 "Photo: Jonny Green")
After losing back-to-back matches on the road to top ranked opponents No. 7 Florida and No. 2 Texas, the Texas A&M men's tennis team will travel Wednesday to Fort Worth to take on TCU.
"This is a big match for us because we are trying to get back on a winning track," said Head Coach Steve Denton. "We had a great week of practice and we are going to try and transfer that into a win on Wednesday night."
The Aggies will be competing against a team that has an almost identical line-up in terms of experience. Both the Aggies and the Horned Frogs play a line-up that consists of mostly underclassmen as each team has two upperclassmen playing in the top six singles positions.
With all the young talent on the court, Denton said he expects the match to have a close finish.
"There are quite a few young players on their team this year," Denton said. "They are a pretty young, talented team that has had some success against some top teams. [The match in 2008] here was really close and I anticipate it being a really close match there and we are going to have to play really good to beat them."
Playing the five and six lines are Zach Nichols and Christopher Price for TCU. Representing A&M at five and six will most likely be Kayvon Karimi and Austin Klores. In Boy 18 and under singles, Nichols, Price, Karimi and Klores all ranked in the top 10 in the state of Texas and have played against each other on numerous occasions.
"I played Zach and Price more than anyone else in junior tennis," Karimi said. "I played Price like 18 times and Zach probably even more times. I think they are great players, both with different games, but it's always fun to play them having done so in juniors tennis and now again in college."
The Aggies will look for wins at the No. 2 and 3 positions from Wil Spencer or Austin Krajicek . The Aggies are 2-0 when both Krajicek and Spencer win their singles matches,. When the pair loses, the Aggies have also lost. Spencer and Krajicek have been alternating playing at the two and three spots every week, but the Aggies feel confident in whoever is playing in the line-up.
"We go in and we think we can win at every position," Spencer said. "We are really confident with whoever is playing at two or three, we look at it as who is going to win."
The match against TCU on Wednesday continues a six-week-long road stretch that ends with the Aggies facing off against No. 1 Ohio State on March 13 at Mitchell Tennis Center.
"I think it is going to be big for our confidence," Spencer said. "We aren't looking at this as we need to bounce back, but as this is another match we need to win."
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