Sept. 8, 2010 2010-11 Match Schedule

WACO, Texas - After making its eighth straight appearance in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals last season, the 2010-11 edition of the Baylor men's tennis team will have a much different look, but 15th-year head coach Matt Knoll has again assembled one of the most difficult schedules in college tennis.

"I believe this may be the toughest schedule in the country," Knoll said. "We are expecting a great challenge. That is what our guys are looking forward to and I think that helps us get better."

The challenge will get underway on Sept. 12 as the current Bears welcome back some past Baylor talent in the program's annual Alumni Match slated to begin at 10 a.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.

Baylor's seven-event fall season kicks off the next week as select players will take part in the Midland Invitational, Sept. 17-19, in Midland, Texas.

"In the fall season, we are just focusing on the process of getting better and using the matches as a way of developing our tennis and continuing to improve," Knoll said. "We will try to get as many matches as possible for everybody and get everybody sharp and start to settle out how we are going to line guys up."

After Midland, the Bears will return to Waco to host the 10th-annual Baylor HEB Intercollegiate, Sept. 24-26, at the Baylor Tennis Center. This year's squad will look to follow in the footsteps of senior Jordan Rux who won last year's singles title and Rux and Maros Horny, who captured the doubles crown in the 2009 tournament.

The following week select players will travel to Tulsa, Okla., to participate in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association/D'Novo Men's All-American Championships, Oct. 2-10, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Fall play will continue Oct. 15-18, when Baylor players compete at the USTA Futures tournament held in Mansfield, Texas.

Baylor will take part in its second ITA event of the fall season at the ITA Texas Regional in College Station, Texas, Oct. 22-26, as players work to earn a spot in USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, Nov. 3-7, in Flushing, New York.

Players, who do not participate in New York will travel to Austin, Texas, for the final competition of the fall season at the Texas Invitational, Nov. 5-7.

In preparation for the spring dual match season, the Bears will travel as a team to Argentina, Jan. 2-9, for a week of practice, exhibition play and team bonding.

"The Argentina trip is going to be really cool," Knoll said. "I think that it will hopefully kick off the spring in a really positive way. I think everybody is excited about going down there and having a different kind of experience. It will be great for tennis and great for the team."

After returning to the states, Baylor will take part in the Sherwood Cup for the second straight season. The Bears will face players from several of the top tennis programs in the country, Jan. 14-17, in Los Angeles, Calif.

During the dual-match season Baylor will face 17 opponents that it faced in 2010 and only one school that the program has never played before in Purdue. For the first time in seven years, the Bears will not compete in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Baylor will also play 16 of its 21 dual-matches in Waco.

"I think it is certainly easier to play at home," Knoll said. "It is comfortable and I think it will be better for us academically. More than anything we are getting the right kind of matches. We are getting great competition. I think we are going to have a really good team that is excited about taking that on. It should be another great year."

The spring schedule features 15 teams that were ranked in the ITA's final rankings of the 2010 season with 13 of those 15 ranked inside the top 50 and eight listed inside the top 15.

The spring season will open Thursday, Jan. 20, in Waco as Baylor hosts Louisiana-Lafayette at 3 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. The Bears' first road test will come three days later in Gainesville, Fla., as they face the Florida Gators for the eighth straight season.

Baylor will return home for three matches, closing out the month of January with a battle against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Jan. 29) and opening February with contests versus UCLA (Feb. 6) and TCU (Feb. 12), before traveling to Dallas to face SMU on Feb. 20.

An eight-match home stand will lead Baylor into the Big 12 conference season. The stretch starts with a Feb. 27 match against Mississippi State and continues with Big 10 opponent Purdue on March 2.

In the only doubleheader of the season, Baylor will face Lamar and Texas-Pan American on March 11 ahead of a 10-day stretch of four matches against teams in last season's top 13.

The Bears will host Virginia on March 13 to kick-off the string of difficult matches. NCAA runner-up Tennessee will next come to the Baylor Tennis Center on March 15. A match against Louisville (March 17) and the continuation of the annual rivalry against Stanford (March 22) will lead the Bears up to conference play.

"Sticking with our philosophy of playing the very best teams, it is hard to look much past Tennessee, Virginia, UCLA, Stanford and Florida," Knoll said. "Those are teams that have been strong lately and will be strong this year. We are going to learn a lot about ourselves during that time, but again that is what it is all about. We are looking forward to it."

Besides those five perennial tennis powers, TCU and Louisville make seven opponents among the Bears' 15 non-conference opponents that qualified for the 2010 NCAA Championships.

Baylor's 15th-year of Big 12 play will open with three matches on the road when the Bears travel to Texas Tech on March 27, followed by an April 2 date with Nebraska in Lincoln and a bout with defending Big 12 Champion Texas in Austin on April 6.

The Bears will take a break from conference action by hosting an April 9 match against Texas-Arlington to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule. Returning to Big 12 play, Baylor will close out the regular season by hosting Oklahoma on April 15, Oklahoma State on April 17 and the 51st Battle of the Brazos against Texas A&M on April 20.

For the first time since 2006 Baylor will host the Big 12 Championships, April 28-30, at the Baylor Tennis Center as the Bears go for their eighth Championship title.