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The Battalion
Page 5 • Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Cook, Matijevic
win ITA doubles
Blowout shows Ags still in it
Staff & Wire
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M tennis standouts
Lester Cook and Ante Matijevic
teamed up to win the presti
gious doubles championship at
the Icy Hot/ITA All-American
Championships on Sunday at
i'The Champions Club in
•Chatanooga, Tenn.
Cook, an All-American from
Sherman Oaks, Calif., and
Matijevic, an All-American
from Split, Croatia, are ranked
No. 2 nation
ally and beat
the No. 1-
ranked tan
dem in the
nation from
Rice
University in
William
Barker and
Richard
Barker, 8-6.
Cook and Matijevic were
making their first appearance in
the finals after reaching the
semifinals last year. It marks
the second doubles national
championship for A&M since
current assistant coach Shuon
Madden teamed with Dumitru
Caradima in 1999 to win the
ITA National Indoor
Championship.
The Aggie duo sprinted to a
commanding 6-1 lead with two
service breaks before the Owls
rallied to tie the match at 6-6.
‘We got off to a great start
I maybe got a little too
relaxed and let up a little,”
Cook said. “It got to six-all
and that’s when we started to
buckle down and played every
point hard.”
The Aggies held Matijevic’s
COOK
serve to take a 7-6 lead before
breaking the Owls in the decid
ing game on the fourth match
point to win the national title.
“We l\id broken them early
in the match and had the lead in
last game,” Matijevic said. “We
hit some really good returns to
win the match.”
The Barkers are twins and had
won 42 of their last 43 matches
dating back to last season.
“It was a big step for us to
win the tournament,” Matijevic
said. “It should give us a lot of
confidence for the spring.”
With the win, Cook and
Matijevic earn an automatic
spot into the second national
tournament of the season, the
Nov. 6 to 9 ITA National
Intercollegiate Indoor
Championships in Ann Arbor,
Mich. The season-ending
NCAA Championships in May
is the third national tournament
of the season.
Two other members of
A&M’s men’s tennis team also
fared well over the weekend.
John Nallon and Zack
Malmgren finished in second
place in the doubles portion of
the UTSA/Sonterra Invitational
Sunday at the University of
Texas at San Antonio Tennis
Center.
Nallon, a sophomore from
Garland, Texas, and Malmgren,
a junior transfer from San
Antonio, fell to Baylor’s Jason
Gould and John Reckeway in
the finals, 8-6.
The Aggie duo reached the
finals after topping Texas A&M
at Corpus Christi’s Oscar
Roman and Luis Morris in the
quarterfinals, 8-6. Then, in the
semifinals, Nallon and
Malmgren beat Texas' Antonio
Ruiz and Andy Mack, 8-6.
Offense starting
to find its stride
By Rob Phillips
THE BATTALION
Teetering at 2-3 after an embarrassing 31 -
point loss to Texas Tech, the Aggies entered
Kyle Field last Saturday at a crossroads —
either win and keep things interesting in the
Big 12 South, or lose to lowly-but-improv
ing Baylor and watch the Maroon Outs riot
in the streets.
Last Saturday’s 73-10 flogging of the
Bears served notice to fans ready to call it a
season: This fledgling Texas A&M team
hasn’t waved the white flag just yet.
“This was a key game for us knowing that
Caylor beat Colorado last week,” said senior
A&M wide receiver Jamaar Taylor after the
game. “This was a big win for us.”
The Aggies’ lopsided victory was sig
nificant in more ways than one. Not only
did A&M avoid its second Big 12 South
loss to remain in contention for the divi
sion title, but both sides of the ball got con
sistent production for the first time in
almost three weeks.
Offensively, A&M's 10 touchdowns
against Baylor were its most since 1944.
Sophomore quarterback Reggie McNeal
capitalized in the red zone, tossing three
touchdown passes and running for two more.
“I don’t think there is any way you could
have predicted it would be like that,” said
A&M coach Dennis Franchione during
Monday’s Big 12 coaches teleconference.
“We hadn’t scored over 28 points this year
offensively and we had been very up and
down defensively. I think our offense has
gotten a little bit better gradually and has
certainly made improvements since the
beginning of the year.”
After recording 257 yards against
Arkansas State to open the season, A&M has
averaged 478.4 yards in its past five games.
Against Baylor, the running back platoon
JP Beato III • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M running back Courtney Lewis fights through a tackle by Baylor's Maurice Lane. A&M's
offense has found its feet since the season opener and tallied 719 yards against the Bears last Saturday.
of junior Derek Farmer and freshman
Courtney Lewis also became the first pair of
A&M backs since 1998 to rush for more
than 100 yards in the same game.
The Aggie defense, which had been
stripped of “Wrecking Crew” status after
allowing at least 30 points the past three
games, held Baylor to just 184 total yards
and forced three turnovers.
The Aggies will now be saddled with
controlling Nebraska quarterback Jammal
Lord, who leads the Cornhuskers’ option-
oriented offense.
“It was good to see our defensive guys
take responsibility and step up and play the
way they did, so l felt good for them,”
Franchione said. “(Nebraska’s) offense is
running the ball well and is very physical.
(Lord) is a physical football player and is
hard to bring down, and can withstand the
punishment for the number of carries he’s
getting. He’s certainly a guy that can break
tackles and make a lot of hard yards after
first contact.”
The Aggies kept their season meaningful
after a convincing victory Saturday, but
A&M’s schedule only gets tougher. Five of
its six remaining games are against Top 25
opponents, starting with No. 18 Nebraska
this weekend, something that is quite a fright
with Halloween just around the corner.
“We know that our schedule is the tough
est in America as we go forward,”
Franchione said. “We know that we needed
something good to happen to give us some
confidence going into these last games.”
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