March 5, 2010
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team wraps up an eight-match road tour Saturday when the Aggies face former Southwest Conference-foe TCU in Fort Worth. First serve is slated for noon at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The Aggies are 3-4 on the season, with all seven matches being played away from home. Most recently, A&M fell, 4-3, to then-No. 29 South Florida last Sunday in Tampa, Fla.
TCU is 1-7, including 0-3 in home matches. Last Sunday the Horned Frogs suffered their sixth straight loss, falling at No. 46 Auburn, 4-3. It was the third consecutive one-point loss for the Frogs.
"Both teams seem to be going through a lot of the same things and are in much need of a win," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "We are both coming off some 4-3 losses.
"Both teams are very similar. Throw out the rankings. They are not an indication of the ability of either team."
A&M has two players listed in this week's ITA singles rankings: No. 57 Elzé Potgieter (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and No. 74 Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico). Potgieter is 5-2 at the No. 1 line, while Urbina has won her last five matches to improve to 6-1 after splitting time at the No. 2 and 3 positions.
Urbina is tied with Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) for most singles wins. Frank also is 6-1 while splitting action at the No. 2 and 3 lines and enters the TCU match riding a team-best six-match winning streak.
A&M has won the doubles point in five of seven matches this spring. Frank and Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) are tied for the team lead for most wins with identical 6-1 records.
Junior Katariina Tuohimaa is TCU's highest ranked singles player, coming in at No. 86 this week. Senior Nina Munch-Soegaard is No. 94, and sophomore Kayla Duncan is No. 110.
The Frogs, whose one win was against the Texas Longhorns in the second match of the season, will have a pair of familiar faces on the coaching staff as former Aggie standout Sarah (Foster) Gray is an assistant coach and Anna Lubinsky, who ranks second on A&M's career charts for wins in both singles and doubles, serves as a volunteer assistant coach. Both completed their illustrious college careers in 2007 after leading A&M to the NCAA second round, a 21-7 record and a No. 25 final ranking.
"It will be fun coaching against them," Kleinecke said. "I know they will want to get a win against us, but I take a lot of pride in the players who have gone on to become coaches. I would like to see them do well, except against us."
The series between the two teams is tied at 16-16 since 1980. The Frogs evened the series last year with their second consecutive 4-3 win against the Aggies. Then-No. 26 TCU began the match by capturing the doubles point and later closed out the contest by winning a third-set tiebreaker in the last match standing to edge No. 24 Texas A&M at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
A&M plays its first home match of the season on Tuesday, March 9 as the Aggies welcome another in-state rival, No. 22 SMU, to the Mitchell Tennis Center. First serve against the Mustangs is at 6 p.m.
All newly appointed Fish Camp counselors will be admitted free to the SMU match by either wearing their Fish Camp T-shirts or with a flyer they received.
In addition, the popular "Where's Wilson" promotion continues this season. Wilson, a smiling tennis ball, will be hiding at every home match this season at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The one lucky fan who finds him each match 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 against 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.
Live scoring of all A&M women's tennis matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.