March 9, 2006
WACO, Texas - The No. 7 Baylor men's tennis team hits the road this weekend traveling to California to take on three top-ranked west coast teams. The Bears will start off in Los Angeles taking on No. 34 USC on Friday at 6 p.m. and No. 6 UCLA on Saturday at 5 p.m. Baylor then heads to Malibu, Calif. to face the Pepperdine Waves Monday, March 13 at 1 p.m. All times are EPT.
Baylor heads into the weekend coming off a 4-3 victory over No. 27 TCU last Tuesday in Fort Worth. The Bears have improved their record lately winning their last six match-ups and are now 8-3 on the season.
The Bears have also improved in some other numbers; the latest Fila Collegiate tennis rankings. The rankings, released yesterday, showed five of the eight Baylor players receiving spots in the top 105.
Leading the Bears is sophomore Lars Poerschke who is currently ranked No. 5 in the nation. Juniors Matija Zgaga and Michal Kokta recive the No. 48 and No. 52 ranks respectively. Vladimir Portnov comes in at No. 97 and Freshman Matt Brown makes his first appearance in the rankings at No. 104.
In doubles, the Bears hold two ranked teams. Zgaga and Jon Reckewey pair up to earn the No. 19 spot and Kokta teams with Will Ward to hold down No. 30.
No. 34 USC is 6-5 overall this season and is coming off a 2-5 loss at No. 6 UCLA. Although there are no individually ranked players for the Trojans, the doubles team of Adam Loucks and Garrett Snyder are tied for the No. 60 spot with UCLA's team of Chris Surapol and Jeremy Drean.
No. 6 UCLA, who handed Baylor its first loss last season when the two teams met in the NCAA title match, enters this weekend with a 10-3 record, 5-1 in the Pac-10 Conference. Led by No. 2 Benjamin Kohlloeffel, the Bruins also have No. 74 Mathieu Dehaine and No. 78 Chris Surapol as well as the No. 8 doubles team of Philipp Gruendler and Kohlloeffel.
Tied for the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, Pepperdine has posted a 15-1 record this season, its only loss coming from No.1 University of Georgia. The Waves also boast the No. 1 doubles team in the nation of Scott Doerner (also ranked No. 17 in singles), and Andre Begemann. Seniors Pedro Rico and Ivor Lovrak hold a doubles ranking of No. 35 and are individually ranked at No. 20 and No. 62 respectively.
All results will be posted at www.baylorbears.com. For the UCS match, live scoreboard can be accessed at www.usctrojans.collegesports.com. For the UCLA match, livestats will be available at www.uclabruins.com. The Pepperdine website can be viewed at www.pepperdinesports.com.
