Baylor
Pepperdine
Men's Tennis Narrowly Misses Upset Win
3/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 30, 2001
WACO, Texas - Rarely has Baylor head men's tennis coach Matt Knoll been more accepting of a loss.
The 27th-ranked Bears (8-6, 5-1 Big 12) lost about as tight a match as possible to No. 7 Pepperdine (13-4) on Friday at the Streich Tennis Courts, losing 4-3. The match came all the way down to a 9-7 Waves win at No. 3 doubles to clinch the match.
"I was proud of this team today," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "This team hasn't played that hard all year. We asked them for effort, enthusiasm and fight, and we got it. It just didn't turn out quite the way we wanted it to."
The two teams opened with singles rather than doubles due to the threat of impending rain. The water never fell, however, and the two teams took the match down to the wire through a full five hours.
Reversing their normal pattern, the Bears won at Nos. 1 through 3 singles -- all against ranked players -- but lost all three matches at the bottom of the lineup. Four of the six matches went to third sets, and five sets were decided in tiebreakers.
The match initially came down to No. 1 singles with Pepperdine leading 3-2 and their top player still on the court in 11th-ranked Al Garland. Baylor's Csongor Bibza played perhaps the best match of his life, however, and pulled out a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win to send the match to doubles tied at 3-3. The win was Bibza's second straight over a ranked opponent, Bibza beat No. 40 Matt Prentice of Oklahoma State last week.
In doubles, the two teams split the first two positions. Pepperdine's top team of Sebastien Graeff and Stefan Suter, ranked No. 10 nationally, shutout Baylor's 26th-ranked duo of Reiner Neurohr and Mark Williams, 8-0 to open doubles. The Bears bounced back with an 8-4 win at No. 2 doubles, moving the attention of a large crowd to court three.
At No. 3 doubles, Matias Marin and Zoltan Papp held a 6-5 lead for Baylor, but Pepperdine's Calle Hansen and Ryan Redondo broke the Bears' serve twice and rolled to a 9-7 win to claim the dual match victory for the Waves.
Five of Baylor's six losses this season have come to top-20 teams, including a pair of home losses against top-10 squads. The Bears have yet to win a match after losing the doubles point, Baylor is 0-6 when losing doubles.
The Bears hit the road Wednesday, driving north to face No. 2 TCU at 2:30 p.m.
Friday, March 30
#7 Pepperdine (13-4) def. #27 Baylor (8-6, 5-1), 4-3
No. 1 #10 Sebastien Graeff/Stefan Suter, PU, def. #16 Reiner Neurohr/Mark Williams, BU, 8-0
No. 2 Nathan McGregor/Cory Ross, BU, def. Al Garland/Chase Exon, PU, 8-4
No. 3 Calle Hansen/Ryan Redondo, PU, def. Matias Marin/Zoltan Papp, BU, 9-7
No. 1 Csongor Bibza, BU, def. #11 Al Garland, PU, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4
No. 2 Reiner Neurohr, BU, def. #36 Stefan Suter, PU, 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 Mark Williams, BU, def. #97 Sebastien Graeff, PU, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2
No. 4 Calle Hansen, PU, def. Matias Marin, BU, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0
No. 5 Steve Racioppi, PU, def. Zoltan Papp, BU, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3
No. 6 Gerold Wiring, PU, def. Cory Ross, BU, 7-6, 6-3
