Men's Tennis Wins Fifth-Straight Big 12 Title

Men's Tennis 4/23/2006 12:00:00 AM

April 23, 2006

WACO, Texas - The No. 6 Baylor men's tennis team defeated No. 63 Nebraska 6-1 today at the Baylor Tennis Center to clinch its fifth consecutive Big 12 title, sixth overall. With this win, Baylor increases to 19-5 overall, 6-1 in Big 12 play. Nebraska falls to 10-12, 0-7 in conference.

With at least a share of the title under its belt, Baylor will keep its eyes on the A&M vs. Texas match this evening to see if they can grab the sole championship title. Texas, who is 5-1 in conference, has to beat A&M tonight to share the Big 12 title.

Baylor started out the match against Nebraska by sweeping the doubles point. Will Ward and David Galic downed James Clow and Arturo Navarro 8-2 to start things off. No. 28 Lars Poerschke and Michal Kokta defeated Mark Tate and Jerry Posch 8-5 giving them a 5-1 conference record, 13-1 overall. Matija Zgaga and Matt Brown finished off the doubles sweep taking down Adrian Szatmary and Joerg Barthel 8-6.

In singles play, No. 41 Kokta made quick work of Renato Melo with a 6-0, 6-2 victory for Baylor. No. 50 Zgaga followed close behind snapping a 5- match losing streak by defeating Clow 6-2, 6-2.

No. 115 Brown clenched the win for Baylor in a second-set tiebreaker defeating Hendrik Stahmar 6-1, 7-6(4). Vladimir Portnov scored the fifth point for the Bears defeating Barthel in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.

No. 9 Poerschke was the last man on the court for Baylor. After splitting sets to Posch 7-5, 4-6, Poershcke came back to win in the third set 6-4. Porschke finished the regular season undefeated in Big 12 play going 7-0. He also increases his season high winning streak to ten straight matches.

Nebraska's lone point of the day came on court four where former Baylor player Szatmary defeated Baylor's Ward in a 6-1, 6-4 decision.

Head coach Matt Knoll had a lot to say about the championship season.

"We just won, that's why we came...We go into the year with certain things we want to happen and this is one of them but we can't forget we're still a month away from the end of the season and we have to keep looking forward to that."

Baylor will now look forward to the start of the Big 12 tournament which will take place in Waco this year at the Baylor tennis center. The tournament will run April 27-30 with women's action beginning on Thursday and men's action kicking off on Friday.

No. 6 Baylor- 6, No. 63 Nebraska-1
Doubles
Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2
1.#28 Poerschke/Kokta (BU) def. Tata/Posch (NEB) 8-5
2.Brown/Zgaga (BU) def. Szatmary/Barthel (NEB) 8-6
3.Ward/Galic (BU) def. Clow/Navaro (NEB) 8-2
Singles
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 1
1.#9 Lars Poerschke (BU) def. Jerry Posch (NEB) 7-5, 4-6, 6-4
2.#50 Matija Zgaga (BU) def. James Clow (NEB) 6-2, 6-2
3.#41 Michal Kokta (BU) def. Renato Melo (NEB) 6-0, 6-2
4.Adrian Szatmary (NEB) def. Will Ward (BU) 6-1, 6-4
5.# 115 Matt Brown (BU) def. Hendrik Stahmar (NEB) 6-1, 7-6(4)
6. Vladimir Portnov (BU) def. Joerg Barthel (NEB) 7-5, 6-2