAMU) def. Kostikov/Rawal (Alcorn) 7-5
2. Boyogueno/Yadav (PVAMU) def. Vijayaraman/Rocha (Alcorn) 7-6 (7-5)
3. Salgado/Yarbrough (Alcorn) wins by default
 
 
 
PVAMU 4, Alabama A&M 3
SINGLES
1. Nishangan Nadaraja (AAMU) def. Christian Waldron (PVAMU) 1-6, 6-4, ret.
2. Sergio Avella (PVAMU) def. Carlos Salas (AAMU) 6-1, 6-0
3. Mateo Monroy (AAMU) def. Anirudh Yadav (PVAMU) 6-4, 6-7, 10-5
4. Freddy Quintero (PVAMU) def. Armando Gray (AAMU) 6-0, 6-0
5. Ulrick Boyogueno (PVAMU) def. Jarib Beazer (AAMU) 6-0, 6-1
6. Alabama A&M wins by forfeit
 
DOUBLES
1. Waldron/Avella (PVAMU) def. Salas/Nadaraja (AAMU) 6-3
2. Boyogueno/Yadav (PVAMU) def. Beazer/Monroy (AAMU) 6-1