SPORTS
The Battalion I 1.26.15
4
Cody Franklin — THE BATTALION
Rutuja Bhosale, featured above, and her doubles partner
Saska Gavilovska clinched the first point for the Aggies.
Women’s tennis falls to Frogs 4-2
in ITA Kick-Off Championship
Men's tennis to take on Ohio
State next week.
By Milkyas Gashaw
The Aggie women’s and men’s
tennis teams completed their
ITA tournaments this weekend at
the Mitchell Tennis Center.
The lOth-ranked men finished
the tournament with a victory in the
consolation game against San Diego
4-1, while the llth-ranked women
fell against the TCU Homed Frogs
in match play 4-2 Sunday. With the
victory, the Horned Frogs clinched
a berth in the ITA National Team
Indoor Championship.
The doubles tandem of sopho
mores Rutuja Bhosale and Saska
Gavrilovska had a tough start to
their match against TCU’s Simona
Parajova and Sofiko Kadzhaya, dig
ging themselves into an early 4-1
hole. As the game progressed, the
Aggie duo began to string points
together and stormed back to clinch
the first point for the Aggies.
The Aggie men took the first
point on Sunday in the doubles
match with victories from the tan
dems of Jeremy Efferding and Jor
dan Szabo as well as AJ Catanzariti
and Arthur Rinderknech.
The women began the singles
portion needing to win three of
the six singles matches to clinch
the team victory. In five of the six
singles matches, the Aggies dropped
the first set, with junior Stefania
Hristov, the lone Aggie, to win her
first set.
Junior Ines Deheza went down in
the second set 4-6, 4-6 to Kadzhaya.
The other five matches went down
to the wire, with the Aggies falling
in tough three set matches.
For men’s singles, freshman Ar
thur Rinderkneck finished the vic
tory for the Aggies 6-4, 6-4 against
Jordan Angus of San Diego.
The men continue play Sunday in
College Station against Ohio State
and UT-Pan American, while the
women travel to Houston to face
No. 3 North Carolina. Play begins
at noon for the men at the Mitchell
Tennis Center.
SWIMMING & DIVING
Allison Bradshaw — THE BATTALION
The women's
swim team
claimed a 166-
128 victory over
LSU on Satur
day.
A&M sinks LSU in dual meet sweep
Aggie seniors find success
at contest with LSU
By Kevin Roark
The No. 4 Aggie women (9-0,
4_o SEC) kicked off Senior Day
against the No. 20 Tigers (4-4, 1-4
SEC) with a nail-biting 400 medley
relay. After hanging onto second for
the majority of the race, senior Sam-
mi Bosma pulled a huge comeback
in the final moments to claim A&M
victory with a final time of 3:39.70.
The women went on to top LSU
166-128.
In her last swim before the SEC
Championships in Auburn, senior
Sarah Henry led the women to a 500
free with a time of 4:49.25. Henry
said she was proud of the perfor
mance, but now “it’s crunch time.”
“Now it’s time to get serious,”
Henry said. “Right now I’m just
going to finish out the collegiate
season, and then after 1 graduate in
May my focus will be on the 2016
Olympic team.”
The A&M men’s team (6-3,
1-2 SEC) capped a solid start with
a 1-2-3 victory over the Tigers (2-
5, 0-5 SEC) in the 100 backstroke.
SEC Freshman of the Week Brock
Bonetti headed the pack with a
time of 48.69. Clocking in behind
him were juniors Jacob Wallace
(48.73) and Alexandres Theochari-
dis (49.06). Freshman Mauro Cas
tillo later set a Texas A&M school
record in the 200 yard breaststroke
with a time of 1:55.65, beating Bry
an Snowden’s time of 1:56.55 set in
2011. The Aggies would dominate
the Tigers with a 166-121 victory.
Senior Luke Shaw won three
races as well as assisted in a relay
victory with fellow senior Hayden
Duplechain.
