The Texas A&M men’s and women’s tennis teams suffered 4-2 semi-final losses Saturday to rival Texas in the Big 12 Championship Tournament.
The men’s team fell behind after the Longhorns took the doubles point with two wins.
“They are a very good team,” Texas A&M men’s Head Coach Steve Denton told AggieAthletics.com. “We knew the doubles point would be crucial today. We had our shot to win the doubles, but they stepped up and we didn’t.”
In singles, Texas A&M sophomore All-American Austin Krajicek took two 6-3 wins for a straight set victory against Ed Corrie of Texas. The Aggies scored another point from sophomore Alexey Grigorov’s win in straight sets against Olivier Sajous.
A&M failed to keep the momentum as senior Conor Pollock, sophomore Wil Spencer and Freshman Colin Hoover lost their singles matches.
“It was just another close match with Texas,” Denton said. “We were in a couple of the matches in singles. We were up 4-0 in Colin Hoover’s match at No. 6 and couldn’t quite close the door in the second set. That’s the way these close matches go, a few points here and there. They handled it better than we did today and won the game points.”
Texas dominated the Aggies in the women’s doubles. Amanda Craddock and Krista Damico of the Longhorns opened the match with an 8-3 win against sophomores Stephanie Davidson and Morgan Frank. Vanja Corovic and Marija Milic then clinched the point for Texas with a 8-5 victory against freshman Janelle Cuthbertson and sophomore Christi Liles.
In singles competition, the Longhorns kept the upper hand. Texas’ Caroline Larsson beat Liles, while Sarah Lancaster took down freshman Sheri Olivier. Maggie Mello capped it off for Texas with a win against Cuthbertson in straight sets.
“We are not satisfied,” Aggie women’s Head Coach Bobby Kleinecke told AggieAthletics.com. “This was not a match that we came in to play close and lose. We were close, but close isn’t good enough. No matter how you look at it, we can’t be satisfied with that.”
In the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, both teams cruised to 4-1 victories. The men outplayed Nebraska, winning the doubles and three singles matches. The women advanced against Oklahoma State.