Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Chirico Leads A&M Past Texas Tech To Advance To Big 12 Semifinals
Apr 25, 2008 | Men's Tennis
April 25, 2008
The fifth-seeded Texas A&M men?™s tennis team handed fourth-seeded Texas Tech only its fifth loss of the season in a hotly-contested match played out in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Big 12 Conference Tennis Championships held Friday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Sophomore Chris Chirico, a gritty right-hander from Philadelphia, led the Aggies (12-10) past the Red Raiders (19-5) for a spot in tomorrow?™s semifinals against top-seeded Texas (19-4) at noon. TCU, Tulsa, Oklahoma State and Baylor were the only other opponents to keep Tech at bay from closing in on a 20-win season. Second-seeded BU (19-8) and third-seeded OSU (15-8) will play in the other men?™s semifinal match at 9 a.m.
For the third time this year, Chirico matched up against Texas Tech?™s Ilya Babinciuc, but this time the tables were turned in his favor. It wouldn?™t be easy as Chirico battled back from a 1-4 deficit in the third set to gain a 5-4 advantage. Both players rallied and broke each other?™s serve in the next three games. In the end, Chirico capitalized on his second match point as Babinciuc ran out of gas to seal the A&M victory, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
?Sometimes when the other guy has beaten you a couple of times, mentally it?™s more of an uphill battle to be able to come back,? said Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton whose Aggies avenged a 4-3 regular-season loss to Tech in Lubbock on March 23. ?I was really proud of his effort. He showed a lot of fight and it was a well-deserved win.?
The match took a little over four hours to decide with a 10-minute mini rain delay. It started off in dramatic fashion. The doubles point took close to an hour and a half with two tiebreakers. Senior Mike Beatty (Cincinnati, Ohio) and freshman Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) won their fifth-straight doubles match with an 8-4 upset of 60th-ranked Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic of Texas Tech at No. 2. The duo improved to an undefeated 5-0 in dual matches.
The Aggies, who won four-straight doubles points leading into the match, had their chances at both the No. 1 and No. 3 lines. Matt Bain (Georgetown, Texas) and Chirico lost 7-4 in the tiebreaker at No. 3, while No. 15-ranked Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) and Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) were edged 9-7 by No. 14-ranked Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanski in the tiebreaker at No. 1.
?We won four doubles points in a row before this match against some really good teams,? Denton said. ?We had to battle there in the doubles. We had a great chance, but it didn?™t happen. You just have to tell your guys that they have to put their heads up and keep battling. It?™s just one point and there is a lot of tennis to be played. We?™ve come back and won four singles (matches) before this year, especially here at the Mitchell Tennis Center. It?™s just a testament to their fight that we were able to somehow pull that match out today.?
Bain later evened the match at one-all after capturing a 6-4, 6-4 straight-set victory over Breler at No. 5 singles. Krajicek and freshman Kayvon Karimi (Dallas, Texas) came up big with a three-four finish at the No. 3 and No. 6 lines respectively, to put A&M up, 3-2, which led to the dramatic finale with Chirico and Spencer in the last two matches standing.
?It was a great day for us and obviously, we have to forget about this match and get ready for tomorrow,? Denton said. ?We have a really tough battle ahead against Texas. It?™s going to require the same type of effort or more for us to beat one of the teams that, in my opinion, has a chance to win the NCAA Championship. We really have nothing to lose. We will just go out, let it fly and see what happens tomorrow.?
A&M advances to the Big 12 semifinals for the eighth time in 12 all-time postseason championships. The Aggies remain an undefeated 4-0 against Texas Tech in postseason action. They are also 4-0 all-time versus the Longhorns in Big 12 Tournament play having last met in the 2002 semifinals where A&M won a 4-3 decision over UT.
(5) TEXAS A&M 4, (4) TEXAS TECH 3
2008 Big 12 Conference Tennis Championships
Men?™s Quarterfinals
April 25, 2008
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
Attendance: 646
SINGLES
No. 1 - (39) Bojan Szumanski (Texas Tech) def. (21) Conor Pollock (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-2.
No. 2 - (107) Sinisa Markovic (Texas Tech) def. Wil Spencer (Texas A&M), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
No. 3 - Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Lenoir Ramos (Texas Tech), 6-1, 7-5.
No. 4 - Chris Chirico (Texas A&M) def. Ilya Babinciuc (Texas Tech), 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
No. 5 - Matt Bain (Texas A&M) def. Christian Rojmar (Texas Tech), 6-4, 6-1.
No. 6 - Kayvon Karimi (Texas A&M) def. Michael Breler (Texas Tech), 6-4, 6-4.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (14) Rojmar-Szumanski (Texas Tech) def. (15) Krajicek-Pollock (Texas A&M), 9-8 (7).
No. 2 - Mike Beatty-Spencer (Texas A&M) def. (60) Breler-Markovic (Texas Tech), 8-4.
No. 3 - Babinciuc-Ramos (Texas Tech) def. Bain-Chirico (Texas A&M), 9-8 (4).
ORDER OF FINISH
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 5, 1, 3, 6, 2, 4*
