March 8, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team concludes a six-match home stand Wednesday when the No. 27 Aggies play host to No. 75 Wake Forest. First serve is slated for 6 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center, where the Aggies are a perfect 4-0 this season.
The match marks A&M's final tune-up before beginning Big 12 Conference play Saturday at noon against rival Texas in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin.
A&M extended its winning streak to four, improved to 5-2 overall - all against ranked opponents - and remained undefeated in home matches after disposing of former Southwest Conference foe Rice on Saturday at the Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies, now ranked a season-high No. 27, won two of three doubles matches and won all six singles matches against the Owls, although five singles matches were decided in three sets.
A&M has won the doubles point in each of the last five matches (including the Washington match, which was suspended before singles was completed) thanks in large part to the play of sophomore Nazari Urbina and senior Morgan Frank, who are riding a seven-match winning streak overall and are 6-0 at the No. 2 line. In addition, senior Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and freshman Christi Potgieter (Petrusville, South Africa) have won their last five matches and are 5-0 at No. 3. The streak has catapulted Davidson into the top 10 in the A&M records, where she is tied for eighth with 86 career doubles victories.
Sophomore Janelle Cuthbertson (Perth, Australia) and Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) are ranked No. 69 in the ITA doubles rankings. They are 3-4 at the No. 1 line.
In singles, 19th-ranked Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) won her team-leading sixth consecutive match against Rice to improve to 6-1 in dual matches - all at the No. 1 line -- and 18-4 overall. She also improved to 12-4 against nationally ranked opponents.
Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Liles also have been on a roll, having won each of their last four matches at the No. 2 and No. 3 lines, respectively.
The Demon Deacons are 4-5 and won their second consecutive match by defeating TCU, 6-1, Monday in Fort Worth. In doubles action, the Horned Frogs won at No. 3, but the Demon Deacons came back to win at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles to claim the doubles point.
In singles, 45th-ranked Martina Pavelec and 118th-ranked Emilee Malvehy got wins at Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, as the Demon Deacons got wins on five of six courts. It was the 50th career victory for Pavelec, a junior who is riding a three-match winning streak, and the 100th win for Malvehy, the team's only senior.
Jeff Wyshner is in his first season as head coach of the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest assistant coach Andy Roland is the brother of former Aggie All-American Jessica Roland, who completed her stellar four-year A&M career in 2004.
Wake Forest owns a 7-5 lead in the all-time series against A&M. The teams last met in 2009 in Winston-Salem, N.C., with the 31st-ranked Demon Deacons topping No. 25 A&M, 5-1, at the Wake Forest Indoor Tennis Center. The teams last met in College Station in 2008 with A&M upsetting the 19th-ranked Demon Deacons, 6-1, at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Free live video and scoring of all A&M home matches is available at AggieAthletics.com. In addition, follow on Twitter @AggieTennis.