March 26, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team puts its four-match winning streak and its undefeated Big 12 Conference record on the line Sunday as the Aggies face the Texas Tech Lady Raiders in Lubbock. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. at McLeod Tennis Center.
The No. 44 Aggies improved to 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12 with a 5-2 victory over Kansas State on Sunday. Texas Tech is 6-7 overall, 1-2 in Big 12 entering a match at No. 35 Texas today. The Lady Raiders defeated No. 56 Oklahoma State, 5-1, on Sunday.
"We are looking forward to going up there," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "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."
Last year, A&M defeated Tech, 5-2, at the City of Bryan indoors courts. The Aggies won two of three doubles matches and then notched singles victories at the No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 singles courts, with two of those matches being decided in three sets. Tech earned the final two points with three-set victories at lines 4 and 6.
A&M is 32-1 all-time against Tech and has won the last 25 meetings. The Aggies have never lost to Tech since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97, going 14-0. The Lady Raiders' only win against A&M was in 1987, a year before any players on the current A&M roster were born.
Junior Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.), who was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Tuesday, is riding a career-best 11-match winning streak in singles and leads the Aggies with an 11-1 record in dual matches. Freshman Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico), who splits time at the No. 2 and 3 lines with Frank, also boasts an 11-1 record and is riding a 10-match winning streak.
Urbina is No. 67 in the ITA national singles rankings, and Frank is No. 111. In addition, senior Elzé Potgieter, who is 7-5 at the top of the lineup, is ranked a team-high 63rd.
Junior Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) leads the Aggies in doubles victories with a 10-2 record in dual matches. She has won her last three matches, each of which were played with Frank as her partner.
After the Tech match, the Aggies take a break from Big 12 play as they play host to No. 3 Notre Dame on Monday, April 5. First serve against the Fighting Irish is 6 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Live scoring of all A&M women's tennis matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.