Texas A&M
TexasTexas Cup
Men's Tennis Drops 7-0 Decision To Rival Longhorns
Feb 06, 2009 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 6, 2009
HOUSTON, Texas - The No. 15-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision to second-ranked Texas in a non-conference meeting between the two in-state rivals Friday night at the Downtown Club at the Met.
The Longhorns (5-0) claimed its fifth overall victory in the Texas Cup series by sweeping the Aggies (2-2) on all six singles courts. The top three matches in the lineup were decided by super tiebreakers in the third set with A&M fighting for every point until the very end.
Senior All-American and No. 12-ranked Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) lost his three-setter by a count of 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (11) to No. 31-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas at the No. 1 line in the last match standing, while eighth-ranked sophomore Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) gave up just one game in the second set to force his match into a third, which later resulted in a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 1-0 (7) victory for UT's Ed Corrie.
"We played against a really good Texas team that had six good players in their lineup tonight," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "Not winning the doubles point certainly hurt us, but we have to bounce back. Hopefully, a match like this will motivate us to go back to work and play better and work harder."
In doubles action, the No. 1 Aggie combination of Pollock and sophomore All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) won their fifth-straight match of the season with an 8-6 victory over Corrie and Kellen Damico. Pollock and Krajicek are currently ranked No. 34 nationally and are an undefeated 4-0 in dual matches against top duos from Radford, North Carolina State, No. 7 Florida and No. 2 Texas.
"We set the tone in doubles," Denton said. "It was a good win for Austin and Conor and we had our chances at No. 2. We really needed to win the doubles point tonight to have a legitimate chance to put some pressure on Texas to beat them. We had some big chances to win the match in the top three spots. It is a little bit of a crapshoot when you play a third-set tiebreaker, because anything can happen. We certainly could have won all three of those matches tonight."
A&M will have a 12-day layoff between matches in preparation for its next road match at No. 35 TCU (1-2) on Wednesday, Feb. 18 in Fort Worth, Texas. First serve between the Aggies and Horned Frogs is set for 6 p.m. (CT).
"We need to have some success coming up on the road," said Denton on A&M's upcoming five-match road stretch at TCU, Notre Dame, Louisville, Boise State and Washington. "It will be a big test for us. We will see the true character of this team by how they come out and play in these upcoming matches."
(2) TEXAS 7, (15) TEXAS A&M 0
February 6, 2009
The Downtown Club at the Met
at Houston, Texas
SINGLES
No. 1 - (31) Dimitar Kutrovsky (Texas) def. (12) Conor Pollock (Texas A&M), 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (11).
No. 2 - Kellen Damico (Texas) def. (46) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M), 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5).
No. 3 - Ed Corrie (Texas) def. (8) Wil Spencer (Texas A&M), 7-6 (3), 1-6, 1-0 (7).
No. 4 - Miguel Reyes Varela (Texas) def. Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M), 6-1, 6-1.
No. 5 - (84) Olivier Sajous (Texas) def. Kayvon Karimi (Texas A&M), 7-5, 6-1.
No. 6 - Josh Zavala (Texas) def. Austin Klores (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-2.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (34) Krajicek-Pollock (Texas A&M) def. Corrie-Damico (Texas), 8-6.
No. 2 - (25) Kutrovsky-Zavala (Texas) def. Lunt-Spencer (Texas A&M), 8-6.
No. 3 - Reyes Varela-Jon Wiegand (Texas) def. Colin Hoover-Klores (Texas A&M), 8-1.
ORDER OF FINISH
Doubles: 3, 1, 2
Singles: 4, 5, 6*, 2, 3, 1
