April 23, 2009
Big 12 Championship Notes in PDF Format 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Behind its highest national ranking of the season, the No. 11-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team looks to carry its current momentum into the 2009 Big 12 Conference Tennis Championships to be held on April 24-26 at the Headington Family Tennis Center on the campus of host Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
The second-seeded Aggies (14-7, 5-1) have won nine of their last 11 matches including a 4-3 victory over archrival Texas on April 16 to close out the regular season on a high note and earn top player and senior All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) Big 12 Player of the Week honors for the second time of his career. As a team, A&M climbed two spots in this week's Campbell/ITA poll to mark its highest ranking in the Steve Denton era and in the last four years since being ranked No. 10 in the nation on March 15, 2005.
The Aggies will vie for their fourth postseason championship title as they take on seventh-seeded Nebraska (16-9, 0-6) in the opening round of action scheduled for Friday, April 24 at noon (CT). The winner will move on to face either third-seeded Texas (17-5, 4-2) or sixth-seeded Oklahoma (12-9, 1-5) in the semifinals on Saturday, April 25 at noon (CT). The championship match will be played on Sunday, April 26 at 1 p.m. (CT). Top-seeded and seventh-ranked Baylor (21-5, 6-0) is the team to beat and is riding a 10-match winning streak including a perfect 6-0 league sweep. Last season, A&M's tournament run ended in the semifinals to top-seeded Texas, 4-0. The fifth-seeded Aggies advanced past the quarterfinals with a 4-3 win over fourth-seeded Texas Tech.
"We've had some time to recuperate and overcome such an emotional match that we played against Texas," said third-year Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton on the Aggies' week's worth of preparation time for the Big 12 Championships. "We've been able to work on a few things this week and had great weather to practice in. We are gearing up again knowing that the season starts over in earnest for us on Friday (against Nebraska)."
The Aggies and Cornhuskers last met on April 10 in a grueling 5-2 match that lasted close to four and a half hours in College Station. A&M and Nebraska will meet for the first time in postseason tournament play on Friday. The Aggies hold a 14-1 advantage in the all-time series between the two schools.
"Obviously, winning the Texas match helps our guys get over the psychological hump," Denton said. "But, we have to be ready to play Nebraska. We saw them a couple of weeks ago and it was a tough battle for us. Five of the first six singles matches went into three sets and our guys have a lot of respect for them. We are taking one match a time."
Pollock, ranked 18th nationally, is joined by a talented lineup that includes sophomore All-American and No. 44-ranked Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) and sophomore Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) who hold down the top four singles lines for the Aggies. Krajicek and Spencer both went 5-1 against Big 12 opponents this season to earn No. 2 and No. 3 singles crowns respectively.
A&M's depth is also due in part to the return of junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) and the addition of freshman Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas), each of whom had been out of the college tennis scene a year prior as Lunt served a two-year Mormon mission in Utah and Hoover played as an amateur on the USTA Futures pro circuit.
Moreover, A&M boasts one of the top doubles tandems in the country in Pollock and Krajicek. They are currently ranked seventh nationally and have compiled an impressive 17-4 dual record this season. Despite their success at the top of the lineup, the Aggies have not been able to claim the doubles point in seven of their last 11 outings. As postseason play looms, it will be crucial.
"We are playing a lot better, even though we haven't won the doubles point," Denton said. "Our doubles has improved and if we keep focusing on getting better, the results will take care of itself."
A&M has its sights set on the Big 12 Championships first and foremost, but the Aggies also look for continual good play to put them in good standing to host an NCAA Regional which could set up a spot in the home-hosted 2009 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships on May 14-25 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. A&M has made 15-straight NCAA Tournament appearances since 1994.
"It's important for us to play well for momentum and confidence purposes, but we also want to be in pretty good shape for the (upcoming NCAA) tournament," Denton said. "We want to make sure we are able to host the first two rounds in College Station. That has been one of our team goals this season - to give us the best chance to make the final 16 on our home courts."
Aggies In Postseason Play...Texas A&M is 16-9 all-time in Big 12 Championship play and earned the No. 2 tournament seed for the fifth time in the 13-year history of the league (1998, 2000, 2004 and 2005). The Aggies have hoisted up postseason trophies at the 1998, 2000 and 2001 championships which is the third-most titles in conference history behind five-time champion Baylor and four-time and defending champion Texas. No other league school outside of the Lone Star State power trio have collected postseason tournament hardware.
Tournament Format...Each Big 12 Championship match will be played on six courts and will be stopped immediately when a team reaches four points. Live scoring and results of all Texas A&M men's tennis matches will be available at www.AggieAthletics.com and www.soonersports.com. The tournament champion receives the league's automatic bid to the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship. The men's and women's selection announcements will be televised at approximately 4:20 p.m. (CT) on Tuesday, April 28 on ESPNEWS. ESPNEWS is located on DirecTV Channel 207 and Dish Network Channel 142. In addition, the ESPNEWS audio signal is available on the ESPNEWS channel on XM Radio and SIRIUS Radio.
NCAA Championships Ahead...First-and second-round competition will be played from May 8-10 at 16 selected host sites. The winners from each of the 16 sites will advance to the team championship to be held at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the Texas A&M campus in College Station. The men's round of 16 will begin on May 14 and the women's round of 16 will begin on May 15. Participants in the 64-player singles championship and 32-team doubles championship fields will be posted on www.NCAA.org on Wednesday, April 29 before 5 p.m. (CT). Individuals selected to participate will join the final 16 men's and women's teams on May 20-25 in College Station.