April 5, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team saw its five-match winning streak come to an end as the No. 39 Aggies fell to No. 6 Notre Dame, 4-3, in front of 410 tonight at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
A&M drops to 8-5 and suffers its first home loss in four matches. The Fighting Irish, who conclude a seven-match road swing, improve to 16-3.
Notre Dame became the first team to sweep A&M in doubles this season. Cosmina Ciobanu and Shannon Mathews got things started for the Irish, defeating Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.), 8-1, at the No. 2 line. It was the first loss for the Aggie duo, which had posted wins in each of its last seven outings.
Chrissie McGaffigan and Kristen Rafael clinched the point for Notre Dame, coming back from deficits of 5-1 and 6-4 to defeat Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) and Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.), 8-6, at the No. 3 line.
The Irish then completed the sweep as the No. 3-ranked duo of Kristy Frilling and Kali Krisik came from behind to defeat 71st-ranked Elzé Potgieter (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) at the top of the lineup. Potgieter and Urbina broke serve to take a 4-3 lead and then went up 5-3 before the Notre Dame duo reeled off five consecutive games to close out the match. It marked the 15th straight win for the Irish pair.
"I think the difference in this match was the doubles point," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "We were up 5-3 at No. 1 doubles and 5-1 and 5-2 at No. 3 doubles and we didn't come away with it. It was like we hit a wall.
"We were playing well enough to get (the doubles point). They are better net players than we are, and that was a big difference in the match, but we had opportunities."
The Irish quickly built a 2-0 lead at the start of singles as Krisik raced to a 6-0, 6-0 win against Davidson at the No. 6 line. Olivier then put the Aggies on the scoreboard with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Texas native Rafael.
"Obviously I know Rafael and she is a great player, so that was a great win for Sheri to come away with that," Kleinecke said.
Frilling, ranked No. 19 in singles, put the Irish ahead, 3-1, with a 6-1, 6-3 win against 70th-ranked Urbina, who was playing the No. 1 line for the first time in her career. The loss snapped an 11-match winning streak by Urbina, who is 7-0 at the No. 2 line and 5-1 at No. 3.
"We just wanted to try it out and see how she is going to respond to that and how the team is going to respond to that," Kleinecke said about playing the freshman at the No. 1 line. "This was a great opportunity to do that. She has lost only one singles match, so you have to find out what is going to happen. Frilling is a great player, but maybe this was the time that (Urbina) was going to step up and come away with a win like that. I needed to find that out."
Ciobanu then clinched the win and put Notre Dame up, 4-1, with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Liles at No. 4.
A&M closed out the match with wins at the No. 2 and 3 courts. Potgieter, ranked No. 58, dropped her first set, 6-1, to Mathews at the No. 2 line but won the second set by the identical score to force a third set. The final set was tied at 4-4 when Potgieter held serve to go up, 5-4, and then broke Mathews to clinch the win.
"I'll give credit to Notre Dame," Kleinecke said. "They don't come out and beat you, but they sure don't beat themselves at all. They are smart players and run down everything. I think that was the difference in the match, and we have to be able to step up and play aggressive but play smart."
In a battle of closely ranked players, No. 116 Frank held on to defeat 113th-ranked McGaffigan at No. 3 to extend her career-long winning streak to 13. Frank won the first set, but McGaffigan overcame a 4-2 deficit to win 7-5 in the second set. Since Notre Dame had already clinched the match, a 10-point super tiebreaker was played to determine the victor. McGaffigan was on pace to snap Frank's streak as she took a 7-4 lead. Frank came back to win the next four points to take a lead she would not relinquish. McGaffigan cut the lead to 9-8 before Frank clinched the win and improved to 13-1.
The Aggies return to Big 12 Conference play this weekend as A&M travels to Oklahoma to take on the Sooners in Norman on Saturday and the Oklahoma State Cowgirls on Sunday. Match time against OU is 11 a.m. at Headington Family Tennis Center. First serve against OSU is slated for 12 p.m. at the DeBois Tennis Center in Stillwater.
Free live scoring of all A&M matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.
No. 6 Notre Dame 4, No. 39 Texas A&M 3
April 5, 2010
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
Attendance: 410
Singles
1. (#19) Kristy Frilling (ND) def. (#70) Nazari Urbina (TAMU), 6-1, 6-3
2. (#58) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU) def. Shannon Mathews (ND), 1-6, 6-1, 6-4
3. (#116) Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. (#113) Chrissie McGaffigan (ND), 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (8)
4. Cosmina Ciobanu (ND) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 6-3, 6-4
5. Sheri Olivier (TAMU) def. Kristen Rafael (ND), 6-4, 6-2
6. Kali Krisik (ND) def. Stephanie Davidson (TAMU), 6-0, 6-0
Doubles (Notre Dame wins the point)
1. (#3) Frilling/Krisik (ND) def. (#71) Potgieter/Urbina (TAMU), 8-5
2. Ciobanu/Mathews (ND) def. Davidson/Frank (TAMU), 8-1
3. McGaffigan/Rafael (ND) def. Liles/Olivier (TAMU), 8-6
Order of finish
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 6, 5, 1, 4*, 2, 3
*Clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 8-5
Notre Dame: 16-3