March 21, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The No. 15-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team rolled to its third-straight win of the season with a 4-3 victory over No. 35 LSU Saturday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies (8-5) continue on one of the best winning streaks in school history having knocked off back-to-back top 10 opponents in No. 7 Illinois and No. 10 USC prior to their meeting with the Tigers (5-6).
Junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) made a second-set comeback to win in three over LSU's Sebastian Carlsson to clinch the match, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 4 singles. A&M also got help from sophomore All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.), who claimed his fifth-straight victory by a count of 6-4, 6-4, versus James Cluskey at No. 2 along with freshman Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) who defeated Mark Bowtell in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, at the No. 6 line.
"We knew this match was going to be tough, particularly with their one, four and five players," Texas A&M head coach Wil Spencer (who had an unexpected death in the family earlier this week) and to win consecutive matches against three really tough teams was a great team effort. I am so proud of this team in how resilient they are and how much they are fighting. (Colin) Hoover played a really good match and Marcus (Lunt) gutted out his match and played very well as did Austin (Krajicek)."
In doubles competition, the third-ranked duo of senior All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) and Austin Krajicek won their sixth in a row with an 8-3 victory over 12th-ranked Michael Venus and Neal Skupski at the top of the lineup. It marked the A&M tandem's 20th overall win of the season. They have now put together a team-leading 12-1 record in dual match play. Sophomore Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) and Colin Hoover clinched the doubles point winning the tiebreaker over LSU's James Cluskey and Jonathan Tragardh, 9-8 (4), at No. 2 for the Aggies.
"The doubles point was big for us today," Denton said. "We won and lost a tiebreaker at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles. It was just enough of a cushion that we needed in order to win this match. Now, we have conference play coming up and there will be no rest for the weary. We have to be ready and prepared, because there are a lot of great teams in our league."
Up ahead, A&M will open up Big 12 Conference play on the road at No. 41 Oklahoma on Friday, March 27 at 6 p.m. (CT) in Norman, Okla., and No. 25 Oklahoma State on Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m. (CT) in Stillwater, Okla.
(15) TEXAS A&M 4, (35) LSU 3
March 21, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
Attendance: 307
SINGLES
No. 1 - (9) Michael Venus (LSU) def. (16) Conor Pollock (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-4.
No. 2 - (52) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. James Cluskey (LSU), 6-4, 6-4.
No. 3 - Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M), 7-6 (3), 2-6, 7-6 (3).
No. 4 - Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 5 - Julien Gautheir (LSU) def. Kayvon Karimi (Texas A&M), 6-1, 6-0.
No. 6 - Colin Hoover (Texas A&M) def. Mark Bowtell (LSU), 6-1, 6-4.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (3) Krajicek-Pollock (Texas A&M) def. (12) Skupski-Venus (LSU), 8-3.
No. 2 - Grigorov-Hoover (Texas A&M) def. Cluskey-Jonathan Tragardh (LSU), 9-8 (4).
No. 3 - Carlsson-Gauthier (LSU) def. Calon Alpar-Lunt (Texas A&M), 9-8 (2).
ORDER OF FINISH
Doubles: 1, 2, 3
Singles: 1, 5, 6, 2, 4*, 3