WACO, Texas – Texas A&M's Jeremy Efferding stormed through the second round of the NCAA Singles Championships Thursday morning at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, defeating No. 16 Romain Bogaerts of Wake Forest 6-2, 6-0. The senior earned ITA All-America status for the first time in his career as he advanced to the Round of 16 on Friday.
No. 47 Efferding and Bogaerts spent the first 45 minutes of the match playing out the first four games, each holding serve twice, then the maroon and white captain landed what amounted to the knock-out blow. The Boca Raton native earned a break to go up 3-2 in the first set and did not drop a game afterwards, winning 6-2 in the first set and 6-0 in the second.
The A&M senior became an ITA All-American for the first time in his collegiate career. Efferding will face the winner of the 11 a.m. match-up between No. 8 Ryan Shane of Virginia and No. 46 Benjamin Lock of Florida State on Friday, the match time will be posted following the conclusion of singles and doubles action Wednesday evening.
With Wednesday's win Efferding has won five straight matches to improve to 26-8 on the season including a team-high 10 wins against ranked opponents. The University Studies major enters Friday's match with 98 career wins, the most on the current roster.
Texas A&M will be represented in the doubles bracket set to start Wednesday afternoon as No. 10 Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant will challenge no. 8 Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz of Baylor at 2:30 p.m.
Texas A&M recently completed the team portion of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship, finishing the season 24-5 after being eliminated by eventual national champion Virginia, 4-0, in the national quarterfinals. It marked the second time in program history the Aggies advanced to the Elite 8.
Visit 12thMan.com for Friday's match times and an updated bracket once they are available from the NCAA. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.
Quotes
Senior All-American Jeremy Efferding
On advancing to the round of 16…
Today was really special, I have never been this far in this tournament and it is a special moment as a senior in my last run. I really did not know who I was going to play today until late yesterday, I have been taking each of the matches one at a time and not worrying about who will be across the net from me. I felt my mental game was really strong today and I ended up getting finished a lot quicker than yesterday's first match.
On the turning point in the match…
When I was serving down 15-40 in my first two serves and I managed to hold despite him have like seven or eight break points, for him that had to be a tough thing to overcome mentally because he was so close breaking and was holding his serve so easily the first couple times through. Then I was able to counterpunch and get a break and the tides kind of turned in my favor. After the break I really focused on holding my serves and making him work.
Texas A&M Head Coach Steve Denton
On Jeremy becoming an All-American…
It is a great honor to be a named an All-American and he has worked so hard and is very deserving. He has been on a great run the last couple months and is playing his best tennis. It was great to see him come out and compete knowing there was a lot on the line.
On how the match turned in Jeremy's favor…
Jeremy won a couple really big points and got that first break of serve which was huge for him. Jeremy is really tough mentally and he hung in there and got himself in front. Getting out front encouraged him to play better then he raised his level even further at the right time and really took over the match.
On Jeremy's magical senior season…
I can't say enough how well deserved Jeremy is to be named an All-American. He has worked so hard on his game for the past four years and has been a great ambassador for Texas A&M University beyond just tennis. He is the epitome of a captain on our team and makes everyone else on our roster better. We talked early in the season about the success that the freshman were having, but ultimately the season would be determined by our senior leadership and he exemplified that for us.
2015 NCAA Singles Championship
Waco, Texas – Hurd Tennis Center
Round of 64
#47 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) def. #27 Ore Ram-Harel (Tulsa) 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2
Round of 32
#47 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) def. #16 Romain Bogaerts (WF) 6-2, 6-0
Round of 16
#47 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) vs. #8 Ryan Shane (UVA) or #46 Benjamin Lock (FSU)