May 6, 2009
IRVING, Texas - Texas A&M men's tennis head coach Conor Pollock (pronounced PAUL-luck) and Austin Krajicek (pronounced CRY-check) were among the list of honorees as the 2009 All-Big 12 Conference Tennis Awards were announced by the conference office on Wednesday.
Denton (Kingsville, Texas) earned co-Big 12 Coach of the Year honors after guiding the No. 15-ranked Aggies to a 15-8 overall record, a No. 11 national ranking, two top 10 dual-match victories, a seven-match win streak and their 16th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance in his third season in Aggieland. A&M posted a 5-1 league mark to finish second in the regular-season standings and advanced to semifinal action at the Big 12 Tennis Championships. He captured his 100th career victory versus LSU on March 21 and becomes only the second Aggie head coach to garner coach of the year honors next to former coach Tim Cass in 1998, 2000 and 2001.
Senior Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) was named All-Big 12 in singles for the third-straight year joining fellow All-American standouts Ante Matijevic, Ryan Newport and Shuon Madden as the only three-or four-time Aggie singles selections. He currently ranks 18th all-time with 60 career singles victories and 10th all-time with 63 career doubles victories in the A&M record books. Pollock is a two-time Big 12 Player of the Week selection and three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team scholar. Meanwhile, sophomore Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) made his second consecutive appearance on the All-Big 12 singles team. He has compiled a team-leading 17-5 dual match record playing primarily at No. 2 singles. Both were unanimous selections in a vote by the league's head coaches.
Krajicek and Pollock also received their second career nod on the All-Big 12 doubles team. The All-American tandem put together an 18-4 dual match record at No. 1 doubles for the Aggies and will make their second consecutive bid in NCAA Doubles Championship competition beginning on May 21 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station. Last year, the pair reached the NCAA semifinals for the first time in school history. They were ranked as high as No. 3 in the Campbell/ITA rankings this season and competed in the prestigious ITA National Indoor Championships as the Wilson/ITA South Central Region doubles champions in the fall.
2009 ALL-BIG 12 CONFERENCE TENNIS AWARDS
MEN'S COACHES OF THE YEAR
Matt Knoll, Baylor
Steve Denton, Texas A&M
MEN'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Oleksandr Nedovyesov, Oklahoma State, Jr.
MEN'S NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Christopher Aumueller, Nebraska, Fr.
MEN'S FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Raony Carvalho, Texas Tech, Fr.
MEN'S ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
SINGLES
Denes Lukacs, Baylor, Jr.*
Jordan Rux, Baylor, So.*
Oleksandr Nedovyesov, Oklahoma State, Jr.*
Ed Corrie, Texas, So.*
Dimitar Kutrovsky, Texas, Jr.
Austin Krajicek, Texas A&M, So.*
Conor Pollock, Texas A&M, Sr.*
Raony Carvalho, Texas Tech, Fr.*
DOUBLES
David Galic-Jordan Rux, Baylor*
Nathan Byrnes-Oleksandr Nedovyesov, Oklahoma State*
Austin Krajicek-Conor Pollock, Texas A&M*
Raony Carvalho-Christian Rojmar, Texas Tech*
*denotes unanimous selection