Sanchez-Quintanar Sets Records in Final Rankings

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M women's tennis All-American Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (pronounced keen-tah-nar) has obliterated two more school records, as she became the Aggies' all-time highest-rated player in both the singles and doubles final rankings, announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) late Tuesday.

The junior from Campo de Criptana, Spain, was No. 6 in the year-end singles rankings after reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship as a No. 7 seed. The previous final singles record-high was No. 18, set by former Aggie All-American Lynn Staley in the 1991 final rankings.

Sanchez-Quintanar and partner Wen Sun were No. 18 in the final doubles rankings, besting the A&M previous record high of No. 22 set by Tiffany Clifford and Sarah Foster in the 2006 final rankings.

Juniors Nazari Urbina and Sun also represent A&M in the singles rankings, coming in at No. 60 and No. 73, respectively, after helping lead the Aggies to a 19-6 record, an appearance in the NCAA second round and a No. 17 final team ranking.

Sanchez-Quintanar went 40-6 (.870) in singles, setting an A&M record for the highest winning percentage in a season. Her 40 victories were two shy of the all-time record for most wins in a season set by Kim Labuschagne (1986-87), who was the only other Aggie to ever reach the NCAA quarterfinals in singles. Sanchez-Quintanar was 24-1 in dual matches.

In doubles, Sanchez-Quintanar and Sun, from Dalian, China, led the Aggies in victories with a 23-10 overall record after reaching the NCAA Doubles Championship first round. The pair went 18-7 in dual matches and received All-Big 12 Conference honors in doubles after capturing a share of the Big 12 No. 1 doubles title with a 7-2 conference record.

Earlier this season Sanchez-Quintanar, who was playing in her first season at A&M after playing the 2011 spring season at Maryland, earned the highest regular season singles ranking in A&M history as she received a No. 4 ranking on Feb 28 to break the program's previous longstanding record-high of No. 9 achieved by Staley as she entered the 1991 spring season.

Sanchez-Quintanar went on to become the first player in A&M history to be named Big 12 Conference Player of the Year after going 9-0 and earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Singles Championship. In addition, Sanchez-Quintanar became the first player in Big 12 history to be named both Big 12 player and newcomer of the year in the same season.

The following are the top 10 players in the 2012 ITA final singles rankings:

1.     Nicole Gibbs, So., Stanford

2.     Beatrice Capra, Fr., Duke

3.     Allie Will, Jr., Florida

4.     Mallory Burdette, Jr., Stanford

5.     Robin Anderson, Fr., UCLA

6.     CRISTINA SANCHEZ-QUINTANAR, JR., TEXAS A&M

7.     Chelsey Gullickson, Sr., Georgia

8.     Jana Juricova, Sr., California

9.     Zsofi Susanyi, Fr., California

10.  Lauren Embree, Jr., Florida