March 26, 2009
Waco TX- The 10th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team will look to capitalize on the momentum gained from a 4-3 upset victory over No. 4 Stanford on Tuesday as the Bears take on No. 50 Virginia Commonwealth Friday at 3 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. Baylor will follow that match with a 1 p.m. contest on Sunday against No. 18 Pepperdine.
"We are going to be ready for VCU and hopefully build on what we did against Stanford," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "We are just going to try to keep improving the rest of the way."
The Bears own a 14-5 dual match record and are 12-1 at the Baylor Tennis Center this season, after winning eight of their last 10 matches. Baylor will be closing out a season long nine match home stand that has seen the Bears go 6-1. Currently, Baylor is on a three-match win streak.
In their last match out Baylor defeated the No. 4 Cardinal, who was the highest opponent the Bears have defeated since knocking off No. 2 Virginia, 6-1 on March 17, 2007.
The win continued 11 years of dominance by Baylor over the storied Stanford program. Baylor has never lost to Stanford, holding a 9-0 record over the Cardinal in a series that dates back to 1998, while also winning all three HP Cup matches between the two schools. The win was also the 300th of Matt Knoll's career at Baylor. In 13+ seasons Knoll has amassed 300 wins to only 75 losses, a winning percentage of .800.
In doubles' play the Bears have a 32-22 record in dual match competition. In their last match the Bears went with the duo of David Galic and Jordan Rux at No. 1 doubles. The pair is 5-3, after winning their last five matches. At No. 2 doubles coach Matt Knoll played Maros Horny and Denes Lukacs against Stanford. The partnership has a 7-3 record this spring. In No. 3 doubles, Julian Bley and Dominik Mueller have won five out of six matches as partners, including a win Tuesday against Stanford.
In singles, ITA All-American and sixth-ranked Lukacs has led the Bears to a 73-37 mark in dual match competition. The junior is 12-3 and riding a six match win streak with all of his matches coming at the No. 1 singles slot. Galic, a senior, played at the No. 2 spot in the Stanford match, and has a 5-2 record this spring. At the third spot freshman Bley has posted a 9-6 record. Two juniors occupy the fourth and fifth slots in the Bears lineup as Mueller is 11-5 and Attila Bucko is 11-6. At the No. 6 position, Horny is 13-4 on the season.
The Stanford match marked the third straight match, in which Rux, a sophomore, did not play in singles for the Bears. Rux is 8-7 in matches this season with 14 of those contests coming at the No. 2 singles slot.
Virginia Commonwealth Match
The Rams come into Friday's match with an 11-6 spring record, but are only 6-6 in their last 12 matches.
The Bears have never lost to VCU, holding a 5-0 record over the Rams with match wins in each of the last five years.
In singles' the Rams are led by senior Martin Schulhauser, who has played 10 matches at the No. 1 slot, going only 5-5 in those contests. Thibaut Charron, a junior, and sophomore Bobo Delemark are 10-3 and 10-4 on the season respectively, while freshman Filip Svensson is a perfect 5-0.
"We know VCU has talented players, so we are going to be ready to go," Knoll said.
VCU's doubles team of Benjamin Bouhana and Emil Lindgren are ranked 40th in the latest ITA rankings.
In their last match out Virginia Commonwealth stopped a two-match skid with a 4-3 win over Mississippi State.
Pepperdine Match
The Bears will face the No. 18 Waves for the second time this season when Pepperdine comes to town on Sunday.
The Waves hold a 12-8 record, but have lost their last two matches. Before falling in those two matches Pepperdine was on five-match win streak.
In their last time out the Waves fell at home to No. 6 Ohio State, 6-1 on Monday afternoon. Pepperdine will travel to take on No. 33 Rice on Friday, before heading to Waco for Sunday's match.
The Bears are 7-4 all-time versus Pepperdine, after beating the Waves, 4-3, earlier this year at the ITA National Indoors Championship in Chicago. In that second round match Baylor came from behind, after losing the doubles point and falling in two of the first three singles matches, to win the final three matches on the court and walk away with the victory.
"Pepperdine we beat 4-3 last match on, it was a really tough match," Knoll said. "We certainly did not separate ourselves from them. We have had a lot of good matches with them, so we know that is going to be another huge challenge for us."
In singles the Waves are led by 27th-ranked Bassam Beidas, a junior, and senior No. 39 Omar Altmann. Beidas and Altmann also pair together to form the 14th-ranked doubles team in the country.
