May 26, 2005

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Two of Baylor's men's tennis players, seniors Benedikt Dorsch and Benjamin Becker, advanced to the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, on Thursday. In addition, Dorsch and doulbles partner Matija Zgaga won their first round match to advance.

Dorsch, a senior and the tournament's top seed, raised his season record to 32-2 and posted his ninth straight win with his 6-1, 6-3 win over 19th-ranked Jamil Al-Agba of Southern California. The Weiden, Germany, native recently named the ITA Senior Player of the Year, will now take on 51st-ranked Kevin Anderson of Illinois on Friday at noon.

For the second day in a row, Becker, also a senior, got off to a slow start, losing the first set to Pepperdine's Scott Doerner, 6-3. Becker whipped through the next two sets versus Doerner, 6-3, 6-3 to register the win. The native of Orscholz, Germany, will now face 37th-ranked Izak van der Merwe of Old Dominion on Friday at 1:30 p.m. Van der Merwe won in straight sets (6-3, 6-2) over Air Forces' Shannon Buck to earn the spot against Becker.

Freshman Lars Poerschke, ranked No. 50 nationally, lost to 14th-ranked Jerry Makowski of Texas A&M in the round of 32. The two players dueled to a tie in the first set but Makowski won the tiebreaker 7-3, thus winning the first set 7-6(3). Makowski posted a second set win 6-3 to advance to the round of 16.

Two-time doubles All-Americans Dorsch and sophomore Matija Zgaga began play in the 32-team doubles bracket as the No. 3 seed on Thursday and defeated Virginia's Nick Meythaler and Rylan Rizza, ranked No. 21, 6-4, 6-2. The victory was the Baylor tandem's second win over the Virginia duo, they posted an 8-6 win over the Virginia duo on Feb. 20 in the ITA National Team Indoor Tournament. Dorsch and Zgaga advanced to face Alex Schweizer and Gabor Zoltan Pelva from Auburn. The Auburn duo posted a three-set win (6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3) win over Louisiana-Lafayette's Evghenii Corduneanu and Amanjot Singh to move to the round of 16..

NCAA Singles Round of 16
12 p.m. - Benedikt Dorsch vs. Kevin Anderson (Illinois)
1:30 p.m. - Benjamin Becker vs. Izak van der Merwe (Old Dominion)

NCAA Doubles Round of 16
3:30 p.m. - Benedikt Dorsch/Matija Zgaga vs. Nick Meythaler/Rylan Rizza (Virginia)