Jan. 23, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team opens its 2009 campaign Saturday as the Aggies play host to Denver at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. First serve is at 1 p.m., and free "Where's Wilson" T-shirts will be given to the first 200 fans.
"We are ready to get this season rolling," said Bobby Kleinecke, who is entering his 24th season as head coach of the Aggies. "We've gotten off to a great start with very competitive practices, probably the toughest we have had. Everyone has been working hard and hitting the ball very well, and now we are just very eager to get this season under way."
Kleinecke welcomes back five letterwinners from last year's team that went 17-9, including 9-2 in the Big 12, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships.
Highlighting the list of returners is junior Elzé Potgieter (Bloemfontein, South Africa), a member of the 2008 All-Big 12 Team in singles who was listed No. 101 in the 2008 final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings released in May.
Also returning is sophomore Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.), who led the Aggies with 29 singles victories last year, as well as the sophomore duo of Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) who were the Big 12 champions at the No. 3 doubles line after going 11-0 in conference matches.
In addition, Kleinecke returns much-improved Christina Amo (Fort Worth, Texas), a junior who led the team in singles victories in the fall with a 10-4 record. He also welcomes three heralded freshmen: TennisRecruiting.net five-star recruit Ashley Turpin (New Braunfels, Texas) and four-star recruits Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) and Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas).
The Aggies, No. 31 in the ITA preseason rankings released earlier this month, are 19-4 in season openers during Kleinecke's tenure.
The Pioneers, ranked 28th entering their season opener at Texas-San Antonio today, are coming off their best season after winning a school-record 23 matches and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Championships before being knocked out by eventual national champion UCLA.
"Denver had some good wins and got ahead in the rankings early and stayed there the entire season because they had a great record," Kleinecke said. "They are a great team and fight very hard, and we are going to need to play our best to come away with the win."
Kyla Iwinski, one of three seniors on the Denver roster, is the younger sister of former Aggie player and Big 12 No. 3 doubles champion Seva Iwinski, who competed at A&M from 2003 to 2006, during which the Aggies won two Big 12 Conference championships.
"Kyla is very familiar with Texas A&M, and I'm sure she has told her teammates about the atmosphere here," Kleinecke said. "Hopefully we will get a good crowd out and have a good showing."
The Denver match is the start of a challenging first month of competition for the Aggies, as seven of A&M's first eight matches -- not including possible matches at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships -- are against teams that ranked in the top 75 in the 2008 final ITA rankings. In addition, six of those matches are against teams that advanced to the NCAA Championships last year.
"The first half of our schedule is the toughest part, where every match is a tough match, and Denver is no different," Kleinecke said. "This is a great opportunity for us."
A&M season and individual match tickets for all tennis home matches during the 2009 tennis season are available for purchase online at 12thManFoundation.com or by calling the ticket office at 888-99-AGGIE (992-4443).
Tickets to the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, which A&M will host May 14-25, also are available for purchase.
For the complete Aggie women's tennis schedule, go to: http://www.aggieathletics.com/sports/w-tennis/sched/tam-w-tennis-sched.html