Baylor

Men's Tennis Moves to Finals of Big 12 Championships

Men's Tennis 4/26/2008 12:00:00 AM

April 26, 2008

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The 11th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team advanced to the Big 12 Conference Championships by downing 20th-ranked Oklahoma State, 4-1, on Saturday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.

The win raised Baylor's season record to 21-8 while Oklahoma State dropped to 15-9, The Bears have now advanced to the tournament finals seven consecutive times, nine overall, and own a 5-3 record in the championship match. The finals will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday and the Bears will face top-seeded Texas.

Sophomore Dominik Mueller and freshman Jordan Rux were double winners for the Bears, posting victories in both singles and doubles.

In doubles the Bears took control early, breaking Oklahoma State's serve in the first game on courts two and three, and never looked back. Mueller and Rux dominated Anton Bobytskyi and Ivan Puchkarov, 8-1, at No. 3 and 42nd-ranked Lars Poerschke and Attila Bucko downed Dmytro Petrov and Igor Sobolta, 8-4.

The Bears' aggressive play continued in singles as the Bears won the first set on five of six courts. Rux was the first off the court, extending his team-best win streak to 13 matches, with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Sobolta on court six. Mueller earned Baylor its third point when he downed Nathan Byrnes on court four, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1. Sophomore Denes Lukacs clinched the match for Baylor with a 6-2, 7-5 triumph over Ivan Puchkarov at No. 2.

"Today, I thought we hit some shots that were excellent. The doubles at No. 2 and No. 3 were fantastic. We've played pretty well down there over the last few matches and that's satisfying. Oklahoma State has a great team. It's always going to be tough to do well against them and we know its going to be tough at the end. For a minute there, I thought we were really in control, but then they battled back and it was going to be tough down the stretch. We came out with good enthusiasm. I thought that we had two great teams playing and one team was going to make a run. They (our players) showed a lot of pride and they fought back and you have to give them all of the credit," said head coach Matt Knoll.

#11 Baylor 4, #20 Oklahoma State 1
Big 12 Conference Championship - College Station, Texas
Semifinals

Singles
Order of finish: 6, 3, 4, 2
1. #8 Lars Poerschke (BU) vs. #3 Oleksandr Nedovyesov (OSU) DNF
2. #11 Denes Lukacs (BU) def. #67 Ivan Puchkarov (OSU) 6-2, 7-5
3. Dmytro Petrov (OSU) def. David Galic (BU) 6-4, 6-3
4. #110 Dominik Mueller (BU) def. Nathan Byrnes (OSU) 6-1, 2-6, 6-1
5. Attila Bucko (BU) vs. Anton Bobytskyi (OSU) DNF
6. Jordan Rux (BU) def. Igor Sobolta (OSU) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles
Order of finish: 3, 2
1. Galic/Lukacs (BU) vs. #17 Nedovyesov/Byrnes (OSU) DNF
2. #42 Poerschke/Bucko (BU) def. Petrov/Sobolta (OSU) 8-4
3. Mueller/Rux (BU) def. Puchkarov/Bobytskyi (OSU) 8-2

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