TCU
NCAA Individual Championships
Duo Moves Into Second Round
5/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - A pair of freshman will continue their debut seasons, while a senior's singles career came to an end for the TCU men's tennis team in Round of 64 action at the 2015 Division I Men's Tennis Singles Championship on Wednesday at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.
For the first time in program history, TCU had three players earn bids to the singles bracket. No. 39 Cameron Norrie notched a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 48 Sam Shropshire of Northwestern, while No. 59 Guillermo Nuñez downed No. 24 Wayne Montgomery of Georgia 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 in his opening round match. Senior and No. 49 Nick Chappell ended his singles career as a Horned Frog on Wednesday with a 6-2, 7-5 loss to No. 28 Ronnie Schnieder of North Carolina.
"At this level, it's a good sign to win two out of three matches," head coach David Roditi said. "It's hard to have three players in the bracket period. Nick got out to a great start and credit to the other player. He came back and made it hard for Nick to extend the match to a third set. I'm proud of Nick's career at TCU and everything he has done for this program. Now his focus will turn to doubles with Will (Stein).
"Cameron and Guillermo played well to win. They both beat players that play at the No. 1 position at very good programs. The level of tennis Guillermo played in the third set represents the top of college tennis. Tomorrow, they both have tough matches and I'm sure they will be up for the task. It will be a full day with two singles and two doubles matches."
Chappell was the first player up for TCU on Wednesday and started his match by breaking Schneider and leading 2-0 in the first set. Schneider fought back and won the next six straight games to take the first set 6-2.
Chappell and Schneider continued to hold serve for the first few games of the second set, but the Tar Heel got a break to go up 5-4. Chappell was able to even up the set by breaking Schneider back, but it was not enough as the Tar Heel won the next two games to finish off the match in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
The Indianapolis, Ind., native ends his singles career at TCU with an overall singles record of 76-45.
Norrie was on the courts next for the Frogs and used an early break in the first set to take the win, 6-4, over Shropshire. Norrie began the second set slow, as Shropshire got a 3-1 lead but Norrie came back to win the next five games and finish out the set, 6-3, and win his 26th match of the season and record his 10th consecutive victory.
The Auckland, New Zealand native will face No. 6 Søren Hess-Olesen of Texas on Thursday in the Round of 32.
Nuñez was the final player to hit the courts for TCU and lost an evenly matched first set to Montgomery in a tiebreaker. Up 4-3 in the second set, Nuñez was able to break Montgomery and then held serve to finish out the set, 6-3, and send the match into the decisive third set.
After taking a 5-2 lead in the final set, Nuñez faced the difficult task of having to mount a comeback after being down 0-40 in his final service game. The Santiago, Chile native rattled off five straight winners to clinch the match and his 29th win of the season.
Nuñez will take on No. 32 Jakob Sude of Oklahoma State on Thursday in second round action.
