Men's Tennis Falls against No. 2 Ohio State

Men's Tennis 2/27/2008 12:00:00 AM

Feb. 27, 2008

Ninth-ranked Baylor suffered its first home loss in two seasons when second-ranked Ohio State downed the Bears, 4-2, in men's tennis action Wednesday at the Baylor Tennis Center.

Baylor, who fell to 9-3 on the season, took the lead early with Lars Poerschke and Denes Lukacs teaming to defeat Shuhei Uzawa and Matt Allare 8-3. Dominik Mueller and Attila Bucko clinched the doubles point for the Bears with an impressive 8-5 win over the No. 5 ranked doubles team of Justin Kronauge and Drew Eberly.

In singles, the Bears had taken the first set on three of the singles courts when their No. 1 player, Lars Poerschke injured his right ankle. Poerschke led, 6-1, 3-1, in his match against Kronauge when he sprained his ankle while going for a passing shot. Poerschke valiantly continued after having the ankle taped, but his movement was restricted and he eventually retired.

Poerschke's match would have likely been a sure point for Baylor but swung the momentum to Ohio State, who now moves to 12-1 on the season, and helped the Buckeyes snap the Bears' 19-match home winning streak.

In other singles action, Ohio State's No. 29 Steven Moneke defeated No. 57 David Galic 6-2, 6-1 and Baylor's Dominik Mueller rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Drew Eberly at No. 4 singles. Clinching the win for Ohio State was Balazs Novak with his defeat of Jordan Rux 6-0, 6-3 at No. 6.

"This was a great match and team performance from our doubles teams, to beat the No. 5 ranked doubles team was amazing," said head coach Matt Knoll, "Dominik Mueller played with a lot of heart in both singles and doubles. Lars getting hurt was the tough story of the match after he was up 6-1 going into the second set. We suffered an injury earlier with Matt Brown, and now Lars; if we could recover it would be good, but it is a great chance for other players to step up."

The Bears will now hit the road traveling to Virginia. They take on No. 1 University of Virginia at 1 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, March 1 and No. 21 Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday, March 2 at 10 a.m. (CT).

The Virginia-Baylor match will be broadcast on the internet at ACCSelect.com for a nominal fee ($4.99). It will be available for on-demand viewing shortly after the event.

http://acc.playonsports.tv/virginia/?eventId=3344

#2 Ohio State 4, #9 Baylor 2

Singles

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 4, 5, 6

1. #14 Justin Kronauge (OS) def. #17 Lars Poerschke (BU) 1-6, 5-3, retired

2. #12 Denes Lukacs (BU) vs. #15 Bryan Koniecko (OS) 6-2, 5-5, unfinished

3. #29 Steven Moneke (OS) def. #57 David Galic (BU) 6-2, 6-1

4. Dominik Mueller (BU) def. Drew Eberly (OS) 6-2, 6-2

5. #80 Matt Allare (OS) def. Gwen Corches (BU) 6-3, 6-4

6. Balazs Novak (OS) def. Jordan Rux (BU) 6-0, 6-3

Doubles

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2