March 31, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - After opening up Big 12 Conference play strong with a successful 2-0 weekend, the No. 14-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team gets back to work with a two-match homestand that will include a non-conference matchup with No. 29 Tulsa on Wednesday, April 1 and No. 32 Texas Tech on Friday, April 3 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
First serve between the Aggies (10-5) and Golden Hurricane (15-7) is set for 2 p.m. (CT) in a match originally scheduled for an earlier start. Tulsa will be the third consecutive Oklahoma-based school that A&M will contend with after racking up a pair of victories over No. 41 Oklahoma (5-2) on March 27 and No. 29 Oklahoma State (4-3) on March 29. The Aggies have won five in a row and are currently in a two-way tie for first-place in the latest Big 12 men's tennis standings with No. 11-ranked Texas who is also 2-0 on the season.
A&M is paced by one of the best one-two-three singles lineups in the country in senior All-American and No. 19-ranked Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas), No. 30-ranked Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) and sophomore All-American and No. 51-ranked Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.). Krajicek, who led the team in dual wins a year ago, is currently on a team-best seven-match win streak playing primarily at No. 2 singles.
"Tulsa is a really good, experienced team," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "They are a team that we could see again in the NCAA Tournament. They are ranked in the top 30 right now, but at the start of the year, they were ranked in the top 10. This is a team that just beat Louisville, 5-2, who beat us, 6-1. They are a very dangerous team. They've had opportunities in some big matches this season with close 4-3 losses to Texas and Illinois. We play a home and away series with them, because they are in the same loop of hosting the NCAA Championships like we are in May. They always have a really good program. We are playing them (in the middle of conference play), because our guys need to play more matches in preparation for the NCAA Tournament and the Big 12 Championship. We only have six conference matches, so we have to play quite a few out-of-conference matches this time of year to insure that our guys are ready to play."
Tulsa boasts the No. 2 player in the nation in All-American Arnau Brugues who will present A&M's Pollock with a chance to play back-to-back matches against the nation's top two players at No. 1 singles after facing current top-ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State on Sunday. The Golden Hurricane also has three ranked doubles squads ranging from No. 5 to No. 56, while the Aggies are led by the third-ranked doubles tandem of Krajicek and Pollock at No. 1. A&M recently played on Tulsa's home courts when unfavorable weather conditions moved its match against Oklahoma State indoors on Sunday. The Aggies' win over the Cowboys snapped a six-match skid in the all-time series dating back to 2005 and its first over OSU in the Steve Denton Era.
A&M will turnaround and host rival Texas Tech (11-6) in their Big 12 home opener on Friday at 6 p.m. (CT). The Red Raiders enter the contest on a two-match win streak with a 7-0 victory over Lamar on March 28 and a 4-1 upset of Oklahoma State in the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic on March 21 in Montgomery, Ala.
"They are a very good team with veteran players and are well coached," Denton said. "They have added depth in their lineup and will present some problems for us. I anticipate it being another close match. Hopefully, we can continue to get good results in Big 12 play. We are hoping to have a big crowd for our first conference match at home. Right now, we are playing well and feeling good about ourselves. Our guys are fighting hard and we have a good mindset of always being in the match."
Live statistics and video will be available for both the Tulsa and Texas Tech matches on www.AggieAthletics.com.
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.
Where's Wilson? Promotion...Fans don't forget to get out to the tennis matches early and be the first one to locate Wilson, a smiling tennis ball, who will be hiding at every home match this season at the Mitchell Tennis Center. One lucky winner will receive an exclusive reward and will be entered into a grand prize drawing that will be held at the end of the season.
All-American Recognition...Prior to the Texas Tech match, Texas A&M will honor Krajicek and Pollock for their All-America season in 2008. The Aggies' top doubles tandem advanced further than any other pair in school history when they reached the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championship. They knocked off Omar Altmann and Andre Begemann of Pepperdine (6-4, 3-6, 6-3), top-seeded and top-ranked Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey of Virginia (6-3, 6-4) and Drew Eberly and Justin Kronauge of Ohio State before falling to the Mississippi duo of Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit (6-4, 6-4) in the semis. The historic run by the first-year doubles team earned them their first career All-America honors as they closed out the season ranked No. 9 in the final ITA doubles rankings.
Catch The Coach Denton Radio Show On Mondays...Listen to the Steve Denton Radio Show live every Monday at 4:15 p.m. (CT) on Chip Howard's SportsTalk broadcast live on KZNE 1150 AM The Zone in College Station. Denton joins Chip Howard for the only college tennis coach's radio show in the nation. Each week, the duo will recap and preview matches for the nationally-ranked Aggies. The weekly radio show airs every Monday from February through the NCAA Championships and can also be heard worldwide on the Internet at: www.KZNE.com.