Feb. 2, 2003
The University of Missouri tennis team beat Texas A&M 5-2 at the Green Tennis Center at Mizzou on Sunday. The Tigers now move to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the Big 12 Conference. The Tigers also defeated Drake 7-0 on Saturday to make it a successful weekend for the Tigers.
The Tigers started play by winning the doubles point, taking two of three doubles matches. Urska Juric and Katka Sevcikova, the fifth-ranked doubles team in the nation, won their match 8-5 over the Texas A&M pair of Jessica Roland and Roberta Spencer. The Tiger duo of Lucie Ruskova and Kristina Olshanskaya then clinched the doubles point in dramatic fashion. To win they had to overcome deficits of 5-2, and 7-5.
"We made mistakes early", said MU senior Kristina Olshanskaya. "But Lucie and I have played together for a long time. We know how to play off each other and have confidence together. Even though we got down, we never felt we would lose."
In singles play the Tiger took four of six matches. Juric, Sevcikova, Olshanskaya, and freshman Hana Kraftova all won their matches to clinch the victory for the Tigers.
"Today was great, and I'm very proud of how hard we fought," said MU head coach Blake Starkey. "Texas A&M is a very good team, and they'll win a lot this year. We have a lot of respect for Bobby and those girls. Katka, in particular, was a lot of fun to watch, and she played a very brave match. Everyone was proud of the way she fought. But we got great contributions all over the place. While awesome, this was just one match and we still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of tennis in front of us. We'll take Monday off, and be right back on the court Tuesday."
The Mizzou tennis team will return to action on Febrary 6th when they take on Southeast Missouri State at the Green Tennis Center.