NATIOS
‘TTALIo,
wmVafe
ttiwere
5. soccer
rcollegiale
5, Fence
3, Liberal
Bones
ssociation
^ale Young
■ Young
H
' school. Hii
■esidem.U'
£ was bon
ntinues fe
’s daughie-
e degree,
lial, gri^ffi-
narkableina
assmaie and
mber, Jin
;d knowing
y pleasant.''
cy, Kern is
\ his politics
>eral-leanint
pted an hon-
ake at Yale's
eremony in
ates carried
lems critical
urned theit
he spoke,
over other
ating humor.
; honors stu-
"To the C
!. too. can be
ted Slavs."’
I
Sports
| The Battalion Page 7 • Monday, May 3, 2004
Sweet Revenge
i&M women's tennis beats Texas, wins Big 12 Tournament Championship
Staff & Wire
THE BATTALION
The No. 17 Texas A&M women’s
tennis team turned the tables on the
University of Texas Sunday as the
Aggies won the Big 12 Tournament
Championship, avenging the loss to the
Longhorns they had suffered less than
two weeks before.
Despite losing the doubles point,
A&M (22-7) rallied back for an exciting
1-3 win over the Longhorns (22-5) at
the Headington Family Tennis Center in
Norman, Okla. In the process, the
Aggies captured the team’s first-ever
conference tournament championship.
We talked about it be
fore and decided that
there was just no way that
we are letting them have
this match.
— Bobby Kleinecke
Texas A&M
women's tennis head coach
"This was just a great college
match.’’ said A&M head coach Bobby
kleinecke. “Our team laid their hearts
out there and 1 was just so excited to
come away with it this time. We felt
like last time we played (Texas) it
dipped away from us and I’m proud of
iiisgroup for sticking through it.”
In contrast to the match on April 20,
jie Longhorns jumped out to the early
y. Texas took the doubles point and
mi the first set in each of the first four
iitgles matches. This time it was the
igpes who rallied from behind.
pV/e talked about it before and
fccided that there was just no way that
•e are letting them have this match,”
kleinecke said. "We felt like the dou
bles point was ours too and we let that
slip away. We said there is no way we
are going to let it happen; we had
lorked too hard for it.”
In the Aggies’ 4-3 loss to Texas dur-
FILE PHOTO • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M junior Helga Vieira returns a forehand in A&M's 4-3 loss to Texas on April 20 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center. Vieira clinched A&M's 4-3 win over Texas Sunday in
the Big 12 Tournament final by beating Texas sophomore Katie Ruckert, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
ing the season, they seemingly had the
match nailed down with a commanding
3-0 lead. A&M used that loss as moti
vation on Sunday.
“(The team) was so upset at our loss
two weeks ago to (Texas) and we were
just hungry and we wanted to beat them
exactly the way they beat us last time,”
said A&M junior Helga Vieira. “We
won the doubles point last time and
they won, and this time we lost the dou
bles point and beat them. It was great, it
was revenge.”
With the overall match knotted at
3-3, Vieira won the decisive singles
match over Texas sophomore Katie
Ruckert 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4.
“I’m so proud of Helga, the way she
handled the pressure,” Kleinecke said.
“She has ice in her veins, and I don’t
know if 1 could have done that. I’m
really proud of this group for laying it
all out there.”
A&M senior Jessica Roland notched
a key 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 singles victory over
Texas freshman Petra Dizdar, avenging
her tough loss to Dizdar in singles in
the regular season match.
Combined with sophomore Nicki
Mechem’s 6-0, 6-0 win and freshman
Anna Lubinsky’s 6-1,1 -6, 6-2 win over
Texas freshman Ristine ^ Olson, the
Aggie comeback was complete.
Texas head coach Jeff Moore sai^
A&M’s senior leadership was impor
tant Sunday.
“I think this is the best Aggie team
I’ve seen them have and they owe a lot
to their senior leadership,” Moore
said. “I’ve watched Roland and
(Roberta) Spencer develop over four
years. They weren’t highly recruited,
but they are all heart and they’re the
heart and soul of that team.”
m
Nebraska, Texas win Big 12 titles
at Track and Field championships
Texas A&M senior Jason Matthews pole vaults at the Frank G. Anderson Track and Field
Complex during the College Station Relays March 20. Matthews placed third in the javelin at
the Big 12 Championships. A&M finished third in both men's and women's competitions.
By Jeff Latzke
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NORMAN. Okla. — A bal
anced Nebraska men’s team
won the Big 12 championship,
but a speedy Texas women’s
team ran past the Comhuskers’
women’s team Saturday to
repeat as conference champions.
Discus thrower Carl
Myerscough was the only Big
12 champion for the
Comhuskers, but Myerscough’s
effort was backed by strong
team performances in other
events. The Comhuskers had
three medalists in the high jump
and the 110-meter hurdles.
| “I think that it’s a very good
team,” Nebraska coach Gary
Pepin said. “It’s a team that in
my mind really covers the
bases well. It does have quality;
it has NCAA champions on it.”
