April 21, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M women's tennis team will honor its three seniors - Stephanie Davidson, Morgan Frank and Christi Liles - prior to the Aggies' home finale against Texas Tech on Friday. The senior recognition will begin at approximately 5:45 p.m. and first serve against the 41st-ranked Lady Raiders is slated for 6 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
It will also be 12th Man Day, and all current A&M students will be admitted free by showing their student ID.
"We hope we get a good crowd," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "I want to make a special appeal to the local people who have come out and watched these three seniors play for four years. Hopefully they will come out to help us honor the seniors, and come a little early because the senior presentation will all be done before the match starts at 6 p.m."
The No. 30 Aggies are 13-7 overall and tied with Nebraska for fifth place in the Big 12 standings with a 6-4 mark. A&M, which has won three of its last four matches and is 8-2 in home matches, is coming off a hard-fought 5-2 loss to No. 7 Baylor, which clinched at least a share of the Big 12 title for a seventh consecutive year. Frank and freshman Christi Potgieter garnered A&M's points with wins at the No. 2 and 4 singles lines, respectively.
"The match last night, yes, we laid everything out there, and we must do the same thing against Tech," Kleinecke said. "We can't rely on that (performance against Baylor) as any consolation. We have to be out there and do the same thing tomorrow night."
Texas Tech is 17-5 overall and in fourth place in the conference at 7-2 entering a match tonight at Baylor. The Lady Raiders' seven conference victories ties the school record, and wins against both Baylor and A&M would give Tech a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship for the first time in school history. Most recently, the Lady Raiders defeated Colorado and Missouri on the road.
"They are having a great season, the best season for them that I can remember in a long, long time," Kleinecke said about the Lady Raiders. "So they are coming in here on a very big high. They will play Baylor tonight, but even if they lose to Baylor, they will still be on a high. And if they beat Baylor, they'll really be on a big high. They are going to come in here thinking they can beat us and will be ready to go, and we are going to have to play a great match to come away with this win.
"We made a turn mentally about a week-and-a-half ago, so I'm excited about that and it is at a good time. This is the time to really get turned on. I think that it is going to be a great college match. It is going to be competitive, and I think it is going to come down to the wire. It should be fun."
Nazari Urbina, a sophomore from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, leads the Aggies and is ranked No. 30 in the nation in singles with a 25-9 overall record. She is 13-6 in dual matches, all at the No. 1 line, including 7-3 in Big 12 matches only.
Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.), who was named Big 12 Player of the Week after leading A&M to wins at Iowa State and Nebraska last weekend, is riding a six-match winning streak and is 9-1 in conference matches only at the No. 2 line. She is 17-3 in dual matches at No. 2 and 23-6 overall, and she has 88 career victories to tie former All-American Kim Labuschagne (1985-87) for eighth place in the A&M all-time records for most wins. In addition, Frank's 76.5 career winning percentage (88-27) keeps her on pace to obliterate the A&M career winning percentage of 72.8 percent held by Ashley Hedberg (2001-03).
Frank also is in ninth place for most doubles wins with 87 and needs one more victory to move into a tie for eighth with Martina Nedorostova (1999-2002).
Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas), who plays doubles with Frank at the No. 2 line, also is climbing the career charts in doubles. She is 95-43 in her career, ranking fourth in the A&M all-time records. She needs five more wins to move into a tie for third with former Aggie All-American Jessica Roland (2001-04).
Liles (Largo, Fla.) is 6-4 in singles in Big 12 matches, all at the No. 3 line, while Davidson, who typically plays No. 6 singles, is 5-5, after having played more matches than expected at the No. 5 line throughout the season due to injuries to sophomore Janelle Cuthbertson (Perth, Australia) and Potgieter (Petrusville, South Africa).
Tech's main strength is doubles, where the Lady Raiders boast identical 7-2 conference records at all three lines. Tech has won the doubled point in seven of its nine conference matches entering the contest at Baylor.
In singles, freshman Nikki Sanders is on a six-match win streak and is 8-1 in Big 12 play at No. 6. Freshman Samantha Adams is 7-2 in conference at the No. 2 line and is 16-4 overall in dual matches. Sophomore Elizabeth Ullathorne is ranked for the second-straight week, as she is no No. 121.
A&M owns a lopsided 33-1 record in the all-time series against the Lady Raiders and has won the last 26 meetings. Tech's only win against the Aggies was in 1987, before any of the players on the current rosters were born.
Last year, A&M defeated Tech, 5-2, in Lubbock, Texas.
Next up for both teams is the Big 12 Championship tournament, April 28 through May 1 at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco, Texas. The tournament bracket is expected be announced late Saturday.