Bears Blank Islanders 7-0

Men's Tennis 2/8/2009 12:00:00 AM

Feb. 8, 2009

Waco, Texas - On a windy Sunday afternoon, the Baylor men's tennis team took care of business with a 7-0 victory over the 62nd-ranked Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at the Baylor Tennis Center. The Bears will now travel to Chicago on Feb. 13 for the 2009 ITA National Team Indoor Competition.

"We have been practicing really hard the last couple weeks and I think it really showed," head coach Matt Knoll said. "The conditions were tough, but I think everyone focused and fought and I am really proud of our effort."

Baylor captured the doubles point to build an early lead over the Islanders. At the No. 1 spot in doubles play Denes Lukacs and Jordan Rux opened with an 8-4 victory over Dmitry Novikov and Mikhail Pavlov to improve their doubles record to 3-1. BU's Dominik Mueller and Maros Horny stayed perfect (3-0) by closing out the doubles point with an 8-6 triumph over David Pace and James Langford. Baylor's No. 2 doubles team of Attila Bucko and Julian Bley went on to improve their record to 3-2 and beat Jose Zunino and Laurent Montoisy, 8-5.

In singles play the Bears kept their momentum by winning all 12 sets of singles play. Bley, a freshman, improved to 4-1 in the spring with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Dmitry Novikov. 40th-ranked Bucko got back on track after a loss in his last match with a 6-1, 6-4 win over James Langford. Horny, a first-semester freshman, clinched the match for the Bears with a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory over David Pace. Mueller, a junior, ranked No. 71 dispatched of Jose Zunino 6-4, 6-4. From there the Bears top two singles players went on to close out their matches, with No. 21 Denes Lukacs topping Mikhail Pavlov 6-4, 6-1 and No. 13 Rux, a sophomore, improving to 4-1 with a 6-4, 6-1 take down of Laurent Montoisy.

"I was really pleased, there were a lot of guys that closed their matches better than they started them," Knoll said. "I thought that was a good sign, that we were relentless and played hard till the end."

With the win Matt Knoll now has 298 wins for his career. He now needs only two more victories to surpass the 300 victory mark in his 14 year coaching career. The Bears are now 4-1 on the season and will play next on Feb. 13 at 2009 ITA National Indoor Championships in Chicago.

#10 Baylor 7, #62 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0

Singles
1. #21 Denes Lukacs (BU) def. Mikhail Pavlov (TAMU-CC) 6-4, 6-1
2. #13 Jordan Rux (BU) def. Laurent Montoisy (TAMU-CC) 6-4, 6-1
3. Julian Bley (BU) def. Dmitry Novikov (TAMU-CC) 6-3, 6-1
4. #71 Dominik Mueller (BU) def. Jose Zunino (TAMU-CC) 6-4, 6-1
5. #40 Attila Bucko (BU) def. James Langford (TAMU-CC) 6-1, 6-4
6. Maros Horny (BU) def. David Pace (TAMU-CC) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3

Doubles
1. Denes Lukacs/Jordan Rux (BU) def. Dmitry Novikov/Mikhail Pavlov (TAMU-CC) 8-4
2. Attila Bucko/Julian Bley (BU) def. Jose Zunino/Laurent Montoisy (TAMU-CC) 8-5
3. Dominik Mueller/Maros Horny (BU) def. David Pace/James Langford (TAMU-CC) 8-6

Match Notes:
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 1-3; National ranking #62
Baylor 4-1; National ranking #10
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (3,5,6,4,1,2)

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