April 2, 2009

Final Stats

Waco, TX- The seventh-ranked Baylor men's tennis team continued its dominance over Big 12 opponents and specifically the University of Texas with a 6-1 victory against the 11th-ranked Longhorns, Thursday evening at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin.

"It is big because we haven't played well on the road at all," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "We really haven't responded to a challenge well. I was pleased today we came out and kept the right level of intensity and managed the environment well."

Since 2000 Baylor has owned the series against the Longhorns winning 13 out of the schools' 16 meetings. In the all-time series Texas holds a 40-14 edge over the Bears.

The Bears now own a 17-5 dual match record, and improved to 3-4 away from the Baylor Tennis Center this season. Baylor has also won 11 of its last 13 matches overall and is currently on a six-match win streak. The Bears also improved to 2-0 in Big 12 conference play with the win and last month's, 6-1 victory over No. 48 Oklahoma.

"We are getting better and better at this time of the year," Knoll said. "This is Baylor Bear time. We are just growing as a team and if we continue to improve we may have a chance to hang in there with these teams that are out in front of us right now."

The Bears are 78-13 in 12-plus seasons of Big 12 play and over the past seven-plus seasons, Baylor has posted a 47-2 league record.

The Bears opened up the match with a comeback win to secure the doubles point. After the No. 3 doubles team of Dominik Mueller and Julian Bley fell to Miguel Reyes Varela and Olivier Sajous, 8-4, the Bears top two doubles' teams responded with two straight victories. Mueller and Bley fell for just the second time in eight matches and to 6-3 overall. The 74th-ranked team of David Galic and Jordan Rux took down the 30th-ranked team of Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico, 8-4. The Baylor pair is 7-4, after winning seven of its last eight matches. With each school winning one match-up, the doubles' point came down to No. 2 doubles where Denes Lukacs and Maros Horny upset the 38th-ranked team of Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala, 9-7. Horny and Lukacs have partnered together for a 10-4 record this spring.

"I thought we did a great job of bouncing back," Knoll said. "I thought Maros and Denes just did a super job of fighting back, when they were behind."

The Bears used the momentum from the doubles' win to roll through the singles' matches. After David Galic lost to Kellen Damico at the No. 5 slot, 6-1, 6-0, the Bears reeled off five straight singles' wins to close out the Longhorns. First, ITA All-American and seventh-ranked Lukacs quickly dispatched of No. 14 Kutrovsky, 6-1, 6-4. The junior is 15-3 and riding a nine match win streak with all of his matches coming at the No. 1 singles slot. Horny then took down Zavala, 6-3, 6-4 to improve 16-4 on the season. Clinching the match for the Bears, 44th-ranked Rux beat No. 54 Corrie, 6-1, 7-6(4) and has won his last three matches to improve to 11-7. From there the Bears won the next two matches in three sets each as Mueller beat Varela 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and Attila Bucko beat Sajous 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4.

"I just though every court we were tough, that is what we need," Knoll said.

The Bears had many former players in attendance for the match including All-Americans Benjamin Becker, Benedikt Dorsch, Lars Poerschke, Reiner Neurohr, and Matija Zgaga.

"Something that was really special about the match was that we had 20 of my former players here at the match," Knoll said. "We had an unbelievable contingent of guys in the stands cheering for us. One of the things that makes it special to play on our team is you feel like you are part of something greater than yourself."

The Bears will now face the 49th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, Saturday in Lincoln at 1 p.m.

"The challenge with Nebraska is we are likely going to go up there and play indoors," Knoll said. "That is certainly not our best place to be and they got nothing to lose."

The Huskers are 16-3 this season, but have not played a Big 12 match yet.

Nebraska fell in its last match on Saturday, March 28, when the Cornhuskers lost to No. 23 Boise State, 5-2, in Boise. Before the loss Nebraska had won 13 straight matches. Nebraska has a 6-0 record at home.

"We got to go up there and be business like and take care of stuff," Knoll said. "It is a quick turnaround, so it is going to be a challenge and I am excited to see how well we do meeting it."

The Huskers have the 49th-ranked doubles team in the country with the pair of David Bendheim and Calin Paar.

The Bears hold a 17-3 record over the Cornhuskers all-time and have won 17 straight meetings against Nebraska. Matt Knoll teams have never lost to Nebraska going 15-0.