May 23, 2002

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Baylor sophomores Nathan McGregor and Markus Hornung advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament in College Station today but Benjamin Becker and Zoltan Papp were both eliminated from the tournament.

Southern California senior Nick Rainey defeated Becker in straight sets to end the freshman's stellar season. Becker, an all-American and the tournament's No. 8 seed, lost 6-3, 6-4. He ends the year with a 37-9 singles record. "I couldn't find rhythm for my serve today. I think he gained confidence during the week (USC won the team national championship)," said Becker.

Papp, a junior from Budapest, Hungary, dropped a three set match to Portland's Travis Parrott. After posting a 6-3 victory in the first set, Papp lost the second set 6-3 and lost the third set 7-6, with the tiebreaker going to 11-9. The loss snapped Papp's 13-match winning streak, he ends his season with a record of 39-9. "I was very inconsistent today. I had a chance to win in the third set when I was up 5-2 but couldn't get it done," said Papp.

In Baylor's last action of the day, McGregor and Hornung posted a dramatic come from behind victory over Pepperdine's Sebastien Graeff and Stefan Suter who are ranked No. 10 nationally. The Bears dropped the first set 6-1 but came storming back to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-4. "They didn't want to win as much as we did, we just didn't give up," said McGregor. "Pepperdine was over confident after that first set, we fought back and they weren't ready for that," commented Hornung. McGregor and Hornung will play the winner of the match between Tennessee's Simon Rea/Mario Toledo and the tournament's second seeded team, Scott Lipsky and David Martin of Stanford.