The Texas women’s team,
which was in sixth place and
51 1/2 points behind first-
place Texas A&M entering
Saturday, piled up the points
in track events. The
Longhorns got wins from
Jerrika Chappie in the 400-
meter dash, Nichole Denby in
the 100-meter hurdles, Sanya
Richards in the 100-meter
dash and Raasin McIntosh in
the 400-meter hurdles.
“I keep having this vision
that one day I won’t have to
stress throughout the whole
meet,” Texas coach Bev Kearney
said as she pulled out a piece of
scratch paper on which she had
scribbled the Longhorns’ scram
ble for the championship. “I
don’t think
you will see
anyone rack
up as many
points as
Nebraska or
even Texas
A&M did in
the first two
days.”
The
Longhorns
clinched the
title on the
final event
with
Richards,
Chappie,
McIntosh
and Alyssa
Aiken win
ning the
1600-meter
relay in
3:34.26.
“This
feels awe-
some,’’
Kearney
said. “It is
always hard
when you
compete
against a team like Nebraska.
We made mistakes in the
indoor championship that cost
us the meet and they made mis
takes in the outdoors that cost
them the meet.
“I think in track and field,
whichever team makes the least
amount of mistakes wins.”
The Longhorns won their
sixth Big 12 title. They also
won the title last year and con
secutive championships from
1996 to 1999.
Texas finished with 151
points. Nebraska was second
with 139 1/2, followed by
Texas A&M, Missouri, Texas
Tech and Kansas State. Baylor
was seventh, with Oklahoma
eighth and Colorado, Kansas,
Iowa State and Oklahoma State
rounding out the field.
On the men’s side,
Nebraska scored 172 points to
win its fourth Big 12 men’s
title. The Comhuskers also
won the conference champi
onship in 1998, 2000 and 2002.
Texas Tech was second with
106 1/2 and Texas A&M fin
ished third with 104 1/2. Texas
was fourth, followed by Kansas
State, Baylor, Oklahoma and
Iowa State. Oklahoma State
was ninth, with Colorado 10th,
Missouri 11th and Kansas 12th.
Baylor’s Jeremy Wariner ran
the fastest time in the world this
year in the 400-meter dash at
44:48, but was disqualified for
running outside of his lane.
Aggies fall to Baylor
in Big 12 title match
Staff & Wire
THE BATTALION
Without dropping a point
throughout the Big 12
Championship Tournament, the
No. 22 Texas A&M men’s ten
nis team couldn’t gain one in the
title match as it lost to No. 2
Baylor University, 4-0.
The tournament champi
onship is the fourth straight for
Baylor (26-2).
“It’s huge to win four in a
row, and it has been so great for
(the players),” said Baylor sen
ior Matias Marin. “The compe
tition keeps getting better and
better every year. I hope we
have a chance to compete for the
title next year.”
Neither the second-seeded
Aggies (22-8) nor the first-seed
ed Bears dropped a point
through the first two rounds of
the tournament setting the stage
for an exciting final. Although
Baylor swept A&M, only two
singles matches were decided in
the minimum two sets.
“It’s an exciting win for us,”
said Baylor head coach Matt
Knoll. “Texas A&M was a
tough team, and they have such
good tennis players. It was very
competitive and I’m proud of
our guys for fighting hard and
pulling out the win.”
A&M started strong as jun
iors Lester Cook and Ante
Matijevic, the. No. 2 doubles
team in the nation, defeated
Baylor’s duo of junior Benedikt
Dorsch and freshman Matija
Zgaga, 7-6. Baylor would still
win the doubles point, however,
with a pair of 8-5 victories in the
other two matches, giving
Baylor an 1-0 lead.
“Lester and I played really
well today,” Matijevic said. “We
beat (Dorsch/Zgaga), 9-8, the last
time. We played better this time.”
Dorsch quickly avenged his
loss to Cook and Matijevic as
he defeated Cook quickly at No.
1 singles, 6-1, 6-2. Baylor sen
ior Reinor Neurohr also made
quick work of A&M freshman
Brett Joelson, 6-3, 6-4, to give
Baylor a 3-0 lead.
With the other four matches
all entering a third set, Baylor
needed only one win to claim
the championship.
The Bears didn’t have to wait
long as Marin rebounded from a
second set 6-1 loss to A&M sen
ior Mohamed Dakki to win the
match, 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
“It’s so great that we won,”
Marin said. “Everybody was say
ing that we were going to win,
but it was tough with a lot of the
matches in three sets. I was happy
to pull off the win for my team.”
The other three matches, all
tight, were stopped after Marin
clinched the victory for the
Bears. The only Aggie leading
at the time was Matijevic, who
was ahead of Baylor junior
Benjamin Becker, 3-6, 6-3, 4-2,
at the time of the stoppage.
A&M and Baylor will find
out Wednesday who they will
play in the first round of the
NCAA Tournament, and
whether they will host the first
and second rounds.
“I like the character we have
now,” said A&M head coach
Tim Cass. “Obviously, Baylor is
an extremely good team. I really
thought we played with focus
and purpose in both doubles and
singles. It was a good college
tennis match.”