Feb. 28, 2010
TAMPA, Fla. - For the second consecutive match, the Texas A&M women's tennis team came up on the short end of a 4-3 decision, falling to No. 29 South Florida today at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts.
"We didn't play well enough to win the match today," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "We had plenty of opportunities, but we didn't play well enough at those times and consistently throughout the day."
A&M, ranked No. 36, cruised to an 8-0 win at No. 2 doubles as Morgan Frank and Christi Liles, who both hail from the Tampa area, routed Allyn Mueller and Ecaterina Vasenina, 8-0. The other two doubles matches were nail biters, with the Bulls taking both matches.
At the No. 1 line, the Bulls' 15th-ranked duo of Melissa Koning and Irene Rehberger broke A&M's serve to take an 8-7 lead and then held serve to win, 9-7, and force the point to be decided at the No. 3 line.
A&M's Stephanie Davidson, who entered the match 6-0 in doubles matches this spring, and Sheri Olivier were facing a similar situation at the No. 3 line. With the score knotted at 7-7, USF's Janet Bejlkova and Lauren Shumate broke serve to take an 8-7 lead. This time A&M broke back to tie the score at 8-8 and send the match into a tiebreaker. The Bulls never trailed en route to taking a 7-4 win and giving USF a 1-0 lead.
"You look at the doubles point; we couldn't put them away," Kleinecke said. "We were up 3-1 at No. 3 doubles with opportunities go up 4-1 and couldn't capitalize. It's just a few cheap points here or there and in a match like this where everything counts. That can be the difference in winning and losing."
Much like her doubles match, Frank dominated her singles match, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Koning at the No. 2 line to even the team score at 1-1. It was Frank's sixth consecutive singles win.
"Morgan has a tendency to step up at key times, and she did today," Kleinecke said. "She made that look easy, and it is not easy. (Koning) is a good player in singles."
USF regained the lead as Bejlkova defeated Liles, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4. The Bulls then took a 3-1 lead as Jessica Zok defeated Olivier, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 6.
Freshman Nazari Urbina, ranked No. 69, won her fifth straight match and put A&M within 3-2 with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Vasenina at the No. 3 line before USF clinched the win with a victory at No. 1 singles.
In a battle of ranked opponents, 26th-ranked Rehberger held off 33rd-ranked Potgieter, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at the top of the lineup to secure the win for the Bulls.
"I give Elzé a lot of credit," Kleinecke said. "She is playing one of the top girls in the nation. Elzé kind of hung in there in that second set and stepped it up at the right time to win the second set. In the third set after 2-2, she kind of ran out of gas and there was nothing left."
A&M's Lauren Santacroce, who had not played since the Illinois match on Jan. 31 due to a leg injury got into the win column at No. 5 singles to close out the match. Santacroce built a 4-1 lead in the opening set against Natalie Guevara, but Guevara came back to take a 6-5 lead. Santacroce won the next game to force a tiebreaker, which Guevara won, 7-1.
In the second set, Santacroce jumped out to a 3-0 advantage and held the lead to take a 6-2 win and force a third set. The final set was knotted at 2-2 when Santacroce reeled off four unanswered games to win the match.
"In the singles, we had some 3-1 sets that we are up, some 4-1 where we were up, and we end up losing sets," Kleinecke said. "You just can't give those away. That's the tough thing. We are still struggling at Nos. 4, 5 and 6. Even with losing the doubles point today, if we don't win two matches at Nos. 1-3, we have to find a way to win more matches at 4, 5 and 6."
USF improves to 5-2 -- including 4-0 in home matches -- while picking up its first win in six meetings with the Aggies. A&M drops to 3-4 on the season.
The Aggies conclude an eight-match road swing Saturday when A&M travels to Fort Worth to take on former Southwest Conference rival TCU. First serve is set for noon. Former Aggie standouts Sarah Foster and Anna Lubinsky are on the TCU coaching staff, serving as assistant coach and volunteer assistant coach, respectively.
A&M plays its home opener on Tuesday, March 9 as the Aggies take on SMU at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
(29) South Florida 4, (36) Texas A&M 3
February 28, 2010
USF Varsity Tennis Courts
Tampa, Fla.
Attendance: n/a
Singles
1. (#26) Irene Rehberger (USF) def. (#33) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
2. Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. Melissa Koning (USF), 6-3, 6-1
3. (#69) Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Ecaterina Vasenina (USF), 6-2, 6-2
4. Janet Bejlkova (USF) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 6-4, 6-3
5. Lauren Santacroce (TAMU) def. Natalie Guevara (USF), 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-2
6. Jessica Zok (USF) def. Sheri Olivier (TAMU), 6-0, 6-0
Doubles (USF wins the point)
1. (#15) Koning/Rehberger (USF) def. (#52) Potgieter/Urbina (TAMU), 9-7
2. Frank/Liles (TAMU) def. Allyn Mueller/Vasenina (USF), 8-0
3. Bejlkova/Lauren Shumate (USF) def. Stephanie Davidson/Olivier (TAMU), 9-8 (4)
Order of finish
Doubles: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 2, 4, 6, 3, 1*, 5
*Clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 3-4
USF: 5-2