thebattalion ● wednesday,
june 1, 2011
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Aggies ace the competition Dadamo, Krajicek bring home first men’s doubles national championship Jared Baxter
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The Battalion Seniors Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo captured the NCAA Doubles Championship against Stanford on Memorial Day. The victory marked the first ever Texas A&M national championship in tennis, as Krajicek and Dadamo defeated the Stanford doubles team of Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher, 7-6(4), 6-3. “We played well today,” Krajicek said. “I think we had a good tournament all week. We served well and were aggressive with our volleys. We were pretty familiar with Stanford since we faced them in the team match a little over a week ago. We knew there were going to be a lot of people out and they would be loud. We just focused on our game and didn’t let it affect us that much. It’s fun playing in that kind of atmosphere when it’s really loud. It makes the match more exciting and I think Jeff and I enjoyed it.” Stanford went up 2-1 early in the first set, but the Aggies came right back after breaking Stanford’s serve to tie the match up at 3-3. The first set came down to a tiebreaker when the Aggies took control of the match with clutch shots and won the set 7-6. “There was a point in the tiebreaker that could have gone the other way and Jeff (Dadamo) hit a great backhand shot for a winner to give the boys a little separation,” Aggie head coach Steve Denton said. “That was a great shot.” The momentum from the intense
first set carried over, and the Aggies charged to a 3-1 lead. Stanford kept the serve to close the second set gap to 4-3 before Krajicek served to take command of the match and moved ahead 5-3. In the championship deciding game, the Aggies found themselves down 40-15 before forcing the game back to deuce. After fighting off a Stanford advantage, A&M took the advantage and then a strong forehand winner by Dadamo won the national championship. “We’ve had several breaks where we have been down and bounced back,” Dadamo said. “It seems this year some of the guys let up a bit and Austin and I would just keep fighting back. We had a lot of fun and we were prepared to play well today.” As the most lucrative tennis duo in school history, Krajicek and Dadamo finished their careers with an impressive 27-3 record this spring and earned second consecutive All-America honors. Krajicek leaves as the all-time Aggie leader in doubles victories with 112 wins, and Dadamo walks away as the 2011 Most Outstanding Player. “I thought it was appropriate that the final shot was a forehand winner from Jeff,” Denton explained. “These guys will always be Aggies, but in their final appearance on the collegiate tennis courts representing Texas A&M to come out winning the national championship, I could not be more proud of them. They have always been winners, but now they can say they are national champs.”
texas Perry vetoes internet bill
Assoc. head basketball coach named
Gov. Rick Perry vetoed his first bill of the year on Monday, a measure that would have expanded the number of Internet retailers required to collect Texas’ sales tax. The bill would have required companies that contract with marketing companies inside Texas to collect the state’s sales tax. Federal law requires companies with a physical presence inside a state to collect that state’s sales tax.
The Battalion Texas A&M men’s basketball is preparing for the future as it added a new member to the franchise. Glynn Cyprien has been named the new associate head coach. A&M Head Coach Billy Kennedy added a key piece to the championship contending puzzle by naming Cyprien to his staff. Kennedy believes Cyprien, a former Memphis assistant, brings knowledge and camaraderie to fit his plans of building upon A&M’s six-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances. “I’m excited to bring Cyp on board here at A&M,” Kennedy said. “First and foremost, he’s a great friend. He knows this league, he knows Texas, and he’s an excellent basketball
Adrian O’Hanlon III
coach that will develop the kids to where I want them to be. So to have someone like that join me, with the experience he has and the relationship we have, is tremendous.” Cyprien, a New Orleans native, is known as a leading recruiter after accumulating many top recruiting classes in his 23 years as a coach. His recruiting classes have led to 15 winning seasons and 15 postseason appearances. Cyprien has pieced together many of the best recruiting classes in recent years, including the No. 1 class in 2009 at the University of Memphis. Cyprien has been putting together winning teams his entire career. Before fitting Memphis with players that led to 49 wins and conference titles, Cyprien also helped build winning teams at the University of Kentucky and the Univer-
sity of Arkansas. Kentucky made an appearance in both the NCAA Tournament and NIT in Cyprien’s two years there and Arkansas also made the big dance in Cyprien’s only year there. Prior to piecing together recruits for SEC powerhouses, Cyprien helped turn around New Mexico State from a record of 6-24 in 2005 to 16-14 in his only year there in 2006. Cyprien’s longest tenure was from 20002004 as an assistant under the legendary Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State. In his four years there, the Cowboys made the NCAA tournament each year and had a record of 97-32. Cyprien’s last year in Stillwater was historic for OSU when the Cowboys went 31-4 and advanced to the Final Four.
A&M makes top 50 most amazing campuses O’Dell Harmon The Battalion Aggies are known for having a natural appreciation of their campus but now have the style and grace to contend with America’s most beautiful universities. Texas A&M was ranked the 44th Most Amazing Campus in America by www.thebestcolleges.org. A&M beat out other universities known for their beauty including the University of Colorado-Boulder and Northwestern University in Chicago. A&M is now within the same ranking as Rice, Duke and Cornell universities. Rice is the only other Texas universitiy listed in the ranking. Even with all the construction on campus, A&M made it into the top 50. With such a high ranking it can only be expected to go up when all the rennovations around campus are completed. The campus has come a long way in terms of style. Many of the old buildings have or are currently being modernized to today’s standards, making the campus more appealing aesthetically. Even Military Walk, which had remained virtually unchanged since it was made, was completely redone. The website reports that students who graduate from beautiful campuses typically report higher overall satisfaction with their college experience. The organization’s goal is to explain to students the importance of the environment in which they choose to obtain a college degree.
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Andrew Brunkhorst — THE BATTALION
Academic Plaza is one of the most historic locations on campus and helped A&M rank the 44th Most Amazing Campus.
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