April 14, 2002

WACO, Texas - The 9th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team claimed the program's second Big 12 title on Sunday with a 5-2 road win over the Oklahoma Sooners at OU's Headington Family Tennis Center. Baylor is currently 21-1 on the season and is the only team with an undefeated Big 12 mark at 6-0. The Sooners fall to 6-9 overall and 0-5 in league action.

With the undefeated league mark, Baylor is currently in sole possession of first place. Texas A&M and Texas have one loss each, Texas lost to Baylor then turned around and tagged the Aggies a 4-3 loss. Baylor and Texas A&M will meet in College Station on Sat., April 20 at 6 p.m. A Baylor win would give the Bears the conference crown outright, a loss would result in a sharing of the crown.

"The biggest thing of the weekend was it showed us how hard it is to win on the road, especially with the pressures we faced," said head coach Matt Knoll. "We had a tough match with Oklahoma State and got to bed really late Saturday night then turned around to play an early morning (10 a.m.) match today. Oklahoma was fired up and played us really tough. However, we continued to learn how to manage ourselves. We're excited to play next weekend and have a chance to win the title outright."

The Bears took all three doubles matches by 8-4 scores. Next, they proceeded to take four of the six singles matches. With usual No. 1 player Benjamin Becker sitting out the match, everyone else moved up a spot. Zoltan Papp played his first match of the season at No. 1 singles and defeated OU's top player Tobias Kronlein, 5-1, ret. Markus Hournung and Matias Marin, playing at No. 2 and 3, respectively, each won in straight sets. Armando Carrascosa, at No. 6, posted the Bears' other victory with a three set win over Alex Nomicos.

The Bears' 21 victories this season marks the third 20-win season in Matt Knoll's six seasons at Baylor. The Bears were 24-3 in 1999, 23-6 in 2000 and are 21-1 in 2002. They need just three more victories to equal the program's most wins in a season. The Bears claimed their other Big 12 championship in 2000.

#9 Baylor 5, Oklahoma 2
OU Headington Family Tennis Center - Norman, Okla.

Singles
No. 1 #45 Zoltan Papp, BU def. Tobias Kronlein, OU 5-1, ret.
No. 2 #56 Markus Hornung, BU def. Sebastien Revol, OU 6-3, 6-2
No. 3 Matias Marin, BU def. Ollivier Monferran, OU 6-1, 6-0
No. 4 Chris Mitchell, OU def. Reiner Neurohr, BU 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
Nol 5 Matt Ogle, OU def. Nathan McGregor, BU 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
No. 6 Armando Carrascosa, BU def. Alex Nomicos, OU 3-6, 6-3, 6-1

Doubles
No. 1 #10 Hornung/McGregor, BU def. Monferran/Revol, OU 8-4
No. 2 Neurohr/Marin, BU def. Kronlein/Mitchell 8-4
No. 3 Mike Garcia/Papp, BU def. Ogle/Brad Prigmore, OU 8-4