Sports
The Battalion
Page IB • Thursday, January 30, 2003
&M faces off with Longhorns in Texas Cup
Aggies meet UT in non-conference competition
By Jeff Allen
THE BATTALION
JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION
Newport returns a shot in last weekend's tripleheader at the A&M
Irsity Tennis Center. Newport and the Aggies will meet UT this weekend in Austin.
The Texas Cup has been no cup of
tea for the Aggies in its first two years
of existence. The brain child of A&M
Head Coach Tim Cass, the non-confer
ence match-up with longtime rival
Texas, has left the A&M men with few
happy memories.
Each year, the Aggies have gone in as
the favorite, most recently in 2002, pit
ting a No. 12 national rank against
Texas’ No. 16, and both years the Aggies
have come away with two point losses.
Each match was held at a neutral court
in Houston.
“It’s become quite a good rivalry,” Cass
said. “But we haven’t won one yet. It was
my invention, so I sort of wonder why I
invented it.”
This year, things are shaping up a bit
different. For one, judging by the rankings,
the Aggies are not the favorite this week
end. Texas enters the match ranked No. 12
in the nation; the Aggies enter at No. 13.
Next, the match has moved from the
mundane and faceless neutrality of
Houston, to the Penick-Allison Tennis
Center on the University of Texas campus.
Fortunately for the Aggies, the Texas
Cup jinx hasn’t carried over into other
meetings between the two teams during
the past three years. A&M has owned the
series in other matches against the
Longhorns by a margin of 4-1, and going
into Saturday’s match, the Aggies will be
riding high off an opening-day triplehead
er sweep last weekend.
But everything is not roses for the
young Aggie team. The team is facing a
shortage of proven talent in its doubles
play. In the fall season, the Aggies were
able to sit back and watch the combination
of sophomores Lester Cook and Ante
Matijevic collect national accolades. The
pair achieved a national rank of No. 5
entering the team portion of the schedule.
Even as the Aggies most-proven dou
bles players, the duo can only account for
one win in team play. With the doubles
point being awarded to the school that
wins a majority of the three doubles
matches, that leaves A&M lacking anoth
er doubles victory.
The situation leaves the Aggies need
ing to break the pair apart for the good of
the team to find new chemistry.
“We’re going to have to experiment all
semester with what makes the most sense
for us in order to win,” Cass said.
Heading to Austin this weekend, the
Aggies will also be relying on some young
talent. The men’s roster contains only one
senior, Ryan Newport.
“It’s a lot different for me,” Newport
said. “(Before) there has been a lot of
older guys on the team and now that it’s
my turn, it’s a completely different role.
I’m just going to try to help (the under
classmen) out with my experience along
the way.”
The chance for the freshmen to get
See Texas Cup on page 3B
omen’s tennis opens season in Ames
By Blake Kimzey
THE BATTALION
When No. 15 College of William & Mary
led to schedule a match with the Texas A&M
omen’s tennis team earlier this year, A&M
jead Coach Bobby Kleinecke couldn’t refuse,
(ith the Aggies ranked No. 23 in the nation and
omingoff a school record 23 wins from a year
go, Kleinecke was pleased with the idea of
ddinganother competitive team to the schedule.
However, with the NCAA schedule already
morder,it would take a bit of tinkering to make
the pieces fit this spring.
^ Foftmicly for A&M, Iowa State Cyclones’
Head Coach Michele Conlon did not mind mov
ing her team’s scheduled match-up against the
Aggies to the first weekend in February. So,
after three months away from the court, the
A&M women’s tennis team will open its season
this Saturday at 12 p.m. in Ames, Iowa.
With the schedule conflict resolved, the
Aggies will wait to face William & Mary until
later this spring.
As it is, the women’s tennis team will have to
worry about facing the Cyclones this Saturday,
and then traveling to Columbia, Mo. to face the
No. 68 Tigers on Sunday.
“This weekend will be good anyway you
look at it,” Kleinecke said. “It’ll be good to start
out the season with a road trip, to get those first
match jitters out of the way against ISU, and a
much improved Missouri team. We’re going to
grow this weekend.”
Missouri Head Coach Blake Starkey also
sees the strides his club has made during the past
year heading into early season play.
“We’ve gotten to the point where this
program expects to have some success,”
Starkey said.
Meanwhile, the Aggies are looking to build
on their second place finish in the Big 12 from a
year ago. The team finished with a No. 22 rank
ing and first round appearance in the NCAA
Championships to top an exciting 2002 season.
See Ames on page 3B
FILE PHOTO • THE BATTALION
Junior Roberta Spencer and the A&M women’s team will start
their dual match season this weekend against Iowa State.
GO AGS GO
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MSC Film Society’s Aggie Cinema •
Presents: The Ring
Se 10:00pm
in the Theater
Only SI
with
wristband
midnight drawing for $250
must be present to win
Join us for
atin cAfigfit
All over the MSC
the Teiano band
Los Jokers
8pm & midnteht
In the basement
9pm till 1am
Free Bowlin y
Free Billiards
Free Dance
Dance Revolutioii
Free Popcorn
&SodLa " %
Salsa Dance Lessons
?pm Sc IQpm
Grito Contest
9pm till 10pm
Live Mariacfiis
1 tpm till midnight
Special Latin Crafts