Texas A&M
Tulsa
No. 14 Aggies Storm Past Golden Hurricane, 5-2
Apr 01, 2009 | Men's Tennis
April 1, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The No. 14-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team won five out of six singles to storm past No. 29 Tulsa, 5-2, Wednesday afternoon before a crowd of 410 fans at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
Freshman Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) clinched the sixth-straight win of the season for the Aggies (11-5) by closing out his second set against Tulsa's James Seagraves with a love game on serve, 7-5, 7-5. A&M rallied back in singles play after dropping the doubles point to the Golden Hurricane (15-8) after two closely-contested matches on courts one and three.
The third-ranked All-American tandem of senior Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) and sophomore Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) defeated No. 54-ranked Alberto Sottocorno and James Seagraves, 9-7, to improve to 22-6 overall this season. Highlighting the match was Pollock, who served up aces in a love game which evened the match at 7-all. The Aggie duo later broke Tulsa to gain the advantage and held serve in the final game.
Meanwhile, junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) and sophomore Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) lost an 8-6 triple-match point tiebreaker to Tulsa's Rusty Turpin and Marko Ballok, 9-8, at No. 3 doubles for the deciding point. The Golden Hurricane played without the services of top player and second-ranked Arnau Brugues who sat on the sidelines for both singles and doubles competition.
"It was a battle," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "We let the doubles point go and had several opportunities (at No. 3 doubles). Our locker room was pretty glum after that. But, give credit to our guys. We got back after it in singles. We were able to pull it out in what I thought would be a really tough match and it was. We were able to win a few first sets in singles. (Alexey) Grigorov and (Colin) Hoover were able to make a comeback in their third and second sets. Those two wins were the difference in the match today."
In singles, No. 19-ranked Conor Pollock had enough steam left in his engine after doubles to win a 6-3, 6-4 decision over Victor Kolik at the No. 1 line, while No. 51-ranked Austin Krajicek gave up just two games to Alberto Sottocorno to claim his eighth consecutive victory of the season, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 2.
Sophomore Marcus Lunt added to A&M's final point tally with match victories at No. 4 and No. 5 singles respectively. The Aggies have now won eight of the last nine meetings with Tulsa in the all-time series. They avenged a 5-2 setback to the Golden Hurricane a year ago in Tulsa, Okla.
Up next, A&M will host No. 32 Texas Tech (11-6) in its Big 12 Conference home opener on Friday, April 3 at 6 p.m. (CT). Live scoring and live video will be available on www.AggieAthletics.com.
(14) TEXAS A&M 5, (29) TULSA 2
April 1, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
at College Station, Texas
Attendance: 410
SINGLES
No. 1 - (19) Conor Pollock (Texas A&M) def. Victor Kolik (Tulsa), 6-3, 6-4.
No. 2 - (51) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Alberto Sottocorno (Tulsa), 6-0, 6-2.
No. 3 - Philip Stephens (Tulsa) def. (30) Wil Spencer (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-4.
No. 4 - Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M) def. Ashley Watling (Tulsa), 0-6, 6-3, 6-2.
No. 5 - Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Marko Ballok (Tulsa), 6-2, 6-0.
No. 6 - Colin Hoover (Texas A&M) def. James Seagraves (Tulsa), 7-5, 7-5.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (3) Krajicek-Pollock (Texas A&M) def. (54) Seagraves-Sottocorno (Tulsa), 9-7.
No. 2 - Stephens-Watling (Tulsa) def. Grigorov-Hoover (Texas A&M), 8-3.
No. 3 - Spencer-Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Rusty Turpin-Bollok (Tulsa), 9-8 (6).
ORDER OF FINISH
Doubles: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 2, 5, 1, 3, 6*, 4
Players Mentioned
