No. 11 Texas A&M Takes on Alabama Friday

Friday, March 17

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

5:00 PM

Texas A&M

Alabama

Mar 16, 2017 | Men's Tennis

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The No. 11 Texas A&M men's tennis team travels to face Alabama Friday evening at the Alabama Tennis Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. at 5 p.m. The Aggies (10-3) are tied atop the SEC standings with a 4-0 mark in league play, tied with No. 12 Georgia (8-5, 4-0) and No. 21 Mississippi State (11-3, 2-0), while the Crimson Tide (6-10, 0-4) enter the match searching for their first conference win.

The Maroon & White extended their win streak to nine matches last weekend at the Mitchell Tennis Center, defeating No. 17 Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Prairie View A&M. SEC Player of the Week, AJ Catanzariti, boosted the Aggies to victory going 2-0 in league matches and claimed his highest ranked collegiate win against No. 25 Ryotaro Matsumura of Kentucky. All 10 Aggies claimed at least one victory over the weekend, including No. 115 Jordi Arconada, Catanzariti and Hady Habib going 2-0 and freshman Valentin Vacherot tallying a 3-0 mark.

The Alabama men's tennis team went 0-2 last weekend in its first pair of SEC road matches. The Crimson Tide lost to then No. 16 Mississippi State, 5-2, on Thursday afternoon, before falling to in-state rival Auburn, 6-1, Saturday. No. 41 Mazen Osama leads the charge for Alabama going 8-5 in dual matches including a 2-2 league mark. No. 103 Thibault Cancel rounds out the Crimson Tide's ranked singles players. Osama and Spencer Richey enter the weekend ranked No. 66 in the latest doubles poll.

Following the trip to Tuscaloosa, the Aggies will host No. 2 Ohio State Sunday at 12 p.m. at the Mitchell Tennis Center. All Texas A&M students are granted free admission to home matches by presenting a valid student ID. Additionally, fans are reminded the Mitchell Tennis Center adheres to the Texas A&M Athletics 'Clear Bag' policy, for more information about the policy visit 12thMan.com/beclear .

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 stats can be found at http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=alab&sport=daktennis, 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 remain in the ITA doubles rankings at No. 22, the duo claimed six wins in the fall schedule and advancing to the USTA/ITA Texas Regional finals in Ft. Worth.
- Rinderknech continues to be amongst the highest ranked SEC Singles players, coming in at No. 8 in the March 7 singles poll. The Frenchman owns a 17-5 record this year, with an 8-2 mark in dual matches.
- Jordi Arconada is riding a nine-match winning streak to rank No. 115 in the latest ITA poll. The Buenos Aries native, holds a 11-3 record overall including a 9-1 dual match tally.

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 218 career triumphs in Aggieland trail Omar Smith's 275 wins and David Kent's 318 victories, while his winning percentage (68.8) 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).