DENVER – The University of Denver men's tennis team opened its 2026 season with a 4-3 victory over Texas Tech at Denver Tennis Park on Friday afternoon.
 
The Red Raiders claimed the day's first point after a fight for doubles. Denver earned its first lead of the day, 2-1, before Texas Tech found its own way level at 2-2. With third sets underway in the final three singles matches, DU secured the win with victories at Nos. 2 and 5 singles on its way to a final score of 4-3.
 
Doubles:
The battle for the doubles point came down to a tiebreak from the No. 3 teams. After DU's No. 2 team of graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and sophomore Theo Coats broke early and leveled the doubles fight with a 6-3 win, all eyes turned to senior Raffaello Papajcik and freshman Aaron Beduhn.
 
The Pioneers traded breaks in the second and third games of the match before seeing the remainder of things go on serve all the way through to the breaker. Coats/Papajcik rallied back from a minibreak down at the changeover to get back on serve at 4-4 but ultimately dropped the tiebreak, 4-7, to give Texas Tech a 1-0 overall lead.
 
Singles:
In singles, Denver players stared strong, winning the first set in five of the six matches on the way to claiming wins in the first two matches to wrap up.
 
Coats brought Denver level on the overall scoreboard with a straight-forward win at the No. 3 spot – moving up in DU's lineup after spending the majority of 2025 at No. 6. The sophomore won the match's first four games on his way to a 6-1 first set before the second set stayed on serve until he claimed a break in the sixth game on his way to taking three of the last four games.
 
Senior Ryoma Mishiro gave DU its first lead of the day at 2-1, also winning in straight sets with matching 6-3 frames. In both sets, he earned the first break, doing so in his opening return game of the first set and then to go up 4-2 in the second.
 
Texas Tech tied things up with a win at No. 6 singles, though freshman Beduhn saved two match points when trying to force a third set.
 
The remaining three matches all went to final sets. Papajcik was the first of the three to finish, putting Denver within a point of the victory, breaking in three consecutive return games to take the third, 6-1.
 
The Nos. 1 and 5 singles matches wrapped up within minutes of each other, though it was Robb-Wilcox who earned the win first to clinch the team victory for Denver. Like Papajcik, he won his opening set before dropping the second in a tight 5-7 scoreline but answered with an early break in the third set. He stretched the lead to 5-1 and ultimately served it out at love for 6-2.
 
A win in a third-set tiebreak gave Texas Tech a third point on the day, but the dual already fell in Denver's favor, 4-3.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver men's tennis team continues its opening weekend at Denver Tennis Park when it hosts Montana State on Sunday, January 25, at 10:30 a.m. MT. Admission is free.