COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M's 8th-ranked men's tennis team is set to travel to Houston to take on No. 48 Rice at the brand new George R. Brown Tennis Center Wednesday evening at 5 p.m.
Setting the Scene
The Aggies (14-3) look stay hot as they put a six-match winning streak on the line in the bayou. Rice (11-11) counters with a four-match win streak if its own.
Players in the ITA Rankings
The maroon and white are one of just seven teams to boast four or more ranked singles players, joining No. 2 Baylor, No. 3 Illinois, No. 6 Southern Cal, No. 8 Virginia, No. 11 Ohio State and No. 14 North Carolina. Junior Harrison Adams continues to pace the Aggie attack, ranking No. 51 in the latest ITA ranking. Rounding out the Aggie contingent are senior Jeremy Efferding, junior Shane Vinsant and freshman AJ Catanzariti at 59th, 67th and 79th respectively.
In addition to the four ranked singles players, the Aggies enlist a pair of ranked doubles teams in this week's poll. No. 13 Adams and Vinsant have been ranked within the top-25 every poll this season. Efferding partners with fellow Senior Jordan Szabo to rank 32nd matching Adams and Vinsant with a team-high seven wins over ranked duos.
Last Time Out
The Aggies swept a pair of matches against ranked teams Sunday afternoon at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. The Aggies overpowered No. 13 Ole Miss 4-0 to in Sunday's first match, followed by a 4-3 win over No. 74 UTSA in the night-cap.
With the wins A&M moved to 14-3 on the year and 8-1 in SEC play, the Aggies maintained their stronghold on second place in the SEC standings trailing No. 5 Georgia (16-2, 9-0) and holding a one and a half-match lead over No. 34 Mississippi State (15-5, 6-2) ahead of next month's SEC Tournament in College Station.
A&M's stellar freshman trio of Catanzariti, Rinderknech and Arconada all picked up a pair of wins Sunday to power the College Station bunch to a pair of ranked-wins. In addition to the wins from the first-year collegians the Aggies claimed the doubles point in both matches as Vinsant and sophomore Max Lunkin claimed their first two wins as a duo.
History Against Rice
The Aggies and Owls have met on the courts 34 times, playing at least yearly from 1978 through 2004 beginning were members of the Southwest Conference and continuing as a non-conference match-up. The College Station crew holds a 33-4 advantage in the all-time series, including the Aggies winning the last five match-ups between the two teams located just under 100 miles apart.
Up Next
The Aggies will host their final regular season match Friday evening against Auburn at 5 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. Prior to the match A&M will honor it's four seniors; Jeremy Efferding, Max Montague, Jordan Szabo and Jackson Withrow.
Keep Up With the Aggies
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.