Feb. 23, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team is set to play its first night match of the season as the Aggies play host to No. 60 Fresno State Thursday at 6 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies, listed No. 30 in the most recent ITA national ranking, are 2-0 in home matches and 3-2 overall, with all five matches played against ranked opponents. A&M has not played since defeating No. 54 TCU, 6-1, on Feb. 12 in College Station.
"The time off has been good for us," A&M head coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "The weather has cooperated, we've taken advantage of this break to really work hard and improve on things, and I expect to see the dividends right away. We are still looking at all the options as far as the lineup, but we feel really good about where we stand."
Aggie sophomore Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) enters the match ranked a career-high No. 11 in the nation in singles. She is currently the highest ranked player in the Big 12 Conference, and the No. 11 ranking is the highest by an A&M player since All-American Lynn Staley was ranked No. 10 on Sept. 18, 1991.
Urbina is riding a four-match winning streak and is 16-4 overall, including 4-1 in dual matches all at the No. 1 line. She is 10-4 against nationally ranked players in 2010-11, with three of her four losses coming against players who are currently ranked in the top seven.
In doubles, Urbina and senior partner Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) are No. 61 in the national doubles rankings with a 3-0 record in dual matches and a 5-1 mark overall.
Senior Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) leads the Aggies in doubles victories with a 10-6 overall ledger. She has won her last three matches, having teamed with Christi Potgieter (Petrusville, South Africa) and Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) during the span, and she needs only one more victory to give her 84 for her career and move her into a tie for 10th place in the A&M all-time records.
Fresno State is 2-1 on the year after defeating Nevada, 5-2, on Feb. 6. The Bulldogs were scheduled to play a doubleheader against Sacramento State and Pacific on Feb. 18 but the matches were postponed due to rain.
"Fresno has played only three matches and they are young, so we don't know a lot about them," Kleinecke said. "We are going to focus on our play, bringing to the court what we have been working on in practice."
Freshman Marianne Jodoin, who plays No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for Fresno State, is the only Bulldog listed in the national rankings, coming in at No. 99 in singles. She is one of two freshmen on the squad, the other being Mary Abby Hayley of The Woodlands, Texas. The Bulldogs have only one junior, and the four other players are sophomores.
A&M and Fresno State are knotted, 2-2, in the all-time series since the teams first met in 2001. The teams met last year with A&M earning its first shutout of the season and the first shutout in the series as the 39th-ranked Aggies defeated No. 41 Fresno State, 7-0, at the Fertitta Tennis Complex on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas.
Thursday's match against Fresno State marks the third of six consecutive home matches for the Aggies, who play host to No. 21 Washington on Saturday. First serve against the Huskies is set for 1 p.m.