Baylor
Texas
Men's Tennis Loses To Texas in Big 12 Tourney
4/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 28, 2001
WACO, Texas - The 29th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team lost Saturday night in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championships to No. 21 Texas, 4-1. The match was played in front of 832 fans, the largest crowd ever to see a Baylor tennis match in Waco.
The Bears (12-11) failed in their attempt to beat Texas (17-4) for the second time in a week, Baylor beat the Longhorns April 21 in Austin, 5-2. The Bears' run at the tournament comes to an end with the loss, while Texas advances to Sunday's championship match against Texas A&M.
"I'm disappointed because we all wanted to win, of course," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "But you have to give Texas credit. We didn't lose these matches, they won them."
The match began in the same fashion as the last meeting between the two teams as Texas took the doubles point. Baylor got on the board first with an 8-5 win at No. 3 doubles, but the Longhorns claimed victories at Nos. 1 and 2 to take the point.
The Bears tied the match at 1-1 after Matias Marin won the No. 5 singles spot for the Bears with a 7-6, 6-3 victory. The Longhorns then responded with wins at No. 6 and No. 2 singles to retake the dual match lead at 2-1.
With three matches left to play, Baylor was not yet out of the game. After dropping the first set, Csongor Bibza led 5-4 in set two at the No. 1 spot. Mark Williams and Zoltan Papp each split the first two sets in their matches, but Williams led 4-2 in the third and Papp was up 1-0 in the third set.
At No. 1 singles, however, 33rd-ranked Jean Simon proved to be too much for Bibza. Simon won the final three points of the match to claim the victory for Texas with a 7-6, 7-5 win. The remaining matches were stopped with Williams serving for match point and Papp in command with a 4-0 lead in the third set.
"You have to give the guy [Simon] credit," Knoll said. "He hit his shots, that's what great players do."
Four first sets went into tiebreakers, with Texas winning three of those four sets. Each of those Texas tiebreaker wins converted into Longhorn match victories.
"We had four points out there," Knoll said. "We had set point in the first set at No. 6 singles. Matias won and both Mark and Zoltan were in control of their matches. Our guys played hard, we just missed opportunities tonight."
The Bears now sit tight until Thursday, when NCAA Tournament selections and sites are announced.
Saturday, April 28
#21 Texas (17-4) def. #29 Baylor (12-11), 4-1
No. 1 #30 Jean Simon/Ron Kloppert (UT) def. #27 Mark WIlliams/Reiner Neurohr (BU), 8-6
No. 2 Craig Edmondson/Jose Zarhi (UT) def. Nathan McGregor/Cory Ross (BU), 8-5
No. 3 Csongor Bibza/Zoltan Papp (BU) def. Michael Domanski/Ryan Haymond (UT), 8-5
No. 1 #33 Jean Simon (UT) def. Csongor Bibza (BU), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5
No. 2 #96 Craig Edmondson (UT) def. Reiner Neurohr (BU), 6-4, 7-5
No. 3 Mark Williams (BU) vs. Jose Zarhi (UT), DNF
No. 4 Zoltan Papp (BU) vs. Ron Kloppert (UT), DNF
No. 5 Matias Marin (BU) def. Will Clinton (UT), 7-6 (7-1), 6-3
No. 6 Michael Domanski (UT) def. Cory Ross (BU) , 7-6 (7-4), 6-2
