April 25, 2003

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The University of Missouri tennis team fell to Texas A&M 4-0 in the second round of the Big 12 Championships today at the Plaza Tennis Center in Kansas City. The Tigers lost the doubles in three extremely tight matches and lost three singles matches to fall to the Aggies.

The doubles matchup between Missouri's Urska Juric and Katka Sevcikova and the Texas A&M duo of Jessica Roland and Roberta Spencer lived up to its billing as the Tigers fell 9-8 (8-6). Hana Kraftova and Lucie Ruskova lost their match 8-6 and Kristina Olshanskaya and Mary Barry dropped their match 8-5. In singles, Urska Juric, battling a sore wrist lost to Roland 6-3, 6-2. Kraftova lost to Spencer 6-4, 6-2 and Ruskova lost to Nicki Mechem 6-1, 6-4. The Tigers were leading in the three other matches when the match was ended after Texas A&M got the four points needed for a victory.

At the tournament, the Tigers won their first match at the tournament and finished above .500 in the history of the Big 12. The Tigers will await their NCAA Tournament pairings are announced next week.