Nebraska Continues Conference Play Against Oklahoma State On The Road

Lincoln -- The Nebraska men's tennis team will hit the road for its second Big 12 contest of the season this weekend, as the Huskers face Oklahoma State on Saturday, March 3 in Stillwater, Okla. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m.

Last season, the Huskers lost to Oklahoma State, 6-1, in their final regular-season match. Overall, NU has dropped four of the last five meetings with the Cowboys, with the last Husker victory coming in 1999. NU defeated OSU 5-2 that season while earning a 4-4 mark in conference play to tie for third place in the regular season.

Huskers Move Match Dates
This past weekend, the Huskers had to change a pair of dates for dual meets. NU was scheduled to play at San Diego and San Diego State on Feb. 24-25, respectively, however, poor travel and weather conditions on Friday prevented the Huskers from leaving Lincoln. The match with San Diego was rescheduled for Saturday, March 24, while the San Diego State matchup was moved to its originally-scheduled date of Sunday, March 25. The Huskers will start the weekend off with a trip to Texas to take on the Texas Longhorns on Friday, March 23.

NU Opens Big 12 Season By Dropping Second Straight Match The Huskers opened the Big 12 season this past weekend, as NU dropped a tough match to No. 21 Baylor here in Lincoln. Nebraska fell 6-1 to the Bears, falling for the second straight match this season, and for the sixth consecutive time overall to Baylor. The last time NU defeated the Bears was in 1996 with a 5-2 victory.

Starting the match, the tandem of Lance Mills and Jorge Abos Sanchez pushed the Bears' Mark Williams and Reiner Neurohr to the limit, as BU won 9-8 at the No. 1 doubles slot. Nebraska followed up with 8-6 and 8-5 losses at the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles positions before picking up its first and only win of the day.

Mills returned to the No. 1 singles slot for the third straight match - and only the third time in his career - as he took on BU's Csongor Bibza, who is expected to be nationally-ranked when the ratings come out this week. Mills battled a back injury to take the first set in a tiebreaker and moved on to a 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 victory and NU's only point of the day.

Following Mills, Abos Sanchez nearly pulled out a victory at No. 2 singles before finally falling 6-3, 6-7, 4-6, while Adnan Hadzialic fell 7-5, 7-5 at the No. 3 slot. Ryan Haith dropped a tough 7-6, 7-5 match at No. 5 singles as well.

Worth Noting
* Senior Lance Mills earned his eighth straight dual meet victory this season, as he is the last undefeated Husker (in dual meets) this season. Overall, Mills holds a 9-2 record this spring.

* The nine wins by Mills this season is just three shy of his career total entering the season, as he owned a 12-11 singles mark prior to 2001. Last season, only two Huskers - Rieke and Abos Sanchez - recorded double-figure wins, with 12 and 11, respectively.

* Senior Jorge Abos Sanchez has 45 career victories, as he is 6-4 this season. He needs just eight more wins to move into the all-time top five for career victories at Nebraska.

* Freshman Patrick Kennedy saw action in his third dual meet of the year, as he played No. 6 singles against Baylor this past weekend. The defeat was Kennedy's first dual meet loss of his career.

* NU coach Kerry McDermott has seen his squad get off to a solid 5-3 start this season, marking the fourth straight season Nebraska has won at least four of its first eight dual meets. Each of the past two seasons, the Huskers have gone 4-4 in the first eight matches, while going 6-2 to open the 1998 campaign.

2001 Singles Records

Name	Overall	Dual	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6
Jorge Abos Sanchez	6-4	4-3	2-2	1-1	1-0	---	---	---
Adnan Hadzialic	6-3	4-2	---	---	4-2	---	---	---
Ryan Haith	6-3	6-2	---	---	---	---	2-1	4-1
Patrick Kennedy	2-2	2-1	---	---	---	---	---	2-1
Lance Mills	9-2	8-0	3-0	5-0	---	---	---	---
Kai Rieke	6-2	6-2	---	---	1-0	4-2	1-0	---
Fungai Tongoona	4-4	3-3	---	---	---	1-1	2-2	---

2001 Doubles Records

Team	Overall	Dual	#1	#2	#3
Abos Sanchez/Hadzialic	2-1	1-0	---	1-0	---
Abos Sanchez/Mills	3-3	3-3	0-1	3-2	---
Haith/Kennedy	0-2	---	---	---	---
Haith/Rieke	3-4	3-4	---	---	3-4
Hadzialic/Tongoona	5-4	4-3	4-2	0-1	---

2001 Schedule/Results

Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Big 12
Jan. 19-21	at Rice Indoor Inviational	---	---	---
Feb. 3	Wichita State	W, 6-1	1-0	0-0
Feb. 9	vs. Lamar @	W, 6-0	2-0	0-0
Feb. 9	vs. UT-San Antonio @	W, 6-1	3-0	0-0
Feb. 10	at Rice	L, 4-3	3-1	0-0
Feb. 17	vs. Denver #	W, 5-0	4-1	0-0
Feb. 17	vs. Northern Iowa #	W, 7-0	5-1	0-0
Feb. 18	at Drake	L, 4-3	5-2	0-0
Feb. 23	Baylor	L, 6-1	5-3	0-1
Mar. 3	at Oklahoma State
Mar. 12	vs. Hawaii +
Mar. 13	vs. Hawaii-Pacific +
Mar. 14	vs. Cal-State Sacramento +
Mar. 16	vs. Purdue +
Mar. 23	at Texas
Mar. 24	at San Diego
Mar. 25	at San Diego State
Apr. 6	Colorado
Apr. 8	at Kansas
Apr. 13	Texas Tech
Apr. 19	Oklahoma
Apr. 21	at Texas A&M
Apr. 26-29	at Big 12 Championship !

@ at Rice University, Houston, Texas
# at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
+ at University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii
! at Waco, Texas