April 10, 2010
NORMAN, Okla. - The Texas A&M women's tennis team swept the doubles point, and freshman Nazari Urbina notched a three-set victory in the last singles match standing to clinch a 4-3 Aggie victory over No. 37 Oklahoma today at the Headington Family Tennis Center.
The 41st-ranked Aggies improve to 9-5 overall and remain undefeated in Big 12 Conference play at 4-0. Oklahoma drops to 13-4 overall, 3-3 in league matches.
"This definitely was a match that could have gone either way," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "I am proud of the girls for sticking through and finding a way to win. I don't think we played well through this whole match, but sometimes you have to win ugly. Sometimes you have to win when things aren't going your way and just dig down deep and find a way. That is what we did today."
The Aggies got started on a good note, becoming the first team to sweep all three doubles matches against the Sooners this season. A&M was leading 7-4 on all three courts before the Aggie duo of Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) completed an 8-4 victory over Tara Eckel and Marie-Pier Huet at the No. 2 line.
A&M's Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) and Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) started their match by dropping their first game to OU's Maria Kalashnikova and Kristina Radan at the No. 3 line. That would be the only time the Aggie tandem trailed in the match as they promptly followed their No. 2-line teammates with an 8-4 victory to secure the doubles point for the Aggies.
While A&M quickly completed the wins at the No. 2 and 3 lines, the Sooners' No. 29 ranked duo of Ana-Marie Constantinescu and Teona Tsertsvadze won two consecutive games to get within 7-6 against A&M's 71st-ranked pair of Elzé Potgieter (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Urbina (Xalalpa, Veracruz, Mexico) at the No. 1 position. A&M, however, broke OU in the next game to complete the sweep and post the tandem's highest ranked win of the season.
"I was very pleased with the doubles," Kleinecke said. "We did what we had to do and came up with shots at the right time. I felt like we were energetic and going for our shots."
There were numerous momentum shifts during the back-and-forth singles matches. Frank put A&M up 2-0 with a straight-set win against Tsertsvadze at the No. 3 line, but the Aggie first had to overcome a 4-1 deficit in the opening set. Frank managed to reel off five consecutive games to win the first set, 6-4, and then she cruised to a 6-1 second-set win to close out the match. With the win, Frank extended her career-high winning streak to 14 matches.
"I thought we came out with good fire in doubles, but I think we came out flat in singles," Kleinecke said. "We were hitting balls thinking that they were going to lose to us. That is where we got ourselves into trouble. We needed to get up and dictate the play a little bit more and just make those adjustments."
Constantinescu, ranked No. 93 in singles, put the Sooners within 2-1 with a straight-set victory against 58th-ranked Potgieter on the No. 1 court. Constantinescu won four straight games to post a come-from-behind 6-4 win in the first set and then closed out the match by winning three consecutive games to break away for a 6-4 second-set win.
Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas) overcame a 5-3 first-set deficit against Radan at the No. 5 line and won, 7-5, 6-4, to put the Aggies ahead, 3-1.
The Sooners then won the next two matches in three sets to tie the match at 3-3. Eckel held off Liles, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 at No. 6, and Kalashnikova came back to top Olivier, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, to knot the score and force the match to be decided at the No. 2 line.
Urbina and Huet had split their first two sets with Huet taking the opener, 6-3, after winning three consecutive games and Urbina breaking away from a 4-4 tie to win the second set, 6-4. Urbina, who entered the match 7-0 at the No. 2 line, jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set and never looked back en route to a 6-2 victory to clinch the match for the Aggies.
It was the Aggies' 14 consecutive win against the Sooners, who have not defeated A&M since 1999.
"Oklahoma did a great job of keeping balls in the court, keeping the pressure on and believing that they could win it the whole time," Kleinecke said. "They fought very, very hard, but we knew that they were going to fight hard."
A&M now heads to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowgirls on Sunday. First serve against OSU, which will be looking for its first win in 10 meetings with the Aggies, is slated for 12 p.m. at the DeBois Tennis Center.
"OSU is a very talented team, and it is going to be another tough match," Kleinecke said. "Hopefully we'll play a little better tomorrow."
Free live scoring of all A&M matches is available at AggieAthletics.com.
No. 41 Texas A&M 4, No. 37 Oklahoma 3
April 10, 2010
Headington Family Tennis Center
Norman, Okla.
Attendance: n/a
Singles
1. Ana-Maria Constantinescu (OU) def. (#58) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU), 6-4, 6-4
2. (#70) Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Marie-Pier Huet (OU), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
3. (#116) Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. Teona Tsertsvadze (OU), 6-4, 6-1
4. Maria Kalashnikova (OU) def. Sheri Olivier (TAMU), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4
5. Lauren Santacroce (TAMU) def. Kristina Radan (OU), 7-5, 6-4
6. Tara Eckel (OU) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 6-1, 5-7, 6-3
Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. (#71) Potgieter/Urbina (TAMU) def. (#29) Constantinescu/Tsertsvadze (OU), 8-6
2. Stephanie Davidson/Frank (TAMU) def. Eckel/Huet (OU), 8-4
3. Liles/Olivier (TAMU) def. Kalashnikova/Radan (OU), 8-4
Order of finish
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 3, 1, 5, 6, 4, 2*
*Clinched match
Team records
Texas A&M: 9-5, 4-0 Big 12
Oklahoma: 13-4, 3-3 Big 12