Jan. 25, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The No. 18-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team swept the doubles point and won four of six singles matches to top No. 68 Radford, 5-2, in its season opener held Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 507 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) clinched the match for the Aggies (1-0) with a 7-6 (0), 6-3 victory against Radford's Mehdi Benhammou at the No. 4 line. Lunt, who rejoined the team in the fall after a two-year Mormon mission in Utah, did not give up a point in the first-set tiebreaker and closed out the second set with five match-point attempts on serve.
A&M won all three of its top singles matches with senior All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas), currently ranked No. 12 in the nation, leading the way by defeating three-time Big South Conference Player of the Year Martin Sayer of Radford in three sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, at No. 1.
"The first match of the year is always pretty tough," said team captain Pollock. "You're pretty nervous going out there, but I think we handled it pretty well. Radford isn't well known, but they are a good team. We came out well in doubles to get the early lead. We struggled a bit at the bottom. Those guys are still young, but have a lot of up sides. Our top four competed really well. We are happy with the win and hopefully, we can keep it going."
Meanwhile, sophomore All-American Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.), ranked No. 8 nationally, downed Stefan Bojic of Radford, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 3. The Highlanders (2-1), who suffered their first loss of the season, won at No. 5 and No. 6 to even the score at 2-2 and put some pressure on the Aggies for must-wins by Krajicek, Lunt or Pollock in the remaining three matches in play which were closely contested.
"In the first match of the year, you always get a bit of jitters," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "Radford came out in the singles and played really solid against us. We had a couple of guys out there for the first time who had a slow start. They couldn't change their momentum and that made the match tight. All credit to Austin Krajicek, because he had a really tough customer in (Ivan) Salec and he gutted it out to play a really good first set tie-breaker. He showed that he really improved his game and will obviously be a major contributor to our success this season."
A&M dominated in doubles against the Highlanders (2-1) with freshmen Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) and Austin Klores (Franklin, Texas) defeating Bojic and Igor Ogrizek, 8-4, at No. 3, followed by Lunt and Spencer's 8-5 result over Benhammou and Salec at No. 2. The No. 34-ranked doubles combination of Krajicek and Pollock secured the A&M sweep with an 8-3 victory over Sayer and Zack Watson at No. 1.
"I thought that we played really well in doubles," Denton said. "Give Radford a lot of credit, because they played well, fought hard, and they have a good team. They are a lot better than their ranking. I felt that our big three came through and won some really big matches versus some really good players. Marcus Lunt played a really good match for his first collegiate singles match in two years. He showed a lot of heart by winning the first set in a tie-breaker, and then closing his match out. I was pleased, and these are the kinds of matches that will help us win battles in tight situations. You don't want to be in tight situations in your first match of the season, but that's how it turned out. I think it will help us later down the road."
The Aggies will begin a month of travel and competition away from the Mitchell Tennis Center beginning with the ITA Kick-Off Weekend to be held on Jan. 30-31 on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. A&M will face No. 49 North Carolina State on Friday, Jan. 30 at 9 a.m. (CT) and either No. 10 Florida or No. 50 Arizona on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. (CT). They will not return home for a match until March 13 against top-ranked Ohio State.
(18) TEXAS A&M 5, (68) RADFORD 2
January 25, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
Attendance: 507
SINGLES
No. 1 - (12) Conor Pollock (Texas A&M) def. Martin Sayer (Radford), 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
No. 2 - (46) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Ivan Salec (Radford), 7-6 (5), 6-4.
No. 3 - (8) Wil Spencer (Texas A&M) def. Stefan Bojic (Radford), 6-1, 6-2.
No. 4 - Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Mehdi Benhammou (Radford), 7-6 (0), 6-3.
No. 5 - Igor Ogrizek (Radford) def. Kayvon Karimi (Texas A&M), 6-2, 7-5.
No. 6 - Zack Watson (Radford) def. Austin Klores (Texas A&M), 6-1, 6-4.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (34) Krajicek-Pollock (Texas A&M) def. Sayer-Watson (Radford), 8-3.
No. 2 - Lunt-Spencer (Texas A&M) def. Benhammou-Salec (Radford), 8-5.
No. 3 - Colin Hoover-Klores (Texas A&M) def. Bojic-Ogrizek (Radford), 8-4.
ORDER OF FINISH
Doubles: 3, 2, 1
Singles: 3, 6, 5, 2, 4*, 1