COLLEGE STATION —For the first time since Jan. 29, the No. 12 Aggie men’s tennis team will be in action at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center on the Texas A&M campus as the No. 45 TCU Horned Frogs come calling for a 6 p.m. dual match on Friday, Feb. 24.
The Aggies are 6-4 on the young season and have played six straight indoor matches. A&M is 4-0 in outdoor matches. The last outdoor match was a 4-3 win against highly-ranked Mississippi State on Jan. 29 that allowed the Aggies to reach the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. It also marked the 40th consecutive home victory for the men’s tennis team, the best consecutive home record in school history in any sport.
“TCU presents another stern test for us,” Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. “They are much improved under second-year head coach David Roditi. Our guys are really excited to be playing at home in front of the 12th Man again and getting to play an outdoor match. Hopefully, we can continue to build some momentum from last week’s win against Baylor.”
“After the match on Friday, we will hit the road to LSU and like all SEC schools, LSU is an especially tough assignment on the road,” Denton explained. “We play each other every year so we are very familiar rivals. This will be another very close match. Our guys need to be ready to compete as we will get their best effort.
The TCU Horned Frogs are 4-5 on the season after defeating UTA earlier this week, 5-2.
Last spring, the Aggies defeated TCU, 7-0, in Fort Worth. The all-important doubles point was very close with the Aggies’ top-ranked doubles tandem of Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo clinching the point after A&M’s Junior Ore and Alexey Grigorov had won at No. 2 doubles, 8-5. A&M’s senior co-captain Alexis Klegou won his singles match at No. 3 in straight sets. Current juniors Alberto Bautista and Niall Angus both posted straight sets victories with Bautista winning at No. 5 and Angus at No. 6 singles.
This season, Klegou, from Dunkerque, France, is the highest ranked Aggie singles player at No. 15 and the top TCU singles player is Nick Chappell at No. 84 in the latest ITA rankings. The A&M doubles tandem of senior co-captain Colin Hoover, from Victoria, Texas, and fellow senior John Lewis, from Birmingham, Alabama, are ranked No. 36 and the Aggie duo of sophomore Junior Ore, from Gaithersburg, Maryland, and freshman Jackson Withrow, from Omaha, Nebraska, are ranked No. 55 in the latest ITA rankings.
After Friday’s match, the Aggies hit the road again to face the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday at 1 p.m. LSU is currently ranked No. 28 and the two teams faced each other in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Championships with A&M pulling out a 4-0 win. The doubles point was hard fought and then Austin Krajicek posted a straight sets win at No. 1 singles followed by Junior Ore at No. 6 and then Alexis Klegou clinched the match at No. 4 in straight sets.