April 29, 2003
WACO, Texas - Baylor's men's tennis team swept Big 12 Conference individual awards the Big 12 office announced today. The individual awards were voted on by the league's head coaches.
Sophomore newcomer Benedikt Dorsch captured Big 12 Player of the Year honors as well as Newcomer of the Year laurels. Ivor Lovrak was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year and for the second straight year, Matt Knoll was named Coach of the Year.
Dorsch, ranked No. 1 nationally in the ITA Omni Hotels singles poll for most of the 2003 season, rolled to a 42-3 record in singles for the 2002-03 season and is 22-2 in dual competition. The transfer from Ludwig-Maxmilian University in Germany and a native of Weiden, Germany, set a BU single-season school record with his 42 total singles triumphs to date. Dorsch is the second Baylor played named Big 12 Player of the Year, Johann Jooste earned the honor in 1999. Current Baylor assistant coach Pawel Gajdzik was named the league's newcomer of the year in 1998 and Jorge Aldrete earned the same honor in 1999.
Lovrak, a true freshman from Zagreb, Croatia, roared to 18 consecutive singles wins prior to the NCAA Tournament and has a 36-7 mark in 2002-03. He was 5-0 at No. 6 singles in Big 12 encounters and also played at Nos. 4 and 5 for the Bears this spring. Lovrak is the fourth straight Baylor player to be named the league's freshman of the year. Zoltan Papp earned the award in 2000, Reiner Neurohr in 2001 and Benjamin Becker in 2002.
Knoll, who has posted nearly an 80 percent success rate in dual match outings since coming to Baylor in 1996-97, was named Coach of the Year in the Texas Region by the U.S. Professional Tennis Association last season. He has led BU to three Big 12 men's crowns in the last four years, and the Bears are 28-2 (.933) in league matches since 2000. Knoll paced the Bears to back-to-back 7-0 seasons in conference play, a composite record of 52-3 (.945) prior to 2003 NCAA play and six consecutive NCAA appearances. He also was named co-Big 12 Coach of the Year in both 1998 and 2002.
