LIVINGSTON, Ala. - The University of West Alabama Men's Tennis team handled Spring Hill, 6-1, in the 2026 Regular Season Opener on Friday.
"This was a good win to start the season," said head coach Jeff Beaman. "Springhill is a solid team that made NCAA Regionals last year and I like the way we competed as a team."
West Alabama (1-0) began the day by winning the doubles point with the duos of Jacob Tapia/Federico Iturbe and Afonso Portugal/Maksim Goncharov winning, 6-4, and 6-0, respectively.
In No. 1 singles, Tapia took care of business, dispatching Spring Hill's Tom Gutterman, (6-2, 6-2). On Line Two, Portugal defeated Filipe Grebentsov, (6-1, 6-0) to improve UWA's lead to 3-0.
On Line Three, newcomer Gabriel Garay swept the Badgers' Tom Ruel, (6-2, 6-1) while Iturbe swept Luke Bedwell (6-2, 6-2). Sebastiao Vilas suffered the lone loss of the day for West Alabama as he fell in a three-set match to Evan Patton (7-5, 3-6, 10-8). To round out singles play, Itaru Kikuchi defeated Cristobal Rios, (6-1, 6-2).
The Tigers will continue their home slate on Saturday when they welcome Tuskegee for a 1:00 p.m. matchup.
