Texas A&M
Texas
Aggies Drop 4-3 Decision To Texas In Big 12 Championship Match
May 02, 2010 | Men's Tennis
May 2, 2010
AUSTIN, Texas - Anytime there's a meeting between Texas A&M and Texas, it's guaranteed to be an epic battle and the finals of the Big 12 Conference Men's Tennis Championship didn't fall short of that on Sunday afternoon at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
The second-seeded and 10th-ranked Aggies (23-6), who dethroned defending tournament champion Baylor a day prior in the semifinals, lost a hard-fought 4-3 decision to the top-seeded and third-ranked Longhorns (25-2) in their first appearance in the finals since 2004. It was a much-improved result from a previous 7-0 loss to rival Texas in the team's Big 12 regular-season finale at the same exact site on April 21.
"It's not a rivalry if one team is winning all of the time," Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "But, we are definitely closing the gap and making some progress (against Texas). We have a strong team coming back next year, but we still have a lot to play for this year. This team is ready and poised for the NCAA Tournament. We've had a lot of tough matches and faced a lot of adversity this season, but it should only make us that much hungrier and confident, even though we are disappointed right now of not pulling out this match today."
A&M gained the edge and momentum early with high-intensity play in doubles. Fifth-ranked junior All-American Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas) broke Texas' Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico at four-all leading to an 8-6 win at No. 2. It marked the first time A&M claimed the doubles point in three meetings with the Longhorns this season.
"To win the doubles point against the No. 3 team in the country was huge for us," Denton said. "To play them close on their home turf in front of their home crowd, it says a lot about our team and how capable we are of beating any team in the country. But, you have to be 20 percent better than a team when you play them on the road and I think we were 15 percent today."
In singles competition, 10th-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky leveled the playing field at one-all with a 6-3, 6-2 straight-set victory over seventh-ranked Austin Krajicek at the top of the lineup, while his teammate Josh Zavala gave Texas its first lead of the match with a 6-2, 6-1 win over freshman Alberto Bautista (McAllen, Texas) at the No. 5 line.
A&M's Alexey Grigorov responded with a 7-6 (2), 7-5 victory over No. 96-ranked Kellen Damico at No. 3 singles to tie things up at two-all. He broke Damico at five-all in a dramatic second set to become the 30th player in school history to turn in a 20-win dual season with a team-leading 20-5 record.
The score continued to be matched as Texas' Jean Andersen defeated sophomore Marcus Lunt over Vasko Mladenov, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 6.
It came down to the last match standing between both teams' No. 2 players in No. 44-ranked Jeff Dadamo for the Aggies and No. 20-ranked Ed Corrie for the Longhorns. Corrie won the first set 7-5, while Dadamo made a strong 6-4 second-set comeback. Both players held serve through three games in the third set, but Corrie was able to break Dadamo to go up 5-3 and serve out the match to clinch the title.
"Our guys fought their tails off today and I'm very proud of them," Denton said. "We just came up a little bit short. We had a tough match yesterday (against Baylor) and knew it would be a struggle to get our guys back up today. Just like the NCAA Tournament, you have to be prepared to play back-to-back matches. It was a very emotional match and I thought our guys fought hard until the very end."
The Aggies will await the announcement and selection of the 64-team bracket for the 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship to be televised live on ESPNEWS on Tuesday, May 4 at 4 p.m. (CT).
(3) TEXAS 4, (10) TEXAS A&M 3
Big 12 Men's Tennis Championship Finals
May 2, 2010
Penick-Allison Tennis Center
at Austin, Texas
SINGLES
No. 1 - (10) Dimitar Kutrovsky (Texas) def. (7) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-2.
No. 2 - (20) Ed Corrie (Texas) def. (44) Jeff Dadamo (Texas A&M), 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
No. 3 - Alexey Grigorov (Texas A&M) def. (96) Kellen Damico (Texas), 7-6 (2), 7-5.
No. 4 - Jean Andersen (Texas) def. Alexis Klegou (Texas A&M), 6-3, 6-4.
No. 5 - Josh Zavala (Texas) def. Alberto Bautista (Texas A&M), 6-2, 6-1.
No. 6 - Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Vasko Mladenov (Texas), 6-1, 6-4.
DOUBLES
No. 1 - (5) Krajicek-Dadamo (Texas A&M) def. (6) Kutrovsky-Zavala (Texas), 8-4.
No. 2 - (43) Grigorov-Marcus Lunt (Texas A&M) def. Corrie-Damico (Texas), 8-6.
No. 3 - Andersen-Mladenov (Texas) def. Bautista-Hoover (Texas A&M), 8-3.
ORDER OF FINISH
Singles: 1, 5, 3, 4, 6, 2*
Doubles: 3, 1, 2*
Players Mentioned
