Jan. 30, 2009
LOS ANGELES - The Texas A&M women's tennis team returns to action this weekend as the Aggies participate in the inaugural ITA Kickoff Weekend. A&M faces St. Mary's College Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (CST) at Marks Stadium on the University of Southern California campus and will take on either No. 10 USC or Michigan State on Sunday at noon or 3 p.m.
The team to win both of its matches will join the winners from 14 other four-team sites at the prestigious 16-team ITA National Team Indoor Championships, Feb. 12-15 in Madison, Wis. As host of the national indoors, the University of Wisconsin is automatically qualified for the 16-team national tournament.
"This is an exciting weekend for college tennis," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "Even though some teams have already started their seasons, this is the main kick-off for college tennis in the United States. It is a great way to start, where the top 64 teams are all competing this weekend for the chance to go to the National Indoors. It has somewhat of an NCAA feel to it."
The Aggies (1-0) moved up two spots to No. 29 in the ITA national rankings after opening the season last Saturday with a come-from-behind victory against No. 28 Denver. A&M won the doubles point but then lost the first three singles matches to fall behind, 3-1. A&M fought back, getting three-set victories from Morgan Frank, Lauren Santacroce and Stephanie Davidson at the Nos. 2, 4, and 6 lines, respectively, to clinch the win.
"It's great to go into this weekend with a win," Kleinecke said, "and not only with the win but knowing that we have had a close match, first of all having to deal with the pressure. The second thing is we had to come back. I think those were two very good lessons for us to learn early in the season. With a young team, we have a lot to learn with the young team, so the faster we can get it all in and show it to them the easier it is."
Aggie newcomer Janelle Cuthbertson, a freshman from Perth, Australia, will make her debut this weekend. An accomplished player on the junior circuit, Cuthbertson became eligible to join the Aggies just prior to their match against the Pioneers after a late approval by the NCAA.
A&M has never played St. Mary's or Michigan State. A&M is 1-1 against USC, having defeated the then-No. 5 Trojans, 4-1, at the 2004 ITA National Team Indoor Championships, marking the biggest win in school history.
St. Mary's, ranked No. 60, will be playing its season opener against the Aggies after its originally scheduled match at Fresno State was rained out. The Gaels are led the sophomore Alex Poorta, who is ranked No. 25 in the nation in singles. She also is ranked No. 38 in doubles with partner Clair Soper.
USC is 2-0 entering its match against Michigan State after defeating Long Beach State on Wednesday. The Spartans dropped their season opener to Louisville but evened their record at 1-1 by sweeping Eastern Michigan last week.
"Looking at the three teams in our quad, we rarely ever play them so we are not at all familiar with the teams," Kleinecke said. "We have never played St. Mary's, but I know that they are a very solid team. They play a good schedule and play a lot of the teams in the Pac 10. We are expecting a fight.
"We are hoping that we can take care of our business against St. Mary's so we can get a shot at USC, but we are by no means overlooking St. Mary's. It would be great to get a chance to play USC again."
Live scoring of A&M women's tennis matches will be available at AggieAthletics.com.