Sept. 15, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - After finishing the 2009-10 season ranked #10 in the country and reaching the NCAA Round of 16 for the second straight season, the Texas A&M men's tennis program is poised to take on the very best in 2010-11.
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After a challenging fall slate with several invitational tournaments, the Aggies will face one of the toughest spring schedules in the country based upon the final Campbell/ITA men's tennis rankings for 2009-10.
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"Our program is among the best in collegiate tennis and for us to continue to improve we need to face the challenges of a tough schedule," Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. "We have most of our team back from last year and the competition among our own team with our depth should push us to be even better."
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Opening at home with a doubleheader against Louisiana-Lafayette and the University of New Orleans on Jan. 22, the Aggies will jump into their schedule that includes 18 Top 50 programs, nine Top 25 and three Top 10 teams. Mississippi State (#48) will take on the Aggies in a dual match on Jan. 29 and the A&M will face either Arizona (#31) or Miami (#43) the next day at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, which has hosted the NCAA Championships on a couple of occasions including the 2009 NCAA Championships. A non-conference dual match with #4 Texas will be played in Houston on Feb. 4 for the Texas Cup. The two top 10 programs will face each other again in College Station on Apr. 23 in the last match of the Big 12 regular season.
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A four-match lineup in early March with two on the road and two at home against some of the best teams in the middle of the country should prepare the Aggies. A road match against #38 Notre Dame followed by three Big 10 teams including a road match at #23 Wisconsin before coming home to face #5 Ohio State and #16 Illinois in College Station is a tough stretch.
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To help the depth of the Aggie squad, Denton believes in playing twinbills with six doubleheaders on the schedule at home. The opening day of Jan. 22 against Louisiana-Lafayette and the University of New Orleans, a duo with SMU and St. Edward's on Feb. 13, LSU and UT-Arlington on Feb. 27, along with Illinois and Laredo Community College on Mar. 12. Big 12 foe Nebraska and UT-San Antonio come in on Apr. 10 followed by an Apr. 13 day of action with UT-Pan American and Tulsa.
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A trip out west to face #18 California and #21 Pepperdine will have the Aggies primed to open Big 12 play on the road against #47 Oklahoma State and #17 Oklahoma. A&M gets #15 Texas Tech and #41 Nebraska at home before ending Big 12 regular-season play with a match at #7 Baylor in Waco and then finishing with #4 Texas on Apr. 23.
"The Big 12 Conference is one of the toughest leagues in the country with five of our teams finishing in the Top 15 last year," Denton explained. "The battles in non-conference and Big 12 play will help us prepare for making a run in the NCAA Championships which will be hosted by Stanford."
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The Big 12 Championships will be hosted by Baylor in Waco on Apr. 29-May 1 before NCAA play begins the weekend of May 14-15. The NCAA Finals are slated for Stanford, California, from May 19-30.
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Fall play begins Sept. 20-25 at the Costa Mesa Futures Tournament in California followed by the Baylor Invitational Sept. 24-26 in Waco. Another trip out west to Sacramento, California, will be played Oct. 2-6 while other members of the Aggie squad will compete in the All-American Championships played in Tulsa, Oklahoma in early October. The UTSA Invitational will be held in San Antonio on Oct. 9-10 and the Charlottesville Challenger Tournament will be played in Charlottesville, Virginia, Oct. 30-Nov. 3. The ITA Indoor Championships will be played in New York City from Nov. 4-7 while some team members will compete in the UT Invitational in Austin on Nov. 5-7.
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The Aggies finished 25-7 overall last season, the second-most wins in school history, with 18 of those victories coming over ranked foes. Head coach Denton and his assistant Kevin O'Shea led the team to the final ranking of #10, the highest finish by an Aggie men's tennis club since the 2001 squad ended the year ranked #7.
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Texas A&M finished second in the Big 12 with a league mark of 5-1 and during the middle of the season put together a 13-match winning streak.
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The Aggies lost senior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio) but return the majority of the team including Co-Big 12 Player of the Year and All-Big 12 selection Austin Krajicek (Brandon, FL). Krajicek finished the year ranked No. 16 nationally in the final ITA singles rankings and Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and All-Big 12 designee Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, FL) finished at No. 36. Krajicek earned ITA All-America honors in singles and doubles and Dadamo earned All-America honors in doubles. It marked the fourth All-America mention for Krajicek and the first for Dadamo.
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The duo of Krajicek and Dadamo, both seniors in 2010-11, finished No. 6 in the final ITA doubles rankings and finished with a 25-11 overall mark and 19-9 in dual match play in 2009-10.
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Another champion on the squad was Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) who won the Big 12 No. 4 singles title and returns for his senior season.