March 19, 2010
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team opened Big 12 Conference play with a convincing 7-0 victory over Kansas today in front of 341 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
A&M swept the three doubles matches and earned straight-set singles victories on five of six courts en route to the shutout. The Aggies improve to 6-4 overall, while Kansas falls to 8-5 after having its three-match winning streak snapped.
"It's always good to get a win," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "This has been a tough stretch with having Arkansas and Kansas, and then on Sunday we are getting ready for Kansas State. It is a lot of matches in a short period of time, but it is good to start off conference with a good win."
The Aggies swept the doubles portion for the second straight match to take a 1-0 lead. A&M's Stephanie Davidson and Morgan Frank were first off the court after winning seven consecutive games against Kunigunda Dorn and Sara Lazarevic to close out an 8-1 victory at the No. 2 line.
Christi Liles and Sheri Olivier reeled off six straight games against Alessandra Dzuba and Maria Martinez to cap an 8-2 victory at No. 3 and secure the point for the Aggies. Elzé Potgieter and Nazari Urbina then completed the sweep, leading the entire match and breaking away from a 6-5 lead to win, 8-5, over Katerina Morozova and Erin Wilbert at the No. 1 line.
"This was kind of a strange match," Kleinecke said. "I felt like we were a little bit sloppy in the doubles; not flat or anything because I thought we had a lot of energy. I just thought we made some sloppy mistakes early in the doubles, and then Nos. 2 and 3 just went on a roll so that was really good. No. 1, we just kept letting them hang in there and hang in there. There was a chance that they could have come back on us, so that is something we have to be careful of."
Frank put the Aggies ahead, 2-0, and ran her singles winning streak to 10 matches to equal the longest of her career with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Martinez at the No. 3 line.
Urbina won her ninth consecutive match and gave the Aggies a 3-0 lead after cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 win against Lazarevic at the No. 2 line. Olivier kept the Jayhawks scoreless and clinched the match-winning point with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Victoria Khanevskaya at No. 6.
Santacroce put A&M up, 6-0, after finishing off Dorn, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 4.
Although Wilbert won the only set for Kansas, she was unable to hold off Liles in a battle at the No. 5 line. Wilbert won a first-set tiebreaker, 7-2, and was at match point at 5-4 in the second set before Liles made a comeback and won two games to take a 6-5 lead. Wilbert won the next game to tie the score and force another tiebreaker. Liles scored the first three points of the tiebreaker and raced to a 7-3 win to even the match at a set apiece and force a third-set super tiebreaker. Liles carried the momentum into the final set, doubling up Wilbert at 4-2, 6-3 and 8-4 and going on to win 10-4 to end the match and keep the shutout in tact.
"Singles Nos. 1, 2 and 3 did a great job of just taking care of business," Kleinecke said. "And then over on the 4, 5 and 6 side, we struggled a little bit at times. I think we had a lot of fight tonight, and we really fought hard against them, but there are just some fundamental things we need to keep working on to get better as a team."
The Aggie women conclude a four-match home stand on Sunday as they play host to Big 12-foe Kansas State. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center and is part of a twin bill with the A&M men's team, which hosts Louisville also at 1 p.m.
Live scoring of all A&M women's tennis matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.
Texas A&M 7, Kansas 0
March 19, 2010
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
Attendance: 341
Singles
1. (#63) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU) def. Katerina Morozova (KU), 6-3, 6-0
2. (#67 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Sara Lazarevic (KU), 6-1, 6-1
3. (#111) Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. Maria Martinez (KU), 6-1, 6-0
4. Lauren Santacroce (TAMU) def. Kunigunda Dorn (KU), 6-4, 6-4
5. Christi Liles (TAMU) def. Erin Wilbert (KU), 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 1-0 (4)
6. Sheri Olivier (TAMU) def. Victoria Khanevskaya, 6-2, 6-3
Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. Potgieter/Urbina (TAMU) def. Morozova/Wilbert (KU), 8-5
2. Stephanie Davidson/Frank (TAMU) def. Dorn/Lazarevic (KU), 8-1
3. Liles/Olivier (TAMU) def. Alessandra Dzuba/Martinez (KU), 8-2
Order of finish
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 3, 2, 6*, 1, 4, 5
*Clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 6-4*, 1-0 Big 12
Kansas: 8-5, 0-1 Big 12
(*Note: The ITA has removed A&M's loss against SMU on March 9, hence making A&M's record 6-4)