Texas A&M
Baylor
Top-Seeded Baylor Eliminates A&M in Big 12 Semifinals, 4-2
Apr 30, 2011 | Women's Tennis
April 30, 2011
WACO, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team won the doubles point but was unable to hold off No. 1 seed and seventh-ranked Baylor in singles, falling to the Lady Bears, 4-2, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship today at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Baylor (24-3), the five-time defending Big 12 tournament champion, extends its winning streak to 14 and advances to play No. 2 seed Texas in the finals Sunday at 8:30 a.m.
A&M, seeded fourth and appearing in the semifinals for the 14th time in the 15-year history of the tournament, falls to 15-8 and now awaits the announcement of the 64-team NCAA Championship bracket Tuesday at 4 p.m. on www.NCAA.com.
"I'm proud of what this team has accomplished in the last three or four weeks," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke. "That is the thing we need to look at going into the NCAAs. Three or four weeks ago, we thought we were going to have to be playing on Thursday, and here we were the fourth seed and played a good match against Nebraska yesterday and fought Baylor again in a tough match today. I don't think (Baylor) is walking out of this thinking that it was an easy match."
Baylor won the doubles point and came away with a hard-fought 5-2 victory when the teams met during the regular season in College Station. Today, A&M came out and won two of three doubles matches to take the early lead.
It was the Lady Bears who took the early advantage as Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk defeated Stephanie Davidson and Morgan Frank, 8-4, at the No. 2 line, but the Aggie duo of Janelle Cuthbertson and Nazari Urbina, playing together for the first time, won five consecutive games to close out an 8-3 victory over Diana Nakic and Sona Novakova and end a three-match losing streak at the No. 3 line.
"(Cuthbertson and Urbina) are both so quiet that we have been reluctant to make the change," Kleinecke said. "We wondered who was going to lead the team and how they were going to work together, but I just felt like we needed a change. I didn't want to mess with all the teams, because Nos. 1 and 2 have been good and successful. It was just a matter of just trying something new at 3. And who knows if the next time I put the lineup up it will be the same, but they came through for us today and that was a big win."
The point was decided at No. 1, where Baylor's 59th-ranked tandem of Karolina Filipiak and Nadina Secerbegovic twice broke serve to jump out to a 3-0 lead against A&M's Christi Liles and Christi Potgieter. The Aggies fought back and got back on serve at 4-3. The teams then stayed on serve until A&M won two consecutive games to win the match, 8-6, and give the Aggies a 1-0 lead.
A&M, which enter the match 14-0 when capturing the doubles point, was unable to carry the momentum into singles as Baylor won first sets on five of six courts.
"That was one of our big goals, to win the doubles point, but I'm afraid that took a little bit more out of us than we thought it would," Kleinecke said. "The first time we played them and singles started, we were on fire even after losing the doubles point and had our opportunities. This time it was just the opposite. That was a big difference right there is we needed a better start (in singles). We fought hard once our backs were against the wall, but we needed to start out that way."
Secerbegovic, ranked 47th in the nation, tied the score at 1-1 with a 6-0, 6-3 win against Liles at No. 3.
Urbina, ranked No. 30 in singles then pulled off the highest ranked victory of her career by defeating 11th-ranked Novakova 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 1 line to put the Aggies back in the lead at 2-1. Urbina, whose previous highest ranked win was against No. 13 Josipa Bek of Clemson last fall, had fallen to then-No. 15 Novakova in straight sets when the teams met in the regular season.
It would be the final point the Aggies would tally. Ormond tied the score at 2-2, coming back from a 4-1 first-set deficit to defeat Davidson, 7-5, 6-0 at No. 6. Stanivuk then gave the Lady Bears the lead with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Potgieter at No. 4.
Nakic, ranked 46th, clinched the winning point and ended Frank's season-high eight-match winning streak with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory at No. 2.
Cuthbertson had come back to split sets with Filipiak at No. 4 and held a 3-0 lead in the third set when play was stopped.
"I'm very proud of them for the doubles," Kleinecke said. "That was a big doubles point for us, and we were disappointed for losing it the first time we played them, but I was a little bit more disappointed at the start of singles today. But give Baylor credit. I have competed against this team too many times, and I knew they were going to come out fighting like crazy after losing the doubles point, and they weren't going to give us the beginning of the first sets."
The 30th-ranked Aggies are expecting to make their 12th consecutive NCAA Championship appearance. When asked what Kleinecke thought the selection committee will do, he was uncertain but indicated there is a very outside chance the Aggies could host first and second rounds.
"I have no clue. In the past, the way it is right now, Baylor is the only top seed that is in this area, so if they have to bring some other teams here or if it makes sense, maybe there is a chance that we will host. I don't know. I do know that we should be in the tournament and we will be playing again, and that is what we look forward to."
No. 7 Baylor 4, No. 30 Texas A&M 2 Singles
Big 12 Championship -- Semifinal
Baylor Tennis Center
Waco, Texas
1. (#32) Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. (#11) Sona Novakova (BU), 6-2, 6-1
2. (#46) Diana Nakic (BU) def. (#98) Morgan Frank (TAMU), 6-2, 7-6 (5)
3. (#47) Nina Secerbegovic (BU) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 6-0, 6-3
4. (#116) Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. Christi Potgieter (TAMU), 6-3, 6-3
5. Janelle Cuthbertson (TAMU) vs. Karolina Filipiak (BU), 3-6, 6-4, 3-0 (unfinished)
6. Taylor Ormond (BU) def. Stephanie Davidson (TAMU), 7-5, 6-0
Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. Liles/Potgieter (TAMU) def. (#59) Filipiak/Secerbegovic (BU), 8-6
2. Ormond/Stanivuk (BU) def. Davidson/Frank/ (TAMU), 8-4
3. Cuthbertson/Urbina (TAMU) def. Nakic/Novakova (BU), 8-3
Order of finish:
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
Singles: 3, 1, 6, 4, 2
*-clinched match
Team records: Texas A&M: 15-8 Baylor: 24-3
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