Jan. 24, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The No. 18-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team will open its spring season with No. 68 Radford on Sunday, Jan. 25 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. First serve between the Aggies and Highlanders is set for 1 p.m. and the first 200 fans at the match will receive free "Where's Wilson?" T-Shirts.
A&M begins on its quest toward its 16th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance with the goal of returning home to the 2009 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships to be held on May 14-25 in College Station. The Aggies boast one of the top lineups in all of college tennis with returning senior All-American and two-time All-Big 12 Conference standout Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas), sophomore Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) and sophomore All-American and 2008 Big 12 Freshman of the Year Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.).
All three American-born players turned in solid fall tournament play which saw the Aggies reach the prestigious ITA National Indoors with Wilson/ITA South Central Region singles champion Pollock and regional doubles champions Krajicek and Pollock. Spencer is currently ranked a career-best No. 8 nationally in singles beating six nationally-ranked opponents in the fall, while Pollock is ranked No. 12 and Krajicek No. 46. A&M is one of only two teams to have two or more players ranked in the top 15 nationally in singles next to top-ranked Ohio State. In addition, Spencer is one of two underclassmen ranked in the top 10 along with fifth-ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State. Krajicek and Pollock, coming off A&M's first-ever NCAA Doubles Championship semifinals appearance in 2008, are currently ranked No. 34 in the country in doubles.
The Highlanders improved to 2-0 on the season with a 4-3 result over No. 75 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in College Station on Jan. 23. They previously defeated Florida Gulf Coast, 6-1, in their season opener on Jan. 16. Radford is paced by three-time Big South Conference Player of the Year Martin Sayer from Hong Kong and the No. 48-ranked doubles combination of Zachary Watson and Igor Ogrizek. Last year, the Highlanders reached the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in school history and picked up their first-ever national ranking as a program.
"Radford is a good team and a lot better than their current ranking may indicate right now," said Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton who enters his third season in Aggieland. "Their No. 1 (Martin Sayer) played really well last year (with a 27-3 record) and they have some good Croatian players. We are definitely going to have our hands full. They will be a good first test for us and we look forward to seeing how our players react to the competition."
A&M's veterans are joined by a returning cast that includes junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas), who rejoins the team after a two-year Mormon mission in Utah, and sophomore Patrick Dean (Dallas, Texas), freshman Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) and freshman Austin Klores (Franklin, Texas) as well as sophomore Calon Alpar (Austin, Texas), a transfer from Illinois, and freshmen Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) and Alexis Klegou (Dunkerque, France), who joined the team in January.
"This year, we have a lot of newcomers to our team, so I am hopeful that they are going to improve a great deal throughout the season," Denton said. "They are very talented, young players. If they can play to the level that they are capable of, they will make us a really good team. We had seven to eight days of preseason training with favorable weather here in College Station. Our two-a-day practices gave us time to work on a lot of things on the court and to build our team chemistry. Our preseason preparation has been the best it has ever been over the last three years since Coach (Bob) McKinley and I have been here. We are excited to get the season underway."
Season and individual tickets for all Texas A&M men's tennis home matches during the 2009 season are available for purchase online at www.12thManFoundation.com or by calling the 12th Man Foundation Ticket Center at 1-888-99-AGGIE. Tickets to the 2009 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, which A&M will host on May 14-25, are also available for purchase.