March 21, 2005
WACO, Texas - The top-ranked Baylor men's tennis team swept singles after dropping the doubles point as the Baylor Bears defeated the No. 29 Cal Bears 6-1 Monday night at the Baylor Tennis Facility.
Baylor faced a 1-0 deficit early after losing the doubles point to Cal. The No. 22-ranked tandem of Michal Kokta and Lars Poerschke won the first doubles match on the second court, but No. 12 Benedikt Dorsch and Matija Zgaga lost on the first court to even the doubles count at 1-1. Benjamin Becker and Jon Reckewey battled with Cal's Lennart Maack and Dean Wallace, but Cal was able to edge Baylor on the third court 8-6 to take the doubles point.
It was all Baylor in singles play the rest of the night as the Bears took all-six singles points en route to their 16th win of the season.
Zgaga gave Baylor its first point of the night with his win in the fifth court. The win was the 15th of the season for Zgaga and is now 3-2 in the fifth court.
In the No. 1 court, No. 1 Dorsch gave Baylor its second point after defeating No. 27 Conor Niland in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. He is now 16-1 this season in dual matches, 10-1 in the No. 1 court.
However it was Vladimir Portnov who grabbed the fourth point for Baylor to secure the win. Portnov trailed Ken Nakahara early in the first set 1-5, but was able to battled back to force a tiebreaker. He won the tiebreaker 7-4 to win the first set 7-6(4). Portnov took the second set in haste fashion 6-3 to grab his 12th win of the season.
Baylor returns to action on Wednesday as the Bears host No. 9 Stanford at the Baylor Tennis Facility. Match time is set for 6 p.m.
Doubles
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
1. #23 Briaud/Niland (Cal) def. #12 Dorsch/Zgaga (BU) 8-4
2. #22 Kokta/Poerschke (BU) def. Browne/Sebescen (Cal) 8-4
3. Maack/Wallace (Cal) def. Becker/Reckewey (BU) 8-6
Singles
Order of Finish: 5, 1, 3, 6, 2, 4
1. #1 Benedikt Dorsch (BU) def. #27 Conor Niland (Cal) 6-2, 6-4
2. #37 Benjamin Becker (BU) def. #76 Lennart Maack (Cal) 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-5
3. #19 Lars Poerschke (BU) def. Patrick Briaud (Cal) 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
4. Michal Kokta (BU) def. Daniel Sebescen (Cal) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
5. Matija Zgaga (BU) def. Tyler Browne (Cal) 6-1, 6-3
6. Vladimir Portnov (BU) def. Ken Nakahara (Cal) 7-6(4), 6-3
Baylor - 16-0
Cal - 6-7
