March 15, 2011
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas--Fresh off of two Top 10 victories at home last week, the formerly 17th-ranked Texas A&M men's tennis team has moved up to No. 7 in the latest Campbell/ITA National Rankings and will hit the road west this week to face No. 5 California and the 11th-ranked Pepperdine teams. The Aggies face California on Wednesday, Mar. 16 with first serve at 1:30 pm pacific time (3:30 pm central) at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley. The next match will be Saturday, Mar. 19 against Pepperdine at the Ralph-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu.
Texas A&M has won nine straight dual matches and is 14-3 overall this spring. Last week at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, the Aggies defeated 5th-ranked Ohio State (4-0) and 6th-ranked Illinois (7-0).
The Cal Golden Bears (8-3) are also on a roll having won five straight matches and three of those matches were against Top 15 teams. The Bears beat UCLA on the road, and beat Duke and Pepperdine at home last weekend by 4-3 scores in both matches.
"We have two hot teams going against each other on Wednesday," Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. "Cal seems to be playing on all cylinders at the moment by the results they have posted. They are much improved from a team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA's last year. They have everyone back and have added two important pieces to the puzzle in Carlos Cueto, a talented lefty from Spain, and Ben McLachlan, one of the best ITA juniors from last year. Cueto played No. 1 for the Florida Gators before transferring and McLachlan is the younger brother of Riki McLachlan from New Zealand. The Bears have more depth and are better in doubles with the new additions. They are playing like a Top 10 team and will be a great challenge for our team. Good teams can win on the road and we will see if we are up to the challenge.
The Pepperdine Waves (12-3), another perennial NCAA Tournament squad, defeated #27 Louisville on Monday, 4-3, and will face Wisconsin on Wednesday, Mar. 16 before the Aggies arrive for a 2 p.m. pacific (4 p.m. central) first serve on Saturday, Mar. 19. Two of the three Pepperdine losses have come on the road against USC and Duke. The Waves avenged the earlier Duke loss in Durham by defeating the Blue Devils, 4-3, in Malibu last week.
"Pepperdine is another great team and they are tough to beat at home," Denton explained. "They play with a tremendous amount of energy and we will have to play well to beat them on Saturday."
A strength of the Aggie squad is the doubles with senior All-Americans Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, FL) and Austin Krajicek (Brandon, FL) moving up to the No. 2 ranked doubles team in the latest rankings playing at the No. 1 line on most occasions. The doubles tandem of junior Colin Hoover (Victoria, TX) and sophomore Alberto Bautista (McAllen, TX) are ranked No. 53 and have played at the No. 3 line. The Aggie duo at the No. 2 slot has been senior Alexey Grigorov (Moscow, Russia) and freshman Junior Ore (Gaithersburg, MD) and they move into the rankings at No. 63. The Aggies have won the doubles point in 14 of their 17 matches this spring.
Cal and Pepperdine have some impressive doubles teams as well with Cal's Christopher Konigsfeldt and Nick Andrews at No. 21 and the Bear duo of Ben McLachlan and Pedro Zerbini at No. 73. Pepperdine has the No. 37 team in Hugh Clarke and Finn Tearney.
Some of the top singles players in the country will be competing in California. California is led by Pedro Zerbini, ranked No. 15 overall, while Pepperdine is led by Sebastian Fanselow who is ranked No. 17 this week. A&M's Austin Krajicek is ranked No. 23 this week. Pepperdine's Finn Tearney is No. 49 with A&M's Jeff Dadamo at No. 62. The Waves' Alex Llompart comes in at No. 66 and Cal's Carlos Cueto is No. 69. Rounding out the group is A&M's Alexis Klegou at No. 100 and Cal's Christopher Konigsfeldt is No. 119.
After the trip out west, the Aggies will open Big 12 Conference play next weekend as they travel to Oklahoma State on Friday Mar. 25 and then visit Oklahoma on Sunday, Mar. 27.