May 11, 2002

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The 4th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team, seeded sixth in the NCAA Tournament, defeated the University of Hartford Hawks in first round action of the 2002 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament at Harvard's Robert M. Beren Tennis Center on Saturday morning.

The Bears are now 26-1 on the season which extends the program's record for most victories in a season and also extends their record-setting win streak to 17 matches. Hartford sees their season end at 14-4.

The Bears took only 35 minutes to earn their first point when the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams each posted 8-4 victories. At No. 1 Nathan McGregor and Markus Hornung finished first to post their 13th victory of the season, easily defeating Pedja Zdravkovic and Patrick Flint. Matias Marin and Reiner Neurohr moved up from their usual No. 3 spot to play at No. 2 and defeated Jeff Hurlbert and Chris Hartmann. Mike Garcia and Benjamin Becker, playing just their third match together, were leading 7-6 when play was halted.

In NCAA Tournament action, four points are needed to win the match. Once a team scores their fourth point, all remaining matches are halted.

Needing to pick up three singles victories to secure the victory, Reiner Neurohr swept through his match against Chris Hartmann at No. 5, not allowing Hartmann to win a game, to post a 6-0, 6-0 win. At No. 2, Zoltan Papp was just about as quick with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Patrick Flint. The win was Papp's 11th consecutive singles victory. Markus Hornung sealed the match for the Bears with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Fort Worth native Clint Broadie at the No. 3 spot. Benjamin Becker, Matias Marin and Armando Carrascosa had all posted first set victories when the match was halted.

The Bears will play the winner of the Harvard/Marist match at 11 a.m. (CST) on Sunday.

Baylor 4, Hartford 0
Doubles
1. #34 Hornung/Nathan McGregor, BU def. Zdravkovic/Flint, UH 8-4
2. Neurohr/Marin, BU def. Hurlbert/Hartman, UH 8-4
3. Becker/Mike Garcia, BU vs. Broadie/Dan Kirchner, UH DNF

Singles
1. #9 Benjamin Becker, BU vs. Pedja Zdravkovic, UH DNF
2. #45 Zoltan Papp, BU def. Patrick Flint, UH 6-1, 6-1
3. #65 Markus Hornung, BU def. Clint Broadie, UH 6-3, 6-0
4. Matias Marin, BU vs. Jeff Hurlbert, UH DNF
5. Reiner Neurohr, BU def. Chris Hartmann, UH 6-0, 6-0
6. Armando Carrascosa, BU vs. Evan Sideman, UH DNF