Texas A&M University Team Page
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The 13th-ranked Texas A&M women's tennis team defeated No. 54 North Texas, 4-1, in both team's season opener and in the first round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend today at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies advance to the championship match Sunday to take on No. 30 Arizona with an invitation to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at stake. The start time of the match has been changed to 12:30 p.m. The Wildcats defeated No. 41 Minnesota, 4-2, in other first-round action earlier in the day. The Gophers and Mean Green will meet in the consolation match Sunday at 10 a.m.
Texas A&M won the first doubles match to be completed as the seventh-ranked duo of Stefani Hristov and Cristina Stancu won four of the last five games to pull away from a 4-4 tie and defeat Kseniya Bardabush and Franziska Sprinkmeyer, 8-5, at the No. 1 line.
It would be the only doubles victory for the Aggies as North Texas' Valentina Starkova and Barbora Vykydalova overcame a 4-1 deficit to defeat A&M's Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar and Ines Deheza, 8-6, at the No. 2 position. The Mean Green then clinched the point to take a 1-0 lead as Dane Jobert and Ilona Serchenko pulled away from a 5-5 tie and defeated A&M's Wen Sun and Nazari Urbina, 8-5, at No. 3.
"Certainly losing the doubles point to North Texas would count for an inauspicious start to the season for us at one level," A&M second year head coach Howard Joffe said. "At another level, you've got to give North Texas kids all the credit. They played with no pressure and they took calculated, good risks. I definitely think our group had plenty of chances, but we were perhaps tentative and timid while the North Texas kids executed and played very, very well.
"Obviously the doubles point was a very difficult start. That said, one of the things I have to recognize as the coach is that we do have five new people on the team, two who have been here a weekend. So figuring out the best doubles combinations is realistically going to take some time. I was certainly disappointed for our kids but not disappointed in them in the doubles."
The North Texas lead was short lived as Hristov, a freshman from Romania, raced to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Joubert at No. 6 singles to put the Aggies on the board.
"With Hristov, every box was checked: attitude, movement, execution, viciousness," Joffe said. "Just in the context of the match, it was nice to not be down 1-0 for very long with Hristov winning points so quickly."
Sanchez-Quintanar, whose No. 3 singles ranking is the highest in Texas A&M history, gave the Aggies the lead after completing a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Bardabush at the No. 1 line. Stancu then quickly put A&M ahead, 3-1, winning eight consecutive games en route to a 6-0, 6-4 win over Vykydalova at No. 2.
Deheza, a freshman who joined the team earlier this month, secured the Aggies' winning point in her A&M dual match debut, defeating Serchenko, 6-2, 6-2, at the No. 5 line. Sun held a 6-2, 4-1 lead over Sprinkmeyer at No. 4 and Urbina held a 5-2 second-set lead after dropping the first set, 6-3, against Starkova when the matches were stopped following Deheza's match, which secured the Aggies' 4-1 victory.
"Of course the question gets asked of what sort of group character do we have when we lose the doubles point at home," Joffe said. "Certainly we came back as vicious and nasty as one could expect. Ines Deheza clinched the match for us for her first match as a freshman. It was great to see her out playing well and fighting hard and coping with the pressure. Also Cristina Stancu played particularly well at No. 2 against a good player."
The Aggies, who won their 14th consecutive meeting against the Mean Green to improve to 14-2 in the all-time series, now aim for a victory over Arizona to earn their first trip to the National Team Indoor Championships since the ITA Kick-Off Weekend began five years ago. The Wildcats own a 3-0 record in the all-time series against the Aggies, including a 5-2 victory in the most recent meeting on March 1, 2002, in College Station.
"Arizona definitely will present challenges for us, but I think today's match will have a little bit of a settling influence on us," Joffe added. "It was our first dual match, and I think our kids are very, very excited for the opportunity to compete for the big prize, which is to get to go to the National Indoors. I expect it to be hotly contested. I expect it to be difficult, but I also expect our girls to acquit themselves even better than they did today."
Free live video and scoring of the Arizona-Texas A&M match and live scoring only of the North Texas-Minnesota match will be available at AggieAthletics.com. Fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
No. 3 Texas A&M 4, No. 54 North Texas 1
ITA Kick-Off Weekend (First Round)
January 26, 2013
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
Singles
1. (#3) Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) def. Kseniya Bardabush (UNT), 6-2, 6-2
2. (#45) Cristina Stancu (TAMU) def. Barbora Vykydalova (UNT), 6-0, 6-4
3. Nazari Urbina (TAMU) vs. Valentina Starkova (UNT), 3-6, 5-2, unfinished
4. (#82) Wen Sun (TAMU) vs. Franziska Sprinkmeyer (UNT), 6-2, 4-1, unfinished
5. Ines Deheza (TAMU) def. Ilona Serchenko (UNT), 6-2, 6-2
6. Stefania Hristov (TAMU) def. Dane Joubert (UNT), 6-1, 6-1
Doubles (North Texas wins the point)
1. (#7) Hristov/Stancu (TAMU) def. Bardabush/Sprinkmeyer (UNT), 8-5
2. Starkova/Vykydalova (UNT) def. Sanchez-Quintanar/I. Deheza (TAMU), 8-6
3. Joubert/Serchenko (UNT) def. Sun/Urbina (TAMU), 8-5
Order of finish
Doubles: 1, 2, 3
Singles: 6, 1, 2, 5
Team records
Texas A&M: 1-0
North Texas: 0-1
No. 30 Arizona 4, No. 41 Minnesota 2
ITA Kick-Off Weekend (First Round)
January 26, 2013
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
1. Lacey Smyth (UA) def. Natallia Pintusava (UM), 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
2. Kim Stubbe (UA) def. Tereza Brichacova (UM), 6-2, 6-0
3. Laura Oldham (UA) vs. Yuliana Umanets (UM), 6-4, 6-7 (3) 1-1, unfinished
4. Aria Lambert (UM) def. Akilah James (UA), 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3
5. Susan McRann (UA) def. Jessika Mozia (UM), 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-5
6. Shayne Austin (UA) def. Doron Muravnik, 7-6 (5), 6-4
Doubles (Minnesota wins the point)
1. Brichacova/Pintusava (UM) def. Inge Hendrikx/Stubbe (UA), 8-7 (9)
2. Muravnik/Palen (UM) def. Austin/Smyth (UA), 8-7 (4)
3. James/McRann (UA) def. Mozia/Ulmanets (UM), 8-2
Order of finish
Doubles: 3, 2, 1
Singles: 2, 6, 1, 4, 5
Team Records
