Spring Break
Tigers rally after move to beat Aggies
By: Michael Sullivan
Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: Sports
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In the Aggies match against No. 25 Louisiana State, the two teams played three doubles sets and four singles sets at the George Mitchell Tennis Center before moving to the indoor Bryan Tennis Center because of rain.
Though the Aggies had a 3-2 lead before moving to Bryan, they dropped the final sets of the match to lose 4-3.
"This match was definetly in our grasp," said A&M Head Coach Bobby Kleinecke. "We had our hands on it. It was ours and we just didn't finish it when we moved over here."
The loss drops A&M to 3-2 in 2009 and 1-2 against ranked opponents. The Tigers were the third consecutive Top 25 opponents the Aggies have faced.
The Aggies jumped out to an early 1-0 by taking the doubles point for the third consecutive match after the No. 3 doubles team of freshman Sheri Oliver and junior Elze Potgieter came through with an 8-5 victory.
Oliver and Potgieter started off the match by taking four of the first five games of the match, giving the duo a 4-1 lead before a 28 minute rain delay stopped play. After the break, the Tigers took three of the next five games to bring the match back to 6-4. The Aggies stopped the rally by taking two of the next three games, closing out the match and the giving A&M the doubles point.
Sophomore Morgan Frank, advanced the Aggie lead to 2-0 after she won her singles match 6-2, 6-1.
Oliver won her second match of the day, defeating her opponent 6-3, 6-2, giving the Aggies a 3-0 lead over the Tigers. Less than thirty minutes later, LSU had closed the gap by taking No. 1 and No. 6 singles, bringing the match count to 3-2.
Freshman Lauren Santacroce and sophomore Christi Liles were the two remaining players on the court when rain sent the match to Bryan.
After moving indoors, Santacroce dropped the first three games of her third set. Liles remained on serve, but was down 3-2 through five games.
Santacroce was not able to overcome the deficit and lost her third set 6-0, tying the match at 3-3. As Santacroce shook hands, Liles remained on serve trailing 4-3.
Liles recovered and took the eighth game, but dropped the next two to LSU junior Nicole Kantor.
Kleinecke said Kantor is a difficult person to play because the sits back on the ball. "It was hard to do outside, I understood that" Kleinecke said. "When you come in here there's no wind and now you've just got to play your game."
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