Texas A&M
Louisville
No. 18 Aggies Blank No. 12 Louisville, 7-0
Mar 22, 2010 | Men's Tennis
March 22, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - In its most impressive outing of the season, the 18th-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team ran its win streak to four with a 7-0 defeat of 12th-ranked Louisville Monday before 345 fans at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies (11-4) battled through a tiebreaker to sweep doubles action, then fended off comeback attempts by the Cardinals on five singles courts to earn A&M its second shutout of the year. U of L (14-4) saw its three-match win streak come to an end as it was held scoreless for the first time in three years.
"This was an overall team effort today," A&M coach Steve Denton said. "Everyone stepped up and got the job done. We kept the pressure on them the entire afternoon and, although we did let them back in the match a bit, we were still able to finish strong. That's a good sign for our team and it gives us a lot of confidence going into Big 12 play this Friday."
The Aggies' ninth-ranked tandem of Marcus Lunt gave A&M the point with an 8-6 win at No. 3, and Alexey Grigorov teamed with Alberto Bautista to make it a clean sweep with a 9-8 victory at No. 2.
The Aggies used that momentum to quickly establish themselves in singles, snapping up first sets on all six courts. Freshman Niall Angus made quick work of Louisville's Andrew Carter, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 6 to stake Texas A&M to a 2-0 lead, but it was then that the match began to tighten up.
After fighting through a victory in a first-set tiebreaker, Grigorov was able to finish off Calligari at No. 4 singles, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to pull the Aggies to within one of the win. Playing on the top line, Krajicek would seal A&M's best win of the spring with an impressive 6-4, 7-5 defeat of 31st-ranked Austin Childs, 6-4, 7-5.
Krajicek's win killed the Cardinals' chance at a comeback, as Louisville had taken the second set on all three remaining singles courts. Bautista, Dadamo and Klegou would then all follow by nailing down victories in the third set to complete the sweep.
"Louisville won three or four second sets and could have come back and won this match," Denton said. "They were getting back into it and changing the momentum, but our guys did a good job of finishing well in the third set. They didn't really give them a chance to take the momentum today--we started out well and were able to finish well."
The Aggies open Big 12 play this weekend when they play host to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. A&M will face the Sooners on Friday at 6 p.m. before tangling with the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
March 22, 2010 at 11:00 a.m.
Attendance: 345
Singles:
1. (21) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. (31) Austen Childs (Louisville) 6-4, 7-5.
2. (30) Jeff Dadamo (Texas A&M) def. (122) Viktor Maksimcuk (Louisville) 6-1, 6-7(4), 7-5.
3. Alexis Klegou (Texas A&M) def. (66) Simon Childs (Louisville) 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3.
4. Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M) def. Alejandro Calligari (Louisville) 7-6(5), 6-4.
5. Alberto Bautista (Texas A&M) def. Robert Hall (Louisville) 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-1.
6. Niall Angus (Texas A&M) def. Andrew Carter (Louisville) 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles:
1. (9) Krajicek-Dadamo (Texas A&M) def. S. Childs-Calligari (Louisville) 8-1.
2. Grigorov-Bautista (Texas A&M) def. A. Childs-Chidi Gabriel (Louisville) 9-8 (4).
3. Klegou-Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Maksimcuk-Hall (Louisville) 8-6.
Order of Finish:
Singles: 6, 4, 1*, 5, 2, 3
Doubles: 1, 3, 2
Players Mentioned
