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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2004)
k\ iTli Sports fii 3 Of ns aid; Women’s Tennis falls to UT, 4-3 The Battalion By Jon Gilbert THE BATTALION % The dramatic scene immediate ly after the University of Texas- fexas A&M University tennis natch told the whole night’s story. Texas players were jubilant cele brating on the middle of the court, while most of the A&M players were crying, still in shock at what j had just transpired. The Longhorns (18-4, 9-0 in Big 12) knocked off A&M (17-7, 9-1 in 3ig 12) behind a furious rally that telped them come back from a 3-0 deficit Tuesday night at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. A&M was one point away from victory, and a m share of the Big 12 championship after taking a 3-0 match lead in sin gles. The Aggies failed to finish the match as Texas found a way to win, autting them one step away from heir seventh Big 12 Championship. a “The girls fought extremely hard,” said A&M head coach Bobby i Kleinecke. “We didn’t get solid play all the way down the line.” Texas head coach Jeff Moore llil was unava il a bl e for comment as of aress time, after the final match which went on for almost three hours until 11:15 p.m. The epic battle of conference rivals started over an hour late because of afternoon rain. Yet, the crowd stayed, and once it started the record 1,114 fans made themselves known. The overflow crowd is the largest to ever see an A&M match and third largest ever at the George P. Mitchell Center. “The A&M fans are great,” Kleinecke said. “I can’t thank them enough for coming out and really supporting us all the way to the end.” t thill!, ttestei sesaysi tirituii ¥ a Evan O'Connell •THE BATTALION Freshman Aggie tennis player Anna Lubinsky returns a serve in her match on court three during doubles play yesterday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. She and her partner, Nicki Mechem, lost to Kelly Baritot and Ristine Olsen from the University of Texas, Tuesday. sidthf I nil's.:.. r hM'J ndenc;] 311 Witl| 'S. er F8 is tesli ’such; The Aggies came out ready to play in doubles. They took two out of three matches to win the dou bles point. Then, they took full control in singles as sophomore Nicki Mechem won her match, 6- 1, 6-2. Junior Helga Vieira defeat ed Texas sophomore Katie Ruckert giving the Aggies a commanding 3-0 lead and looked well on their way to repeating as Big 12 regular season champions. Then, the match turned. A&M senior Jessica Roland won her first set 6-2, but then fell behind to Texas freshman Petra Dizdar in the second set. As this was transpiring on court one, A&M freshman Anna Lubinsky, junior Lauren Walker and senior Roberta Spencer were losing their singles matches on courts six, four and three respectively. All of the sudden, the overall match was 3-3, and the record crowd was in disbelief. The match on court one between Roland and Dizdar would determine who would win the conference. Dizdar took the second set 6-4, forcing a decisive third set. Roland jumped to a early 4-0 lead, and again it looked like the Aggies had victory within reach. Dizdar kept her head in the game and mounted a comeback to take a 5- 4 lead. Both players showed great determination and never gave each other any ounce of comfort. Roland forced a third set tie break, before falling to Dizdar 7-2 in the tie breaker, losing the 3rd set 7-6. “We want to play them again,” Kleinecke said. “We fell short tonight, but we would like another shot at them.” Page 5 • Wednesday, April 21,2004 A&M baseball can’t hold on against UTA By Brad Bennett THE BATTALION Despite leading the game for eight-and-a- half innings, the No. 17 Texas A&M baseball team fell to The University of Texas-Arlington, 4-5, Tuesday night in Arlington. The Mavericks (24-17, 9-6 Southland Conference) scored three runs in the ninth to pull ahead from of Aggies (31-12, 7-8 Big 12) who came out with the three runs in the third for the early lead and extended the gap in the sixth to 4-0. Two errors in the ninth contributed to the Aggie loss with UTA freshman catcher Brett Lewis reaching base after a dropped fly and then scoring on a pitching error. Junior second base- man Carey Avants, the go-ahead-run, reached base on a fielder’s choice. With two men on and no outs, Aggie head coach Mark Johnson pulled freshman pitcher Kevin Whelan, replacing him with the fourth Aggie pitcher of the night, soph omore Cliff Pennington. A wild pitch by Pennington to his first bat ter allowed senior Daniel Lenihan to score and Avants to advance to third. Avants then scored off a hit from senior right fielder Kasey Baker. Baker began the Maverick comeback in the eighth with a single that led to a run when, three hitters later, center fielder Paul Brueder hit him in. Shortstop junior Aaron Battle also scored in the eighth. Aggie starting pitcher senior Cory Patton fared the best out of the four Aggie pitchers with two strikeouts, no errors and only five hits over four innings. Freshman Dillon Parish and senior Mike Snapp closed in the eighth and ninth, respec tively, holding the Aggies to no hits. Starting pitcher junior Grant Varnell was replaced in the sixth with senior Michael Garza after Patton homered to right field. Baker led the Maverick offense with four hits, one RBI and one run. Patton led the Aggies with two hits, two RBIs, one run and a homer. The Aggies’ next series is against University of Missouri Friday, Saturday and Sunday. lie on tie jini gh wsoj it tow f one As an engineer in the U.S. Air Force, there’s no telling what you’ll work on. (Seriously, we can’t tell you.) United States Air Force applied technology is years ahead of what you’ll touch in the private sector, and as a new engineer you’ll likely be involved at the ground level of new and sometimes classified developments. You’ll begin leading and managing within this highly respected group from day one. Find out what’s waiting behind the scenes for you in the Air Force today. To request more information, call 1-800-423-USAF or log on to airforce.com. U.S. AIR FORCE CROSS INTO THE BLUE Texas A&M University CAMPUS MASTER PLAN PUBLIC FORUM Presentation/Questions & Answers Monday, April 26, 2004 4:00-6:00p.m., Rudder Theater Get a view of the completed campus master plan. For additional information, call 845-0555 or visit the website at http://www.tamu.edu/campusplan Class C ouncils Presents: ike 67tk Annual Ring D ance “A Nigkt on the I own" 7 April 24, 2004 9 p.m.- 1a.m. Tickets avai lakle at tlie MSC B ox Office For A Complete Listing of Senior Week Events Visit Classof2004.tamu.eclu Sponsore J by Tl le Association of Former Students, Rose Cottage Creations, David Gardner’s Jewelers and Al’s Formal Wear