Aggies and Seminoles to Faceoff on WatchESPN Sunday

Sunday, February 26

Tallahassee, Fla.

12:00 PM

Texas A&M

Florida State

Feb 25, 2017 | Men's Tennis

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

TALLAHASSEE, Florida - The Texas A&M men's tennis team remains on the road for a Sunday matchup against Florida State in Tallahassee, Florida at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center. The Aggies and Seminoles are set for first serve at 12pm (CT), to be broadcast on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.

Texas A&M stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat South Florida, 4-3, Friday afternoon at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts in Tampa, Florida. Junior AJ Catanzariti clinched the win for the Aggies, winning in three-sets on court two over Justin Roberts. In addition to Catanzariti's do-or-die victory, the Maroon & White picked up wins from Valentin Vacherot and Jordi Arconada. Vacherot tallied the Aggies' second point with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Pierre Luquet on court five, while Arconada claimed his second ranked win of the year. The Buenos Aires native, topped No. 83 Albert Barroso 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 on court four. No. 16 Arthur Rinderknech jump started the Texas A&M comeback with a 7-6(3), 6-0 win on court one over Sasha Gozun.

Florida State (9-2) came back to defeat Pepperdine (3-4), 4-1, Friday night under the lights at the Speicher Tennis Center. After dropping the doubles point to go down 1-0, the Seminoles stormed back in singles play to win 4-1 over the Waves as junior Guy Iradukunda won a three set match on court two 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 over Pepperdine's Pedro Iamachkine to clinch the match in favor of the Seminoles.

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.

Match Updates
- Live video can be seen at http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/id/2990007/texas-am-vs-florida-state-m-tennis and live stats will be available at http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=168718, follow @AggieMTEN on Twitter and then check 12thMan.com for post-match results and a recap from the day's action.

The Texas A&M Lineup
- Texas A&M returns eight lettermen from last year's squad that hosted an NCAA Regional and finished the season ranked No. 14 in the final ITA Rankings.
- Included in the group is junior Arthur Rinderknech who began the spring season ranked No. 16 in the singles poll and No. 7 alongside senior Max Lunkin in the doubles poll. Rinderknech earned singles and doubles All-America honors after appearing in the NCAA Doubles Championship match alongside Jackson Withrow last summer and finishing the season ranked No. 20 in the final singles ranking.
- Also returning this season will be Lunkin, AJ Catanzariti, Jordi Arconada and Aleksandre Bakshi. All four featured regularly in the lineup last season and are set to be mainstays in the Maroon & White lineup again this spring. While seniors Frankie Colunga and James Martell look to take advantage of their final season in College Station.
- The final members of head coach Steve Denton's roster are freshman Hady Habib and Valentin Vacherot. Habib, a Houston native, joins a loaded Aggie lineup and his talent was evident during the fall season where Habib collected eight singles victories and six doubles triumphs. Vacherot, the first cousin of Rinderknech, comes to Aggieland after advancing to the finals of the Tunisia F24 Futures in September and the right-hander picked up ATP points at the Tunisia F25, Slovak Republic F3, Tunisia F23 and the France F13.

Notable Streaks and Trends
- The Aggies have won at least 20 matches in each of the last three seasons under head coach Steve Denton and five times in his 10-year tenure. Four times during the last decade, Texas A&M has hit the 25-win mark, winning 25 in 2010, 29 in 2011, 25 in 2014 and 27 a season ago.
- Texas A&M has had a doubles tandem earn All-America honors in each of the past four seasons. Last season it was Jackson Withrow and Arthur Rinderknech achieving the feat, while Rinderknech also earned the All-American designation for his singles play.
- Since 1999, the Aggies have made 18-straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including advancing to the Elite Eight two seasons ago.

Aggies in the ITA Rankings
- The Texas A&M duo of Arthur Rinderknech and Max Lunkin improved upon their fall ranking of No. 20 by claiming six wins in the fall schedule and advancing to the USTA/ITA Texas Regional finals in Ft. Worth. The Maroon & White duo are ranked No. 19 in the latest ITA doubles rankings.
- Rinderknech continues to be amongst the highest ranked SEC Singles players, coming in at No. 16 in the Feb. 16 singles poll. The Frenchman owns a 12-4 record this year, with a 3-1 mark in dual matches.

The Denton Effect
- In the first ten years of Steve Denton tenure at Texas A&M, beginning in August of 2006, the Aggies claimed 208 dual victories, the second-best 10 year stretch in program history, trailing only the 211 wins under Omar Smith from 1964-1973.
- Denton's 211 career triumphs in Aggieland trails Omar Smith's 275 wins and David Kent's 318 victories, while his winning percentage (68.2) trails only Tim Cass on the all-time ledger (196-83, 70.3%). Smith captained the Aggies from 1960-1974, while Kent was at the helm from 1979-1996 and Cass lead the charge from 1997-2006.
- The Denton-led Aggies have claimed a pair of SEC Tournament crowns (2015 & 2016) and a share of the regular season title in 2015.
- Of Texas A&M's 40 All-Americans all-time, 22 have come under the tutelage of Denton, including the Aggies only player to earn All-American status in all four seasons in Aggieland (Austin Krajicek, 2009-11 singles & 2008-2011 doubles).