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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 2003)
)epot \ dUry m Framing )t.com Miniatures ses • Cross Stitch xas Avenue South tion, Texas 77840 t.com Sports The Battalion Page 5 • Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Tennis team sweeps doubleheader at home By Jeff Allen THE BATTALION JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION A&M senior Ryan Newport returns a serve against Northern Arizona on Tuesday. The Aggies went on to win the match at the Tennis Center. When the No. 11 Texas A&M men’s ten nis team woke up yesterday morning, the ominously dark skies let loose with heavy rain and thunder that did their worst on the A&M Tennis Center, but it being Texas, the weather changed fast. By the time the Aggies hit the court after an hour and a half delay, it was a perfect day for tennis, proving that not even Mother Nature could keep the Aggies from pushing their current home winning streak to 12 games. The men posted a pair of shutout wins, first putting away Northern Arizona University 6-0 and then finishing the day’s work in similar fashion, defeating Wichita State University 7-0. “ We played some energy in doubles, and if you look across the board in singles I think we did a good job,” said A&M Head Coach Tim Cass. “I was pleased tonight with the energy across the board, everyone really showed up to play.” Once play finally started after the rain delay, the Aggies hit the ground running. After skipping doubles play and heading straight into singles competition, A&M put down Northern Arizona in straight sets, with the exception of a loss in the first set of jun ior Khaled El Dorry at court four and fresh men Cameron Fenner at six. Both came back to win their respective matches to complete the shutout. The nightcap against Wichita State was a similar story. The Aggies jumped out to a lead against the Shockers in the doubles por tion of the match. The No. 18 duo of senior Ryan Newport and sophomore Lester Cook set the tone against the Shocker’s team of sophomore Carol Contente and freshman Ramirez. The Aggie pair put away the visi tors in eight quick games, in a match that took just more than half an hour. Newport and Cook were soon followed by the Aggie duo of sophomores Ante Matijevic and El Dorry, finishing up the important doubles point with an 8-2 win over their Shocker counterpart. The Aggie men completed the sweep two minutes later when freshmen John Nallon and Matt Loucks won, 8-2. Once the sun set, the temperature slowly dropped, but the Aggie men managed to maintain their momentum. The excitement of the night came at court one in the match between Aggie All-American Newport and freshmen Marko Despot from Wichita State. Newport gained a quick lead in the match, putting Despot away 6-1 in the first set, but Despot was not content to go quietly. After a bit of trash talk, much to the vocal crowd’s delight, and a brief rally by Despot to start the second set, Newport put a quick end to the contest with a decisive 6-3. “He was making something happen out there,” Newport said, “ You have to give him credit because he was down, but he was trying to help out his teammates and help out himself, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I felt I was in control of the match.” Newport’s win on one was followed short after by Cook completing his own straight set win on two. The Aggies clinched the match moments later when El Dorry finally put away freshman Angelo Manns by a score of 6-1, 6-4. The match ended with the Aggies shutting out the Shockers 7-0. The wins pushed the A&M overall win ning streak to seven games heading into a match against No. 19 Alabama this Saturday at home. Aggies remain on road to face Texas Tech COS gantas )AY s for Two TX 77840 By Pete Burks THE BATTALION After a week of traversing the state of Florida, the No. 22 Texas A&M softball team will return to Texas, although the team will not be as close to College Station as it might like. The Aggies (20- 10) will travel to Lubbock today to take on the Lady Red Raiders of Texas Tech (13-23) in a doubleheader. The Aggies completed their tour of Florida last week with a 4-3 overall record after competing in the Democrat Invitational in Tallahassee and the Blue and Gold Classic in Miami. In the Democrat Invitational, A&M took on Georgia State University, the University of Iowa and Florida A&M University. The Aggies managed to get past Georgia State 5-0 and defeat Florida A&M 9-1. They were not able to complete the clean sweep in pool play, however, as the Iowa Hawkeyes blanked the Ags 3-0. The elements then kept the Aggies from completing the tournament, as their last game was rained out before they moved on to Miami. After arriving in Miami, A&M faced another slew of teams, begin- EVANS ning with the University of Massachusetts and host team Florida International on Friday. The Aggies fought hard but lost both Friday games to UMass and Florida International, 4-2 and 3-2, respective ly. However, as the weekend wore on, A&M righted the ship by routing Florida Atlantic 10-2 and beating Syracuse 9-5. Meanwhile, Texas Tech went on a road trip of its own, competing in the 2003 Hokie Fastpitch Club Classic. On the tournament’s first day, the North Carolina Tarheels downed the Lady Red Raiders 2-1, but Tech rebounded quickly, pummeling Georgia State, 10-0. In the second day of the tournament, the Lady Red Raiders dropped a pair of games to Coastal Carolina University and St. Bonaventure University. Although they did not do as well as they would have liked, Texas Tech Head Coach Bobby Reeves said there is no time to dwell on their losses. “By hosting A&M, we are expect ing a great team to come in,” he said. “The Big 12 is probably the toughest conference because everybody can play. (A&M Head Coach Jo Evans) has done a great job, and we know that we need to be mentally prepared to face A&M.” See Tech on page 7 SPORTS IN BRIEF A&M falls to UTSA, 6-5 The Texas A&M men's baseball team was defeated by the University of Texas - San Antonio Roadrunners Tuesday night in San Antonio. The game was tied 4-4 before a two-run eighth inning gave the Roadrunners a lead that they would not surrender. Junior A&M starting pitcher Brian Finch allowed two runs on only three hits in his five innings of work, but the Roadrunners came alive offensively late in the game. UTSA was led offensively by catch er Jeremy Blilie's three RBI. 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