The Aggie divers return to action
when they head to Colorado Springs
to compete in the AFA Diving In
vitational January 30. The next full
competition is the SEC Champion
ship in Auburn, Ala. starting Feb. 17.
SWIMMING CONTINUED
in and make an impact for us,” said men’s head coach Jay
Holmes. “They did just that. The day they walked on
campus I think they made us a better team.”
Holmes highlighted the previous successes of other
Mexican breaststrokers at A&M and feels that Castillo
fits that mold. Like many of the student-athletes at Texas
A&M, Castillo said he feeds off the energy of the 12th
Man.
- “I enjoy seeing people keep up with the A&M swim
ming family,” Castillo said. “We are working hard to
make the sport more prestigious. I enjoy the environ
ment and the traditions. A lot of Mexican swimmers
have swam here and I feel like I can be myself at Texas
A&M.”
Looking forward. Holmes said success in the freshman
group now is a good sign for the future.
“We needed a good freshman class,” Holmes said.
“[Bonetti and Castillo] are a big part of that. We needed
our freshmen to be good right now. We didn’t have
time to wait. ”
With a roster loaded with talent and more to follow
thanks to strong recruiting, Holmes’ program is poised
for continued success going forward. Bonetti said week
ly honors are nice, but the team is focused on bigger,
long term goals.
“Everyone is stepping up and swimming really fast,”
Bonetti said. “We are going to keep building. We have
a good class coming in next year as well. It’s going to be
really fun to see us rise up.”
FILE
Courtney Williams pulls up for a jumper over LSU's No.
24, DaShawn Harden.
W. BASKETBALL
CONTINUED
road. However, not all streaks
work against the Aggies. They are
3-0 against South Carolina since
the 2012-2013 season. When the
teams tip off at Colonial Life Are
na, they will have the chance to
write liistory rather than follow it.
The Aggies will look to the
SEC leader in assists, Jordan
Jones, to light a fire under the
A&M offense on Monday night.
The Aggies also have the league’s
second-leading scorer in junior
Courtney Williams and the sec
ond-leading rebounder Achiri
Ade to counter the No. 1 Game
cocks.South Carolina enters the
game averaging just fewer than
80 points per game, boasting an
18-0 overall record including
6-0 in SEC play. Led by Tiffany
Mitchell with 15.2 points per
contest, the Gamecocks are scor
ing roughly 30 more points per
game than their opponents.
The Gamecocks are search
ing for their 27th straight win at
home, good for a tie with UConn
for the longest active streak in the
nation. Their 18-0 record is also
a school record for consecutive
victories. Head coach Dawn Stal
ey has led the team to a 75-25 re
cord at home during her tenure.
“We just take it one game at
a time,” Staley said. Obviously
it’s a big game, it’s Texas A&M.
They are coming to our place.
Our main focus is to try and take
care of home and get another win
in the SEC.”
Unable to play until next fall
but a new addition to the Texas
A&M roster worth mentioning
is 6-foot guard/forward Jasmine
Lumpkin. Lumpkin started in
14 of the 15 games she played at
Michigan State before transfer
ring to A&M due to a medical
situation. After scoring a career-
high 16 against No. 9 Baylor on
Dec. 20, Lumpkin will have the
luxury of learning under Blair be
fore unleashing her skills against
top-10 talent such as South Caro
lina next year.
After the Gamecocks, the Ag
gies head back to Reed Arena
with a home matchup against
Auburn before back-to-back
road games against Missouri and
Mississippi State.
Be a Rec Sports
INTRAMURAL OFFICIAL!
To learn more, attend an Info Meeting:
Meetings are held in Rec Center room 281
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iiTHEJPl’fiSMfllCENTERi
Aggieland2015
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The 113th edition of Texas
A&M’s official yearbook will
chronicle the 2014-2015
school year - traditions,
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campus organizations, and
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office in Suite L400
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