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DALLAS (SMU) - SMU Men's Tennis split a doubleheader with Northern Colorado and No. 2 Texas in front of a full house on Saturday at the SMU Tennis Complex.
 
After topping Northern Colorado 5-2 in the morning match, SMU faced a marquee matchup with the defending national champion Texas Longhorns. SMU was able to steal a point off Texas thanks to a rousing doubles performance.
 
Caleb Chakravarthi and Tomas Vaise knocked off the No. 4 doubles pairing in the country of Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard, 6-4. After SMU lost the match on court 2, Huntley Allen and Jan-Simon Vrbsky fended off match point in the tiebreaker. The duo put together three straight points to clinch the doubles point for the Mustangs to the delight of the SMU Tennis Complex crowd, packed to standing room only to see the doubles action.
 
Texas came back in singles winning each line but not without a few challenges from the Mustangs. Chakravarthi faced No. 2 Ito on line one and after dropping the first set, workied his way back to force a tiebreaker in the second. Ito would earn the win in the tiebreaker. Texas, sporting three ranked singles players, swept the singles points for a 6-1 victory.
 
In the Northern Colorado match, SMU cruised to a doubles point win with a 6-1 victory from Vrbsky/Allen and a 6-4 win from Perotti and Chakravarthi on No. 3.

Three freshmen earned wins for SMU in the singles portion. Jordi Redelijk, Ethan Leon and Jose Juan Bianchi all took down their opponents in straight sets. Tomas Vaise added a win while playing line one, 6-4, 6-4.

A crowd of 845 came out to support the Mustangs in one of the most highly attended collegiate matches at the complex. The stadium was packed on all three levels with food, fans and friends of the program for a truly special day on the Hilltop.
 
Next up, the Mustangs have a split squad doubleheader at Lamar and at home against UT Tyler on Saturday, Jan. 25.