May 9, 2009
WACO, Texas - Texas A&M's season came to an end today after falling to No. 23 SMU, 4-1, in the first round of the NCAA Championships today at the Baylor Tennis Center.
The Aggies, who were making their 10th consecutive appearance in the postseason tournament and had advanced to at least the second round in each of the last six years, end their season at 14-11.
The Mustangs (28-2) run their winning streak to 18 and advance to the second round to play the winner between No. 4 seed Baylor and Texas-Arlington.
The Aggies, who were playing without Elzé Potgieter (South Africa) and Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas), lost the doubles point and then dropped five of six first sets in singles.
"We had to dig down deep with two players out of the doubles and one out of singles," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "We put the best team we could out on the court today, and we lost to a better team."
A&M grabbed a quick lead in doubles as Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas), subbing in for Davidson, took only 24 minutes to complete an 8-0 victory against 71st-ranked Natalia Bubien and Pavi Francis at the No. 2 line.
Neither of the remaining doubles matches would be quite so easy, nor would they end in favor of the Aggies as A&M found itself fighting from behind on both courts. SMU's Nicole Briceno and Kseniia Tokarieva held a narrow 3-2 lead against Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) and Ashley Turpin (New Braunfels, Texas), in for Potgieter, before reeling off four straight games to take a commanding 7-2 lead. A&M won the next two games before the SMU pair finished off the match.
A&M's Janelle Cuthbertson (Perth, Australia) and Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) fell behind, 4-1, to 32nd-ranked Marta Lesniak and Aleks Malyarchikova at the No. 1 line but managed to win the next three games to knot the score at 4-4. The Aggies, however, were unable to take the lead, and the Mustangs pulled away for an 8-5 victory, clinching the doubles point for the Mustangs.
With Potgieter out of the top of the singles lineup, A&M players were forced to move up a spot in the lineup. A&M lost the first set on five courts with the makeshift lineup.
Santacroce was the only one to win a first set, taking a 5-2 lead and holding off Francis, 7-5, at No. 4 singles.
SMU built a 2-0 lead as Malyarchikova, ranked No. 116, defeated Liles, 6-0, 6-4 at the No. 3 line.
Santacroce then finished off Francis, 6-2, in the second set to put the Aggies within 2-1.
SMU regained a two-point advantage and moved within a point of clinching the match when Tokarieva finished off Turpin, 6-1, 6-3, at the No. 6 line.
A&M refused to back down and was making a comeback as Frank and Cuthbertson won their second sets at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and Olivier held a 5-3 second-set lead over Briceno at No. 5. Both Frank and Cuthbertson went on to build leads early in their third sets when Briceno came back to tie Olivier at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker. Briceno scored the first three points of the tiebreaker and never looked back as she went on to win, 7-3, and clinched the match to send the Mustangs to the second round.
"The team showed a lot of fight," Kleinecke said. "The girls who were out there gave everything they had, and I'm proud of them for that.
"It's tough to come back from after losing the doubles point, yet you've got some opportunities and some openings, but you have to take advantage of every one of them, and we just didn't do that. I'm disappointed with the season ending, and we definitely did not finish where we wanted to finish. That is something that we are going to have to get back and start working on."
(23) SMU 4, (39) Texas A&M 1
NCAA Championships - First Round
May 9, 2009
Baylor Tennis Center
Waco, Texas
Singles
1. (120) Ashley Turpin (A&M), 6-1, 6-3
Doubles (SMU wins the point)
1. (32) Lesniak/Malyarchikova (SMU) def. Cuthbertson/Liles (A&M), 8-5
2. Frank/Santacroce (A&M) def. (71) Bubien/Francis (SMU), 8-0
3. Briceno/Tokarieva def. Olivier/Turpin (A&M), 8-4
Order of finish:
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 3, 4, 6, 5*
*Clinched match
Team records:
Texas A&M: 14-11
SMU: 28-2
2009 NCAA Tennis Championships: Texas A&M will host the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, May 14-25, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. Tickets can be purchased online at 12ManFoundation.com or by calling 1-888-99-AGGIE.