Feb. 18, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The 17th-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team (4-2) will host No. 26 Wisconsin and Laredo Community College in a doubleheader set for Sunday, Feb. 21 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies will face the Badgers (7-1) at noon (CT) and Laredo CC at 6 p.m. (CT).
"I think we needed the two-week break," said Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton on the Aggies who last competed on Feb. 7 with a 4-3 road victory at Tulsa. "We needed to work on some things in practice. We worked on our doubles and individually, our players worked on certain parts of their game, to help them get ready for the remainder of the season."
Despite the break in the action, the Aggies had one singles player and one doubles team break into the latest Campbell/ITA rankings released on Thursday. Junior All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.), who saw limited singles play in the fall due to competing on the USTA Futures pro circuit as an amateur, is currently ranked No. 24 in the nation behind junior No. 2 player Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.) at No. 23.
Dadamo and Krajicek also rank No. 13 nationally in doubles, while senior co-captain Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) and junior Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) are No. 33. Lunt and Grigorov have compiled a team-leading 4-1 dual record this season playing primarily at No. 3 doubles.
"It's really our last opportunity, for any extended period of time, to focus on some of their individual needs," continued Denton on using the break for improvement. "It's been good for us. We've had to deal with bad weather unfortunately, so it's been a little tougher for us to get to things done. Overall, I'm pleased with the time we've had and I think it will help us as we go through the Big 12 Conference schedule and ultimately, the NCAA Tournament."
Wisconsin, the third-highest ranked team from the Big Ten Conference in the latest ITA rankings, will take on Big 12 rival Texas Tech on Saturday, Feb. 20 at the Mitchell Tennis Center, prior to its match against Texas A&M on Sunday. The Badgers have three victories against ranked opponents this season including No. 13 Florida State on Jan. 29. They have four players who are undefeated in singles play including seventh-ranked Moritz Baumann, No. 22 Marek Michalicka and No. 73 Patrick Pohlmann.
"Wisconsin is a very good team," Denton said. "They upset Florida State. Their first three players are very talented and they are going to be a real challenge for us. They are coming here to play Texas Tech on Saturday as well. In normal situations, we would have a huge advantage with them being an indoor team and not having a lot of outdoor tennis under their belt. They are going to get a match the day before playing us, so that's obviously going to help them a lot prior to our match on Sunday. I anticipate it being a really hotly-contested match. I know Greg (Van Emburgh) is a really good coach and his players will be prepared and ready to play."
Meanwhile, Laredo Community College comes in with a lot of experience and a roster filled with talented international players hailing from Brazil, France, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. The Palominos won the NJCAA Division I National Championship title in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
"In most years, they've been the No. 1 ranked junior college team in the country," Denton said. "They've had a couple of national championships over the last couple of years, so they always have some really good players, especially at the top of their lineup. I know they'll have three or four players who are really going to challenge our players. Our real challenge is getting back up for a match after we've played a really hotly-contested, emotional match against Wisconsin, then having to use some of our frontline players in two matches in one day. It's a little bit tricky, but at the same time, I think it's necessary because of the size of our team. We need to keep a lot of our other players included by having them play some matches and continue to evaluate them. As the season goes on, our depth is going to be important to us."
Live video and live scoring for both matches will be available on www.AggieAthletics.com. Tickets can be purchased online at: www.12thManFoundation.com or by calling the ticket office at 1-888-99-AGGIE.
Where's Wilson Promotion...Wilson, a smiling tennis ball, will be hiding at every home match this season at the Mitchell Tennis Center. One lucky fan who finds him this weekend will receive a prize compliments of Texas A&M University and will be entered into a grand prize contest which will be held during the women's tennis team's Lone Star Showdown match versus rival Texas on April 20. Fans are encouraged to come out to the matches early to increase their chances of being the first person to find Wilson.