Building Champions
 Aggies Trounce Tigers, 6-1

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Feb. 7, 2010

BATON ROUGE, La. - Texas A&M swept the doubles matches and won four singles matches in straight sets en route to a convincing 6-1 victory over LSU today at W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium.

"I thought we started off a little bit nervous in the doubles," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said, "but then in the singles at the No. 1, 2, 3, and 5, we lost only two games in those four matches in the first set. That was a big, big key in establishing ourselves. It is great to get into the win column. Any win is a good win, and hopefully that is something we can take and build on."

A&M (1-2) took an early lead as Sheri Olivier (Topeka, Kan.) and Nazari Urbina (Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) defeated Hannah Robinson and Ebie Wilson, 8-2, at the No. 3 line. Stephanie Davidson (Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas) and Morgan Frank (Oldsmar, Fla.) also cruised to an 8-2 win, defeating Kaitlin Burns and Nicole Kantor at the No. 2 line to clinch the doubles point. It marked the first point the Tigers have given up in a home match this season after opening the year with back-to-back 7-0 victories.

Christi Liles (Largo, Fla.) and Elzé Potgieter (Bloemfontein, South Africa) came from behind to win at the No. 1 line and complete the sweep. LSU's Keri Frankenberger and Whitney Wolf, who entered the match with a perfect 4-0 record, pulled out to a 5-2 lead. The Aggie duo tied the score at 5-5 but was unable to take the lead as LSU held serve and then broke serve to go up 7-5. A&M fought back and tied the score at 7-7 and then cruised to a 7-1 win in the tiebreaker to complete the sweep and hand the LSU tandem its first loss of the season.

 

 

A&M quickly took control in singles, giving up only two first-set games on four courts combined. Frank took only an hour to dispose of Frankenberger, 6-0, 6-3 at No. 2 to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.

Olivier put A&M ahead, 3-0, with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Robinson at the No. 5 line, and 117th-ranked Urbina clinched the winning point with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Kantor at No. 3.

"I felt a lot better after the singles than I did the doubles," Kleinecke said. "LSU did what we thought they were going to do, as they came out and made us play a lot of balls."

Potgieter, ranked No. 88, picked up her third consecutive ranked win and kept the Tigers scoreless with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over 120th-ranked Wolf at the No. 1 line.

LSU had posted first-set wins on Courts 4 and 6, but A&M came back to win the second set on both courts. With the team victory already secured, the matches were decided with a 10-point super tiebreaker.

Davidson and Burns had split the first two sets by identical 6-3 scores at the No. 5 line, but Burns used a 5-0 run to break away from a 2-2 tie in the tiebreaker. Davidson got within 8-6 but was unable to overcome the deficit as Burns went on to win, 10-6, and earn the Tigers' only point.

Liles dropped her first set to Wilson, 6-3, at No. 6, but held onto a 7-5 second-set win. With the tiebreaker knotted at 5-5, Liles claimed five of the next seven points to close out the match.

"We had to make some lineup changes last minute, and I'm proud of Stephanie and Christi as they gave themselves a chance to win and didn't give up even though they knew the match had already been won," Kleinecke said. "They were fighting like crazy out there, and that is a key trait that we need to keep all throughout the year."

The match was the third consecutive loss for LSU, which drops to 2-3. The Tigers had overcome a 3-0 deficit to defeat A&M, 4-3, last year in College Station.

The Aggies are now off until Feb. 19 when they begin a stretch of three matches in three days in Las Vegas, starting with a meeting against No. 45 San Diego. A&M also will face No. 29 Fresno State and host and 41st-ranked UNLV. Match time is 10 a.m. (12 p.m. CT) each day, and live scoring will be available at Aggie Athletics.com.

"I think (the time off) will be good for us," Kleinecke said. "Now we can take some time to work on some things and possibly look at some different doubles combinations and just try to see where we are going to go from here. It's just good to get the win and move forward now, so it will give us some time to really get after our practicing."

(36) Texas A&M 6, (42) LSU 1
February 7, 2010
W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium
Baton Rouge, La.
Attendance: n/a

Singles
1. (#88) Elzé Potgieter (TAMU) def. (#120)Whitney Wolf (LSU), 6-1, 6-0
2. Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. Keri Frankenberger (LSU), 6-0, 6-3
3. (#117) Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Nicole Kantor (LSU), 6-1, 6-1
4. Kaitlin Burns (LSU) def. Stephanie Davidson (TAMU), 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (6)
5. Sheri Olivier (TAMU) def. Hannah Robinson (LSU), 6-0, 6-2
6. Christi Liles (TAMU) def. Ebie Wilson (LSU), 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (7)

Doubles (A&M wins the point)
1. Christi Liles/Potgieter (TAMU) def. Frankenberger/Wolf (LSU), 8-7 (1)
2. Davidson/Frank (TAMU) def. Burns/Kantor (LSU), 8-2
3. Olivier/Urbina (TAMU) def. Robinson/Wilson (LSU), 8-2

Order of finish
Doubles: 3, 2, 1
Singles: 2, 5, 3*, 1, 4, 6
*Clinched match

Team records
Texas A&M: 1-2
LSU: 2-3

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