Men's Tennis Enters Spring Season No. 18 In The Nation

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Jan. 6, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M men's tennis team enters the spring season ranked No. 18 nationally in the first edition of the NCAA Division I team and singles and doubles rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Tuesday.

Individually, A&M was the only other school aside from top-ranked Ohio State to have two players or more ranked in the top 15 in singles with sophomore Wil Spencer (Ponce de Leon, Fla.) earning a career-best No. 8 national ranking and senior All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) at No. 12. Sophomore All-American and 2008 U.S. Open participant Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) rounded out A&M's ranked singles players at No. 47.

Spencer compiled a team-best 11-3 record in fall tournament play after defeating six ranked opponents including No. 7-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky of rival Texas in the round of 16 of the Wilson/ITA South Central Region Championships, No. 18 Dominic Inglot of Virginia in the round of 64 of the main draw at the ITA All-American Championships on Oct. 9 and No. 30 Ed Corrie of Texas in the round of 64 at the Baylor Intercollegiate on Sept. 26.

Meanwhile, Pollock won the Wilson/ITA South Central Region Championship title in singles en route to his second-consecutive appearance at the prestigious ITA National Indoors. He posted an 11-4 mark against fall tournament competition including seven victories over ranked opponents.

In the doubles rankings, Pollock and Krajicek combined for a No. 34 national ranking after winning the Wilson/ITA South Central Region Championship doubles title and putting together an 8-4 record as the Aggies' top doubles combination in the fall. Last season, the duo earned ITA All-America status by reaching the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Doubles Championship to become the first Aggies to do so in school history.

 

 

A&M's spring roster also includes junior Chris Chirico (Philadelphia, Pa.), junior Marcus Lunt (San Antonio, Texas), sophomore Kayvon Karimi (Dallas, Texas), sophomore Patrick Dean (Dallas, Texas), freshman Colin Hoover (Victoria, Texas) and freshman Austin Klores (Franklin, Texas). The Aggies will open up the 2009 season against Radford on Sunday, Jan 25 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center at 1 p.m. (CT).

ITA MEN'S TEAM NCAA DIVISION I RANKINGS
1. Ohio State
2. Texas
3. Georgia
4. UCLA
5. Virginia
6. USC
7. Baylor
8. Tennessee
9. Mississippi
10. Florida
11. Florida State
12. Stanford
13. Tulsa
14. Pepperdine
15. Illinois
16. Michigan
17. Miami (Fla.)
18. Texas A&M
19. LSU
20. North Carolina
21. Texas Tech
22. Oklahoma State
23. Alabama
24. Rice
25. Cal

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