Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Athletics
Texas A&M
Aggies Squeeze by Red Raiders 5-2
March 31, 2007 | Men's Tennis
March 31, 2007
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - After a close and heated match-up against rivals Texas A&M, the Aggies came out on top defeating the Texas Tech men's tennis team 5-2. The Red Raiders fall to 10-6, 1-1 in conference, as the Aggies notched in their first Big 12 win advancing to 14-5 on the season.
In doubles, A&M's No. 2 duo of Bain and Pollock tabbed in the first win, but the senior duo of Teddy DiBlasi and Dimitrio Martinez evened the score at one all with an 8-4 win over the Aggies' No. 41 pair of Beatty and Wooten. On the No. 1 court, Tech's No. 34 duo of Bojan Szumanski and Christian Rojmar went up early in the match, but let it slip away losing 8-6 to John Nallon and Brett Joelson.
With A&M ahead 1-0, singles competition proved to be as stiff as doubles. Aggie Matt Bain won in the No. 5 spot over Michael Breler, 6-2, 6-4, but Tech's No. 3 Sinisa Markovic put Tech on the board by defeating Luka Ocvirk 7-4 in the second set tiebreaker.
Raiders' No. 34 Szumanski couldn't pick up momentum losing 6-4, 7-5 to No. 114 John Makowski. Brett Joelson clinched the match for the Aggies with a 7-5 win in the third set over Tech's Rojmar.
Soon after, Milos Kustudija gave Tech their second point defeating John Nallon 7-0 in the third set tiebreaker. To end the day, Tech captain Martinez battled in the No. 2 singles spot losing 7-3 in the third set tiebreaker to Aggie Conor Pollock. Martinez suffered his third loss of the season as Pollock goes on a six match winning streak and improves to 13-4.
"This was an extremely difficult loss for us. I felt we should have won this match," said head Coach Tim Siegel. "We let the doubles point slip away, with the No. 1 duo being up 6-4. In singles our guys played hard, but just couldn't close it out. We had three points out there as Christian was up two points to win the match, and in the No. 2 spot Dimitrio led 5-3 in the third. To give A&M credit, they hung in there and won the bigger points. This was a tough one and I know we will bounce back and be ready for tomorrow."
The men return to the courts on Sun., April 1, as they travel to Austin, Texas to face No. 12 Longhorns. Live stats for the match are available at http://live.texassports.com/tn/index.html. For more information and complete results, visit www.texastech.com.
#34 Texas Tech, 2
#33 Texas A&M, 5
Singles: 5, 3, 1, 4, 6, 2
1. #114 John Makowski (TAMU) def. #34 Bojan Szumanski (TTU), 6-4, 7-5
2. #104 Conor Pollock (TAMU) def. Dimitrio Martinez (TTU), 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3)
3. Sinisa Markovic (TTU) def. Luka Ocvirk (TAMU), 7-5, 7-6(4)
4. Brett Joelson (TAMU) def. Christian Rojmar (TTU), 2-6, 6-4, 7-5
5. Matt Bain (TAMU) def. Michael Breler (TTU), 6-2, 6-4
6. Milos Kustudija (TTU) def. John Nallon (TAMU), 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(0)
Doubles: 2, 3, 1
1. Nallon/Joelson (TAMU) def. Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU), 8-6
2. Bain/Pollock (TAMU) def. Breler/Markovic (TTU), 8-4
3. DiBlasi/Martinez (TTU) def. Beatty/Wooten (TAMU), 8-4
