The Texas A&M Women’s Tennis team will play its final two home matches Saturday and Sunday against the No. 63 University of Kansas Jayhawks and the University of Missouri Tigers respectively. These will be the Aggies’ last set of games to prepare for the Big 12 Tournament April 27 through 30.
After winning four near-shut-out games out of their past six matches played, the Aggies will look to Anna Blagodarova, a sophomore international studies major, and junior finance major Anna Lubinsky to continue their solid play in both singles and doubles play. Additionally, Big 12 player of the week Sarah Foster, a junior psychology major, will also be a strong contributor to the Aggies’ campaign.
Although A&M defeated Missouri and Kansas by significant margins last season, Blagodarova said the team refuses to be complacent.
“We aren’t going to take anyone for granted, especially since we lost to Nebraska,” Blagodarova said. “We are going to play every game like we are playing against Texas.”
The Aggie’s successful record this season of 12-10 overall, and 7-2 in the Big 12, has made a salient impression on the team’s morale, Blagodarova said, which will affect it’s performance this weekend.
I have never played on a team where we had so many shut-outs, so it is a great confidence booster. We expect to play really well at every game, so it’s really great when we go out there and make it happen,” Blagodarova said.
Missouri head coach Blake Starkey said the team is approaching the game with caution, as it will face No. 19 Texas the previous day in a potential match that could see his Tigers play the Aggies in a bad spot.
“We have a lot of respect for Coach Kleinecke and the Texas A&M team,” Starkey said. “We know that A&M has had a great season so far, so we really just want to make things interesting and put ourselves to a point where we can win. We will fight, they will fight and want to compete well. If that happens, we will be happy.”
The Tigers hope to improve on some specific areas of their game before the competitions this weekend, Starkey said.
“Doubles have really stubbed our toes in the past,” he said. “We want to improve on that for the upcoming matches. In those kinds of matches, we want to take care of things we can take care of. Playing on their courts isn’t going to make things any easier.”
Jayhawk head coach Amy Hall-Holt said her team is just looking to compete this weekend against an A&M squad she respects fully.
“We definitely want to play well and be victorious,” Hall-Holt said. “We are working to stay competitive, and we want the girls to work for every point no matter what.”