May 24, 2006

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Both of Baylor's men's tennis players bowed out of the NCAA Championships in the round of 64 on Wednesday at the Taube Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University.

Lars Poerschke, seeded fourth in the tournament, lost a three-set match to Pepperdine's Pedro Rico. Rico took the first set 6-4 but Poerschke bounced back to claim the second set in a tiebreaker, 7-6. The 31st-ranked Rico won the match by posting a 7-5 third set victory. Earlier in the season, Poerschke had downed then-No. 2 Rico in another three-set match, 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4.

Michal Kokta, ranked No. 29, faced fifth-seeded Ludovic Walter of Duke in round of 64 action. Due to a nagging arm injury, Kokta retired from the match trailing 4-1. "Michal's arm has been bothering him lately. He decided to retire and focus on doubles," said head coach Matt Knoll.

"Basically the guys didn't play well today. Lars was flat, he fought through the second set (which he won) but lost his serve two times in the final set," Knoll added.

Poerschke completes his sophomore season with a 36-12 record while Kokta ends with a 38-9 record which ranks No. 5 on BU's singles season victory list.

Poerschke and Kokta begin competition in the NCAA doubles bracket on Thursday. The tandem, ranked No. 23, will face the 11th-ranked duo of Ytai Abougzir and Chris Westerhof of Florida State. The Baylor pair is 16-1 on the season and has won four straight matches including upset wins over 16th-ranked KC Corkery and James Pade of Stanford and No. 9 John Isner and Antonio Ruiz of Georgia.

Baylor's results will be available at www.baylorbears.com. Live scoring is posted by Stanford at www.gostanford.com.