April 30, 2006
WACO, Texas - The No. 1 seeded Baylor men's tennis team fell to No. 2 seed Texas tonight in the final match of the Big 12 Championships at the Baylor Tennis Center. With the loss, Baylor falls to 21-6 on the season while Texas advances to 22-3.
Baylor couldn't hang onto the doubles point as Matija Zgaga and Matt Brown fell to Texas' Miguel Reyes Varela and Hubert Chodkiewicz in No. 2 doubles 8-3. Will Ward and David Galic lost at No. 3 doubles to Travis Helgeson and Luis Diaz Barriga 8-6 to give Texas a 1-0 lead heading into singles action.
After dropping five-of-six first sets to Texas, things were not looking good for the Bears. Texas went up 2-0 with a victory on the No. 6 court where Michael Venus defeated Baylor's Vladimir Portnov 6-1, 6-4.
The rest of the courts battled back with No. 61 Zgaga pushing his second set to a 6-6 tiebreaker against No. 33 Roger Gubser but he couldn't hold on dropping the match 6-4, 7-6(5).
With the Bears trailing the Longhorns 3-0, Baylor recorded their first win with No. 38 Michal Kokta defeating No. 46 Callum Beale in three-sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. The win wouldn't be enough to turn things around for the Bears.
In a hard-fought three-set match, Ward dropped the clincher to Texas' Milan Mihailovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 giving Texas the Victory and the Championship title.
"It's hard to lose. You hate to lose in a championship match but Texas played great and I have to give them all the credit in the world, " Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said.
The 2006 NCAA Division I men's tennis selection announcements will take place on Wednesday, May 3 on ESPNEWS. The men's announcement will begin at approximately 7:30 CDT, followed by the women's announcement at approximately 7:45 p.m. CDT. ESPNEWS is located on DirecTV channel 207/DishNetwork channel 142. In addition, the ESPNEWS audio signal is available on the ESPNEWS channel on XM Radio and SIRIUS Radio.
Baylor has set up a watch party for Wednesday that will be held at the Buffalo Wild Wings on Franklin Avenue in Waco. Space has been reserved from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Fans are encouraged to arrive early to get a seat and support the Bears.
No. 4T Texas (No. 2 seed) 4, No. 4T Baylor (No. 1 seed) 1
Doubles
1. #34 Poerschke/Kokta (BU) vs. #28 Beale/Reyes Varela (UT) DNF
2. Chodkiewicz/Gubser (UT) def. Zgaga/Brown (BU) 8-3
3. Barriga/Helgeson (UT) def. Ward/Galic (BU) 8-6
Singles
1. #6 Lars Poerschke (BU) vs. #11 Travis Helgeson (UT) DNF
2. #33 Roger Gubser (UT) def. #61 Matija Zgaga (BU) 6-4, 7-6(5)
3. 38 Michal Kokta (BU) def. #46 Callum Beale (UT) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
4. Milan Mihailovic (UT) def. Will Ward (BU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
5. #11 7 Matt Brown (BU) vs. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) DNF
6. Michael Venus (UT) def. Vladimir Portnov (BU) 6-1, 6-4
