May 12, 2002

Cambridge, Mass. - The 4th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team, seeded sixth in the NCAA Tournament, defeated the Harvard Crimson in second round action of the 2002 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament at Harvard's Murr Center on Sunday morning. Rain forced the matches to be moved to Harvard's indoor courts. The Bears now advance to the round of 16 at Texas A&M, play will begin on May 18.

The Bears are now 27-1 on the season which extends the program's record for most victories in a season and also extends their record-setting win streak to 18 matches. Harvard sees their season end at 15-6.

As soon as the teams were introduced for doubles, the rain came and play was moved to the Murr Center which houses six indoor courts. Baylor took matches at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles to earn the match's first point. At No. 2, Benjamin Becker and Zoltan Papp broke out early and took a 3-0 lead and eventually won 8-3 over William Lee and Chris Chiou. Markus Hornung and Nathan McGregor dueled back and forth at No. 1 with Jonathan Chu and Dalibor Snyder until the duo broke Snyder's serve to go up 6-5. Each team held serve and the Bears posted an 8-6 victory. The guttiest performance in doubles came from Baylor's No. 3 team, Reiner Neurohr and Matias Marin. They fell behind 7-2 against Mark Riddell and David Lingman but stormed back and won five straight games to even the score at 7-7 before the match 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.

In singles Benjamin Becker made quick work of Jonathan Chu at No. 1 with an easy 6-3, 6-3 win. Next to finish was Matias Marin at No. 4 when he defeated the Crimson's Mark Riddell 6-3, 7-5. Then the race was on between Zoltan Papp and Armando Carrascosa to see who would win the fourth and deciding point for the Bears. Carrascosa won that race, beating Chris Chiou 7-6 (5), 6-4 at No. 6. Papp, at No. 2, needed just one point to win his match but Carrascosa finished first. Reiner Neurohr split sets with William Lee (2-6, 7-5) and was leading 2-1 when play was halted. Markus Hornung also split sets against Cliff Nguyen but was leading 3-1 when Carrascosa sealed the victory.

The Bears advance to the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament, hosted by Texas A&M . They will play the winner of the Southern California/Arkansas match. Team competition will be held from May 18-21.

Baylor 4, Harvard 0
Doubles
1. #34 Hornung/Nathan McGregor, BU def. Chu/Dalibor Snyder, Harvard 8-6
2. Becker/Papp, BU def. Chris Chiou/Lee, Harvard 8-3
3. Marin/Neurohr, BU vs. Riddell/Lingman, Harvard DNF

Singles
1. #9 Benjamin Becker, BU def. #72 Jonathan Chu, Harvard 6-3, 6-3
2. #45 Zoltan Papp, BU vs. #124 David Lingman, Harvard DNF
3. #65 Markus Hornung, BU vs. Cliff Nguyen, Harvard DNF
4. Matias Marin, BU def. Mark Riddell, Harvard 6-3, 7-5
5. Reiner Neurohr, BU def. William Lee, Harvard DNF
6. Armando Carrascosa, BU def. George Turner, Harvard 7-6 (5), 6-4