NEW HAVEN, CT -- Texas A&M All-American Austin Krajicek (Brandon, Fla.) and Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.) fell short of advancing to the finals in a tough third-set tiebreaker in the doubles semifinals of the prestigious ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships held Saturday afternoon at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center.

A&M’s top doubles tandem, both junior left-handers, suffered their first loss of the season in a close 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) decision to Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha of Duke. They compiled an impressive 7-1 record to close out the fall season on a high note for the Aggies.

“Give credit to Duke,” Texas A&M head coach Steve Denton said. “They played a very good game and raised their level of play in the match when it counted. It was disappointing because we looked like the better team in the first two sets, but we had a little bit of a lull afterwards. In the third set and in the tiebreaker, we had a lot of chances, but we didn’t finish it out. Overall, I was extremely happy and proud of Austin and Jeff’s results this week. We wish we could have gone further. They have great chemistry together which should carry into the spring.”

A day prior in quarterfinal action, Krajicek and Dadamo upset the No. 1 doubles team in the land to mark the first time the top seed had not advanced to the finals in the last five years. It was the second-furthest all-time performance by an Aggie duo at the national indoor tournament behind former four-time All-American Shuon Madden and two-time All-American Dumitru Caradima’s run to the finals in which they won the doubles title at the 1999 National Indoor Championships held at SMU in Dallas.

Krajicek, who received an at-large bid into the singles draw as the preseason No. 30-ranked player in the Campbell/ITA Rankings, moved on to the consolation quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Marc Powers of host Yale. He later fell in straight sets to No. 23-ranked Alex Lacroix of Florida, 6-4, 6-2.

“Austin struggled and played uphill the entire match today,” Denton said. “It’s tough to turnaround and play singles and doubles in one day and as a result, his game didn’t flow as well.”

A&M will return to action during its spring-season doubleheader opener against UT Pan American at 10 a.m. (CT) and Nicholls State at 3 p.m. (CT) respectively on Jan. 23, 2010, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.

Pollock Reaches Quarterfinals at Mexico Futures Tourney…Former Texas A&M three-time All-American Conor Pollock (San Antonio, Texas) reached the singles quarterfinals of the Mexico F14 Futures tournament held in Guadalajara, Mexico…Pollock, ranked No. 934 in the world, upset eighth-seeded and No. 641-ranked Nima Roshan of Australia, 6-5, 7-6 (4), in the opening round followed by a three-set victory over wild-card qualifier Victor Gonzalez of Mexico, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, in the round of 16.

2009 ITA NATIONAL INTERCOLLEGIATE INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Nov. 5-8, 2009

Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center

at New Haven, Conn.

SINGLES

Consolation Quarterfinals

(23) Alex Lacroix (Florida) def. (30) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-2.

Consolation Round of 16

(30) Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) def. Marc Powers (Yale), 6-3, 6-4.

DOUBLES

Semifinals

Reid Carleton-Henrique Cunha (Duke) def. Jeff Dadamo-Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M), 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5).