Huskers Gear Up for Big 12 Tennis Championships

Following the conclusion of the Huskers’ regular season on Sunday, April 22,  they will have a quick turn around, entering the Big 12 Conference Championships the following weekend in Kansas City, Mo.  Both the men’s and women’s Big 12 Championships will be held at the PlazaTennisCenter and are scheduled to run from Thursday, April 26, through Sunday, April 29, with the men beginning competition on Friday.

 

With one Big 12 match still remaining to be played, three Big 12 teams await the results before they will know their seeding.  Currently the No. 1, 2, 3 and 7 seeds are set with Baylor leading the pack at No. 1 for the fifth year in a row.  Depending on the result of Thursday’s match between 31st-ranked Oklahoma and No. 35 Texas Tech, the Huskers will be seeded No. 4, 5 or 6, and will face Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech in the quarterfinals.

 

The Huskers have not won a match in the Big 12 Tennis Championships since 1999, when they entered the tournament with a 10-12 overall record, 4-4 in the Big 12, and seeded No. 4.  The win in 1999 also marks the only win that the Nebraska men’s tennis team has earned in the Championships since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996.

 

Following tournament play on Sunday, the All-Big 12 team will be announced for both singles and doubles.  The Huskers’ most recent recipients of such honors are junior Mark Tate and former teammate Jerry Posch, who were named to the 2006 All-Big 12 Doubles Team.  The duo combined for a 2-5 record against Big 12 opponents during the 2006 spring season.

 

Three Huskers Earn All-Big 12 Academic Accolades

Senior Adrian Szatmary and sophomores Renato Melo and Hendrik Stahmer were recognized for their outstanding academic achievements by earning a place on the 2007 academic All-Big 12 men’s tennis team.  All three captured first-team accolades by posting a cumulative grade-point average above 3.2 while working toward their degrees in business administration.

 

A three-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Szatmary has led the team on the court this spring at the No. 1 singles slot, and has compiled a 7-9 record.  The Budapest, Hungary, native has earned three wins against nationally ranked opponents this spring.

 

Providing consistency for Nebraska, Melo is one of three Huskers to maintain a winning singles record, compiling a 9-7 mark this spring.  A native of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Melo has compiled the best record against Big 12 opponents on the Husker squad at 3-3.

 

Originally from Hamburg, Germany, Stahmer came to Nebraska prior to high school and attended BeatriceHigh School.  A first-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll in the spring of 2006, Stahmer has been a staple in the Husker lineup at the No. 3 and 4 spots where he has compiled an impressive 11-7 record.

 

To qualify for first-team honors, student-athletes must maintain a 3.2 GPA or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of his team’s scheduled contests.

 

Upset Victory Bolsters Huskers in National Polls

After dropping four spots to No. 67 in last week’s national poll, the Huskers made a significant jump in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s latest national rankings, released April 24, by moving up to 56.  The 11-spot jump in ranking follows an upset victory the Huskers earned over then-No. 33 Texas A&M on Friday, April 20 in College Station, Texas, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in front of a crowd of 552.

 

Huskers Break Even in Texas During Season Finale

The Nebraska men’s tennis team earned its second Big 12 victory of the season on April 20, upsetting No. 33 Texas A&M.  Although the Huskers were swept in the doubles to lose the doubles point, they came back strong in the singles competition to win four of the six matches, defeating the Aggies, 4-3.

 

James Clow rallied from a 1-0 deficit to even the score for the Huskers with a two-set victory over Texas A&M’s John Nallon, 6-3, 6-0, at the No. 4 spot.

 

The Aggies answered at the No. 2 spot where David Bendheim was silenced by Texas A&M’s No. 82 Connor Pollock, 6-4, 6-3, to bring the score to 1-2.  Keeping the Huskers in the mix, Renato Melo displayed consistency as he earned his ninth win of the season at the No. 5 spot defeating Texas A&M’s Clay Donato in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.

 

Tied up at 2-2, the Aggies pulled ahead with a vital win at the No. 3 slot.  Suffering just his sixth loss of the season, sophomore Hendrik Stahmer fell to Texas A&M’s Matt Bain, 6-4, 6-2.  With two matches remaining on the courts and trailing by a point, the Huskers needed to win both contests in order to clinch the team victory.

 

Freshman Francois Van Impe stepped up for the Huskers and earned a crucial victory for the Huskers at the No. 6 spot.  Trailing Texas A&M’s Brett Joelson after the first set, Van Impe surged back in the second with a 6-4 win to force the match to a third.  In the third, Van Impe demonstrated poise as he powered past Joelson, 6-3, to win the match and again tie the score, 3-3.

 

With the Huskers within reach of their fourth upset victory of the season, the matchup ultimately came down to the No. 1 spot where senior Adrian Szatmary was slated against Texas A&M’s No. 58 Jerry Makowski.  Entering the contest with a 2-5 record against ranked opponents, Szatmary improved that mark to 3-5 as he earned a come-from-behind victory over Makowski, clinching the team win for the Huskers.

 

“This win is not just a big step for this team, but also for our program,” McDermott said.  “We’re starting to play with more confidence and proving to ourselves, and others, that we can compete in the Big 12.  What’s important is that we’re not just playing close matches anymore, but that we’re winning them instead.”

 

The win against the Aggies marks the first time since 2002 that the Huskers have won more than one conference match in a season.

 

Remaining in Texas, the Huskers traveled to Austin to take on No. 12 Texas at the Penick-AllisonTennisCenter on Sunday, April 22, where they were defeated 5-2.

 

The Huskers were swept in doubles play, with Texas’ then-28th-ranked tandem of Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala defeating NU seniors Clow and Szatmary at the No. 1 spot, 8-4.  At No. 2 doubles, the duo of Bendheim and Van Impe fell to UT’s Miguel Reyes Varel and Jon Wiegand, 8-2, while Melo and junior Mark Tate were defeated by Bernhard Deussner and Luis Diaz Barriga, 8-3, at No. 3 doubles.

 

Earning points in the singles competition for the Huskers were freshmen standouts Bendheim and Van Impe.  Competing at the No. 2 spot, Bendheim earned a victory when UT’s Reyes Varel retired after being defeated by Bendheim, 6-1, in the first set.

 

Following a strong performance during Friday’s competition against Texas A&M, Van Impe again stepped up to earn a victory for the Huskers at the No. 6 slot.  Matched up against the Longhorns’ Rook Schellenberg, Van Impe wasted no time as he defeated Schellenberg in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

 

The loss moved NU to 9-10 on the year and 2-4 in the Big 12 Conference and concluded the Huskers’ regular season.

 

Huskers Defeat Top-25 Opponent for Third Straight Year

For the third year in a row, the Huskers earned an upset victory over a top-25 ranked opponent with their win against No. 23 Oklahoma on March 30.  In 2006, the Huskers defeated No. 22 Florida State on Feb. 4 and in 2005 they defeated No. 16 Rice on Jan. 24.