April 7, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team returns home this weekend to host No. 22 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in key Big 12 Conference matches. The Aggies, who are 7-0 in home matches this season, take on the Sooners on Friday at 6 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. On Saturday, the women host Oklahoma State. Match time against the Cowgirls has been changed to 5 p.m.
The women's match against Oklahoma is part of a doubleheader with the No. 5 Aggie men's team, which hosts No. 19 Texas Tech also at 6 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center.
Admission to the matches on Friday is only $1 per person, and sodas and popcorn are also just a dollar. Gates open at 5 p.m. and the first 50 Texas A&M students will receive a free seat cushion.
"We have a unique facility where both the men and women's teams can play matches at the same time," A&M women's coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "It is fun for the players when that happens, and the fans enjoy it, too. There will be two great matches being played simultaneously, and we hope we get a large crowd to support both Aggie teams."
The A&M women (10-5), who took a break from conference play last weekend and fell to No. 19 Notre Dame, 6-1, and defeated DePaul 4-0, in South Bend, Ind., are 3-2 and in sixth place in the Big 12. Oklahoma (13-4) is tied with Baylor for the conference lead with a 5-1 league mark, and Oklahoma State is 6-11 overall and 2-4 in Big 12 matches only entering a match at No. 25 Texas on Friday.
"This is a very important weekend for us, especially with the conference race being so up in the air," Kleinecke said. "No one knows what will happen in any of the conference matches, so every match is a big match for us. This weekend's matches are a great opportunity for us to help ourselves and to defend our home court."
A&M is led by Nazari Urbina. The sophomore from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, is ranked No. 34 in the nation in singles with a 21-8 overall record.
Seniors Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) and Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) lead the Aggies in Big 12 matches only. Frank is with 4-1 at No. 2 singles, and Davidson is 4-1 in conference play, including 4-0 at the No. 5 position. With a win against Gia McKnight of DePaul, Frank improved to 83-27 in her singles career, moving her into a tie for 10th place in the A&M career records with former Aggie All-American Jessica Roland (2001-04). Two wins this weekend will place her in a tie with Cindy Churchwell, who tallied 85 victories from 1988-1991.
Sophomore Lauren Santacroce (Spring, Texas) boasts the team's longest winning streak in singles, having won three straight at the No. 6 line. Santacroce has gone 4-2 since moving into the lineup against Colorado on March 18 due to a thumb injury to freshman Christi Potgieter. Potgieter returned to the lineup at her usual No. 4 line against DePaul, but Santacroce, who scored A&M's only point against Notre Dame, stayed in at No. 6 and scored a point in the Aggies' win against the Blue Demons.
In doubles, Davidson and Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.), who has admirably filled in during Potgieter's absence, are riding a team-best seven-match winning streak at the No. 3 line. Their win against DePaul marked Davidson's 13th victory in her last 14 matches. In addition, she moved into a three-way tie with former Aggie standouts Anna Blagodarova and Tiffany Clifford for fourth place in the A&M all-time records with 93 career doubles victories.
The Sooners are coming off a 4-3 victory against No. 74 Missouri last weekend. Oklahoma swept the doubles and then got wins from Ana-Maria Constantinuescu, Mia Lancaster and Maria Kalashnikova at the No. 1, 5 and 6 singles lines.
Constantinuescu is ranked No. 102 in singles and is No. 66 in doubles with Alice Radu. The Sooner duo is 5-0 in Big 12 matches at the No. 1 line, and Whitney Ritchie and Mia Lancaster are 5-0 in league matches at the No. 2 doubles line. Kalashnikova is undefeated in conference singles matches with a 5-0 mark at the No. 6 line.
"OU is a very good team," Kleinecke said. "They are very confident and have some great wins, including a win against Arkansas which we lost to. It is going to be a dogfight and a great college match, and the way the conference is going, anything can happen."
Oklahoma State is coming off a 4-2 loss at Missouri on Sunday. The Cowgirls were swept in the doubles, and two of the singles losses were in three sets.
A&M is 20-4 in the all-time series against Oklahoma and has won the last 15 meetings. Last year, the Aggies defeated the Sooners 4-3 in Norman, Okla., after sweeping the doubles and getting a three-set victory from then-freshman Urbina in the last match standing to clinch the win. A&M also defeated Oklahoma, 4-2, in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Big 12 Championship in Austin, Texas.
The last time the Sooners topped the Aggies was in 1999.
A&M is 17-9 against Oklahoma State after winning the last nine meetings. Last year, A&M defeated the Cowgirls, 6-1, in Stillwater, Okla. OSU's most recent win against A&M was in the finals of the 2003 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo.
A&M has only two home matches remaining following this weekend's matches. The Aggies close out the home portion of the regular season against No. 9 Baylor on Wednesday, April 20 and No. 39 Texas Tech on Friday, April 22. It will be Senior Night against the Red Raiders, and Aggie seniors Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.), Davidson and Frank will be recognized prior to the start of the match.