MIDLAND, Texas (April 19, 2025) – Playing in its final home match of the regular season, The No. 50-ranked University of Texas Permian Basin men's tennis team defeated Western New Mexico University 6-1 to reach the 10-win mark on the season (10-5 overall) and improve to 4-2 in the Lone Star Conference. The win pulls the Falcons into a tie for third place in the LSC standings 

UTPB swept the doubles matches, highlighted by a 6-2 win by Lucas Nitzschke and Sergio Alejandro Gonzalez Ibanez over Romain Malhomme and Quentin Duvinage at No. 3 doubles and a 6-3 win by No. 23 nationally-ranked Jonathan Vega and Jonas Krahofer over Javier Romero and Mael Houee at No. 1 doubles. In the final doubles match (No. 2 doubles), Grzegorz Rudnicki and Florian Kralik won 6-4 at No. 2 doubles over Birk Arwedahl and Alexandre Frigout.

In singles, a 7-5, 6-0 win by Nitzschke over Duvinage at No. 6 singles and a 6-1, 6-4 win by Krahofer over Arwedahl at No. 5 singes gave the Falcons a 3-0 lead.

The clinching match was a 7-5, 6-2 victory for Gonzalez Ibanez over Malhomme at No. 3 singles.

The remaining matches saw Rudnicki defeat Houee 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 in a first-set tiebreaker at No. 2 singles while the final match saw Vega (No. 38 nationally-ranked in singles) finish off a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 three-set comeback win over Romero (No. 20 regionally-ranked) at No. 1 singles.
 
Results:
Doubles

• #1 – No. 23 Jonathan Vega/Jonas Krahofer (UTPB) def. Javier Romero/Mael Houee (WNMU) 6-3
• #2 – Grzegorz Rudnicki/Florian Kralik (UTPB) def. Birk Arwedahl/Alexandre Frigout (WNMU) 6-4
• #3 – Lucas Nitzschke/Sergio Alejandro Gonzalez Ibanez (UTPB) def. Romain Malhomme/Quentin Duvinage (WNMU) 6-2

Singles

• #1 – No. 38 Jonathan Vega (UTPB) def. Javier Romero (WNMU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
• #2 – Grzegorz Rudnicki (UTPB) def. Mael Houee (WNMU) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
• #3 – Sergio Alejandro Gonzalez Ibanez (UTPB) def. Romain Malhomme (WNMU) 7-5, 6-2
• #4 – Alexandre Frigout (WNMU) def. Florian Kralik (UTPB) 6-4, 6-4
• #5 – Jonas Krahofer (UTPB) def. Birk Arwedahl (WNMU) 6-1, 6-4
• #6 – Lucas Nitzschke (UTPB) def. Quentin Duvinage (WNMU) 7-5, 6-0

Senior Day Recap:

• Each of these three players helped the Falcons' men's tennis team finish the 2023-24 season with a 20-5 overall record and a 7-1 mark in the Lone Star Conference while tying for first place in the Lone Star Conference in the regular season and advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
• Jonas Krahofer is from Winklarn, Austria. Jonas has attended UTPB for three years, and has been a three-year starter for the program. Krahofer and his partner, Takumi Katsuda, won the 2023 ITA South Central Regional Doubles Championship, went on to finish 2-1 at the ITA Cup while beating the No. 1 seed in their final match of the tournament, and had a high doubles ranking of No. 1 in the South Central Region and No. 7 in the nation. Krahofer would go on to be named to the 2023-24 Lone Star Conference All-Academic Team. This season, Krahofer was named the UTPB Men's Student-Athlete of the Month for February. He has been named an ITA Scholar-Athlete and is majoring in Exercise Science. He has made the Lone Star Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll with a perfect 4.0 GPA in each of the last three semesters.
• Grzegorz Rudnicki is from Szczecin, Poland. Rudnicki has attended UTPB the last three years and has been a starter all three years for the program. Before UTPB, Rudnicki played one season at Grand Canyon University where he also posted singles wins over the US Air Force Academy and Northern Arizona as well as Santa Clara and UC San Diego in doubles action. Rudnicki was recently ranked No. 43 in the Nation in doubles with Florian Kralik. Rudnicki is majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. He has made the Lone Star Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll in each of the last four semesters.
• Jonathan Vega is from Fort Worth, Texas. Vega has attended UTPB the last two years and has been a starter the last two years for the program. Before UTPB, Vega was a team captain at Western New Mexico University. Over his career, Vega is a three-time All-Lone Star Conference player in singles and a two-time all-conference player in doubles. He was named First-Team All-LSC in both singles and doubles in 2021-22, and has been named Second-Team All-LSC twice in singles and once in doubles. He has also earned the LSC Sportsmanship Player of the Year award in 2021-22 and is a five-time LSC Player of the Week. In his first season at UTPB in 2023-24, he was named second-team all-conference in both singles and doubles, finishing the season 20-3 in singles and 15-8 in doubles. This season he has had an ITA singles ranking of No. 33 in the nation and a doubles ranking as high as No. 18 in the nation, and was named the LSC Player of the Week on April 2, 2025, after going 2-0 in doubles, beating the No. 19-ranked and No. 26-ranked doubles teams in the nation, and going 2-0 in singles, beating the No. 11-ranked and No. 23-ranked singles players in the nation as UTPB defeated No. 38 Cameron University 4-3 and then took out No. 15 nationally-ranked Midwestern State University 5-2 to start the year 2-0 in conference action. Vega is majoring in Criminal Justice. He made the Lone Star Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll in the Fall of 2024.

 
Next Up: UTPB will close out the regular season with back-to-back road matches next week. First will be No. 9 The University of Texas at Tyler starting at 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, in Tyler, Texas, followed by the regular-season finale at Dallas Baptist University starting at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 25, from Dallas, Texas.