Huskers Fall Short Against No. 12 Texas A&M

College Station--- Trying to break a four-match losing streak, the No. 55 Nebraska men’s tennis team came up short in its upset bid of No. 12 Texas A&M, falling by the score of 5-2 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. With the loss, the Huskers’ record drops to 16-7 on the season, with a 0-4 record in Big 12 play.  Texas A&M improves to 13-6 on the year, 4-1 in the Big 12.  After dropping the doubles point, NU was unable to climb its way back in singles against a lineup that featured three nationally ranked players.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

Playing at the No. 1 doubles spot for only the second time this season, freshmen duo Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim fell to the No. 3-rated doubles team in the country Conor Pollock and Austin Krajicek (TAMU) 8-4.  The Huskers evened the doubles matches up when David Bendheim and Calin Paar defeated Alexey Grigorov and Colin Hoover (TAMU) 8-6 at the No 2 spot, but were unable to secure the doubles point after Hendrik Stahmer and Francois Van Impe were defeated by Wil Spencer and Austin Klores 8-6 at the No. 3 spot.

In singles, NU competed hard against the talented Aggie lineup, pushing five of the six singles matches to a third set.  At the No. 5 spot, Stahmer (NU) came from behind to beat Hoover (TAMU) 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (1).  After splitting the first two sets against Klores (TAMU), Renato Melo (NU) stormed through the third set to win 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-1, at the No. 6 spot and secure the Huskers’ only other victory in singles. Aumueller (NU) dropped his first Big 12 match of the season to No. 51 Austin Krajicek (TAMU) at the No 2 spot.  Krajicek and Aumueller split the first two sets before Krajicek took the third and final set 6-4.  Lindheim (NU) was defeated by Grigorov (TAMU) 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1, at the No. 4 spot, while Paar (NU) fell to No. 30 Spencer (TAMU) 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, at the No. 3 spot.

Head coach Kerry McDermott was happy with the way his team competed against such a talented team on the road.

“Another tough match to lose,” McDermott said. “Our guys played extremely hard and competed extremely hard. There is no way I can get down on this team.  They are such good fighters.  I think A&M rose to the occasion in some tough situations throughout the match.  We just have to get back to work and prepare for another tough match against Texas Tech.”

The Huskers return to the Nebraska Tennis Center for their last home match of the season against Texas Tech on Sunday, April 12, at 1 p.m.

Complete Results

NU 2, TAMU 5

Singles

No. 1 No. 19 Conor Pollock (TAMU) defeated David Bendheim (NU) 6-3, 6-4.  

No. 2 No. 51 Austin Krajicek (TAMU) defeated Christopher Aumueller (NU) 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4. 

No. 3 No. 30 Wil Spencer (TAMU) defeated Calin Paar (NU), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.

No. 4 Alexey Grigorov (TAMU) defeated Benedikt Lindheim (NU) 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1.

No. 5 Hendrik Stahmer (NU) defeated Colin Hoover (TAMU) 4-6, 7-6 (1), 1-0 (1).

No. 6 Renato Melo (NU) defeated Austin Klores (TAMU) 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-1.

Doubles

No. 1 No. 3 Krajicek/Pollock (TAMU) defeated Aumueller/Lindheim (NU), 8-4.

No. 2 No. 59 Bendheim/Paar (NU) defeated Grigorov/Hoover (TAMU), 8-6.

No. 3 Klores/Spencer (TAMU) defeated Stahmer/Van Impe (NU), 8-6.

ORDER OF FINISH

Doubles: 1, 2, 3

Singles: 1, 4, 2*, 6, 5, 3