By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Staff Writer

Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend

A&M women's tennis coach Bobby Kleinecke loves this time of the year, and apparently he's passed that passion on to his players.

Senior Anna Blagodarova wanted to hit tennis balls moments after the Aggies breezed to a 4-1 victory over Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 women's tennis championships at the Mitchell Center on Friday.

Blagodarova, who has a 98-50 career record in dual matches, suffered a rare 6-0, 6-0 loss to Jo-Anne Karatiana at No. 3 singles.

Blagodarova was the Big 12's champion at No. 3 singles this season.

"Come on, coach, I just gotta hit some balls," pleaded Blagodarova, just as the lights went off.

"No, no," Kleinecke said. "That's it."

That would have been against the rules, which he explained to her, but Kleinecke had to smile at Blagodarova's moxy.

"I love this time of year -- the postseason, where you're playing until somebody does win," he said. "It changes the complexity of everything just a little bit. And it's a lot of fun for the players. You can't look around and wait for somebody else to be doing it; you have to be the one doing it."

Blagodarova and Tiffany Clifford grabbed an 8-1 victory at No. 1 doubles as the third-seeded Aggies easily won the doubles point, then polished off a very business-like victory over the sixth-seeded Cowgirls (12-10) with three singles wins.

"Oklahoma State is one of those dangerous teams," Kleinecke said. "The first time we played them we had a 7-0 win, but they are dangerous team. They are somebody you have to come out and be ready to play against."

Kleinecke was concerned that OSU might have momentum coming off Thursday's 4-1 victory over Missouri.

"I was excited that the doubles got off to a good start for us," Kleinecke said. "Because if we had come in a little flat and let them get into the match a little bit, that could have been a problem."

Morgan Frank, Clifford and Stephanie Davidson claimed straight set victories in No. 4 through No. 6 singles to make quick work of the Cowgirls. A&M had won the first set in the other two matches as well.

A&M advances to play No. 2 Texas (17-5), which won 4-0 over Kansas State. The match will be at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The 20th-ranked Longhorns claimed a 5-2 victory at A&M on April 16, even though they dropped the doubles point.

"A key is going to be that doubles point again," Kleinecke said. "We are going to want to establish that again, and they have switched their No. 2 and No. 3 teams, so it's going to be different matchups."

Kleinecke said it's always exciting when Texas and A&M play, which is probably why Blagodarova wanted to take a few extra swings.

NOTES -- Baylor and Colorado were the other winners Friday. Top-seeded Baylor (26-2) beat No. 9 Texas Tech 4-0. No. 4 Colorado (12-10) beat No. 5 Kansas 5-0. ... A&M men's swimming coach Jay Holmes watched the Baylor match because his niece, Natalie Holmes, played No. 6 singles for the Lady Bears. ... Kleinecke had a busy day. He spearheaded the effort to have the Mitchell courtyard named after former A&M head men's tennis coach David Kent, who was Kleinecke's coach at West Texas A&M. Kleinecke got a little emotional introducing Kent at Friday's dedication. ... Frank has won 12 of her last 13 singles matches. Frank was the Big 12 singles champ at No. 5, but played at No. 4 Friday. ... Blagodarova and Clifford each recorded their 92nd career victories in doubles, which tied them for fourth all-time at A&M with Nancy Dingwall (1994-97). ... Blagodarova was the Big 12's No. 3 singles champ with a 9-2 record. ... Davidson and Frank won their 10th straight doubles match.

---

Share this story:

 Google   Yahoo   digg   del.icio.us 

 facebook   Slashdot