March 21, 2010
BRYAN, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team improved to 15-0 all-time against Kansas State with a 5-2 victory against the Wildcats today in a match that was played at the City of Bryan Tennis Center indoor courts due to strong winds.
It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Aggies (7-5, 2-0 Big 12), although the match appeared closer than the final score.
"I commend Kansas State. They got beat pretty bad the other day by Texas, and they came out ready to play today," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "I don't know if they are a better indoor team than an outdoor team, but they sure played well today, and I'm happy to come away with the win. Even if it had been 4-3, I would have been happy, because the match was definitely closer than the 5-2 score."
Kleinecke indicated that playing indoors might have made a slight difference in the performance of several of his players.
"There were a couple (of A&M players) who were struggling staying down on the balls," he said. "The balls were skidding a little bit, which has a little bit of an effect. Obviously the shots K-State was hitting dictated that, so if they are hitting harder and flatter than we are used to and the ball is staying down but we are coming up, then we have a lot harder time. I think that was a little bit of a factor playing indoors, but with the weather as bad as it was, we made the right choice. It would have been impossible to play outside."
A&M won two of three doubles matches to take the early lead. The Aggie duo of Elzé Potgieter and Nazari Urbina broke away from a 2-2 tie, reeling off six consecutive games to cruise to an 8-2 victory over Antea Huljev and Nina Sertic at the No. 1 line.
Stephanie Davidson and Morgan Frank followed with an easy 8-3 victory over Karla Bonacic and Petra Chuda at No. 2 to clinch the doubles point for the Aggies.
Carmen Borau Ramos and Ana Gomez Aleman prevent a sweep by the Aggies, as they defeated Christi Liles and Sheri Olivier, 8-7 (4), at the No. 3 position.
In singles, Frank set a career high with her 11th consecutive win, taking less than an hour to defeat Gomez Aleman, 6-2, 6-0, at No. 3 singles to put A&M up 2-0. Urbina followed with her 10th consecutive victory, defeating Sertic, 6-1, 6-1, at No. 2.
Huljev then put the Wildcats (3-7, 0-2 Big 12) on the scoreboard as she upset 63rd-ranked Potgieter, 6-4, 6-3, at No. 1. Huljev pulled away from a 4-4 tie in the first set and a 3-3 in the second set to notch the ranked win.
With only three courts at the facility, the No. 4, 5 and 6 lines took to the court as the top three lines completed their matches. All three of the final contests became locked in battles that could have gone either way, before Olivier eliminated any doubt of which team would come out on top after clinching the winning point for A&M with a hard-fought victory against Chuda at No. 6. The first set was a back-and-forth affair throughout. After Chuda took a 6-5 lead, Olivier held serve to knot the score at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker. Chuda then built a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker, but Olivier fought off two set points to tie the score at 6-6. Chuda tallied the next point before Olivier scored three unanswered points to win the tiebreaker, 9-7, and take the first set.
Chuda won the first game of the second set, but Olivier responded by winning the next six games to win the match and put the Aggies ahead 4-1.
The remaining two matches would be decided in three sets. Lauren Santacroce dropped her first set, 6-3, to Borau Ramos but came back to win the next two sets, 6-1, 6-4, at the No. 4 line.
Bonacic posted the final point for K-State, dropping the first set, 6-3, to Liles, but winning the next two sets, 6-2, 6-3, to close out the match.
"This has been a tough week for the girls with Arkansas and then the two conference matches and then staying here during spring break while everyone else is at South Padre Island," Kleinecke said. "I commended them for it. They handled it very well. We got done what we needed to get done. We just have to keep going on and playing them one at a time, because it is a tough stretch still ahead of us."
The Aggies return to action on Sunday, March 28 as they take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. at the McLeod Tennis Center.
"It is always tough going to Lubbock, so we need to be ready." Kleinecke said. "We need to have a good week of practice and work on some things. Janelle (Cuthbertson) is getting closer to coming back (from a stress fracture in her leg), so hopefully we'll get to see her play this weekend. But if not, she's not far away.
"We are looking forward to going up there. It will be a quick trip, but one that we need to be ready for. We are not going to get that win easily. They played us a close match last year, so I'm expecting that to be a tough fight."
Live scoring of all A&M women's tennis matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.
Texas A&M 5, Kansas State 2
March 21, 2010
City of Bryan Tennis Center (Indoor Courts)
Bryan, Texas
Attendance: 75
Singles
1. Antea Huljev (KSU) def. (#63) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU), 6-4, 6-3
2. (#67 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Nina Sertic (KSU), 6-1, 6-1
3. (#111) Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. Ana Gomez Aleman (KSU), 6-2, 6-0
4. Lauren Santacroce (TAMU) def. Carmen Borau Ramos (KSU), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4
5. Karla Bonacic (KSU) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
6. Sheri Olivier (TAMU) def. Petra Chuda (KSU), 7-6 (7), 6-1
Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. Potgieter/Urbina (TAMU) def. Huljev/Sertic (KSU), 8-2
2. Stephanie Davidson/Frank (TAMU) def. Bonacic/Chuda (KSU), 8-3
3. Borau Ramos/Gomez Aleman (KSU) def. Liles/Olivier (TAMU), 8-7 (4)
Order of finish
Doubles: 1, 2, 3
Singles: 3, 2, 1, 6*, 4, 5
*Clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 7-4, 2-0 Big 12
Kansas State: 3-7, 0-2 Big 12