By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Staff Writer

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The Texas Longhorns proved to be just as good as advertised by A&M head men's tennis coach Steve Denton.

The sixth-ranked Longhorns breezed to a 4-0 victory over the Aggies in the semifinals of the Big 12 tennis championships Saturday at the Mitchell Tennis Center.

Texas (20-4) will face 11th-ranked Baylor (20-8) at 1 p.m. Sunday for the championship. The two were co-champs in the regular season, but Texas is the tournament's top seed via its 4-3 victory at Baylor on April 16.

Denton said Friday the Longhorns have the ability to win the national championship, and they showed why Saturday from the get-go.

Texas never allowed the partisan crowd of 630 to give the Aggies an emotional lift. The Longhorns won doubles, then added a trio of straight-set singles victories.

"They picked their level up, so give them credit for playing well," Denton said. "We were playing uphill the whole time."

A&M also lost the doubles point against 16th-ranked Texas Tech on Friday in the quarterfinals, but battled back for a 4-3 victory.

Texas, however, never relinquished the momentum after winning doubles.

UT's Luis Diaz Barriga hit a pair of service winners as he and Miguel Reyes Varela polished off an 8-6 victory over Mike Beatty and Wil Spencer on the No. 2 line to give UT the doubles point.

"I was real pleased [with our effort], particularly with our doubles today," UT head coach Michael Center said.

Beatty and Spencer grabbed an 8-6 victory at Texas on April 19, which helped the Aggies win the doubles point in Austin when the Longhorns grabbed a 4-3 victory.

"I thought the key to the match would be the doubles," Denton said. "We had a shot there at No. 2 doubles to get back into the match. We won that same kind of match last week in Austin."

UT made sure the rematch was much different.

Austin Krajicek was the only Aggie to win his first set in singles as Texas stayed in control.

"In the locker room, we talked about how important it was to win the first sets in a lot of these matches," Denton said. "It just didn't happen today."

A&M sophomore Chris Chirico, who won a three-set match to clinch the Texas Tech match, dropped a 6-1, 6-2 decision to Diaz Barriga to give Texas its first point in singles.

Texas added victories at No. 6 and No. 2 singles to drop A&M's record to 12-11. A&M's Conor Pollock, ranked No. 21 in the country, had a 1-0 lead in the third set against 10th-ranked Dimitar Kutrovsky when the match ended.

"The good news is that we are going to play in the NCAA Tournament," Denton said. "We are a better team than we were earlier in the year. This team fights really hard. We win a lot of close matches and we'll see where we get to go."

NOTES -- Baylor advanced with a 4-1 victory over Oklahoma State in the other semifinal match. ... Texas beat A&M three times this season. Texas claimed a 4-0 victory in the Texas Cup in Houston on Feb. 8. ... "It's tough to play a good team like Texas A&M three times in one season, let alone twice in one week," Center said. ... The NCAA Tournament pairings will be announced at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.

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