Jan. 26, 2006

WACO, Texas - The No. 7 Baylor men's tennis team will host their home opener tomorrow taking on No. 36 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. The Bears will turn around and take on No. 2 Florida on Sunday with matches starting at 1 p.m.

The match Friday will mark the beginning of dual action for the spring and kicks off a pre-conference schedule that includes four top ten opponents, seven top 20 opponents, and 11 top 50 opponents before the Bears begin Big 12 action in April.

In individual rankings, Baylor outweighs the competition with three players ranked in the top 100 in singles including No. 1 Lars Poerschke and No. 31 Michal Kokta. Vladimir Portnov is also ranked for the Bears tied for the No. 94 spot. In doubles, Baylor is the only team with rankings this weekend with Poerschke and Matija Zgaga ranked at No. 23 and the team of Zgaga and Jon Reckewey tied for the No. 31 spot.

Among the competition, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi holds two top 50 rankings with Raul Morant Rivas ranked at No. 30 and Andrey Kumantsov holding the No. 50 spot. The No. 2 team Florida has only one individual ranked, No. 70 Stefan Tell.

In the event of rain, the match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will be played at Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas starting at 7:30 p.m.

The Bears will hit the road next weekend traveling to Virginia to take on University of Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 4 and Virginia Commonwealth on Feb. 5.

Live results will be posted at www.baylorbears.com.