Feb. 6, 2011 |  | | DOUBLES | SINGLES | F | | #1 | #2 | #3 | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | |
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| Singles | | | | Peers d. Kosakowski 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) |
| | | Inbar d. Rux 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 | |
| | Maytin d. Tabatruong 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 |
| | | Thompson d. Ramirez 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8) | |
| | Puget d. Grangeiro 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 | |
| | Seguso d. Bley 6-3, 6-3 | |
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| Doubles | | | Maytin/Peers d. Inbar/Puget 8-3
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| | | Ramirez/Rux d. Brigham/Seguso 8-5 |
| | Bley/Grangeiro d. Kosakowski/Thompson 8-6
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MATCH NOTES
Baylor falls to 39-42 against top 10 in Matt Knoll's career. Baylor is now 131-8 at the Baylor Tennis Center since the facility opened in 2001. Against ranked opponents in Knoll's time, the Bears are now 247-83 and in non-conference play they are 252-66.
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WACO, Texas - The ninth-ranked Baylor men's tennis dropped its second match of the season as the sixth-ranked UCLA Bruins (6-0) squeaked past the Bears, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at the Baylor Tennis Center.
"It is amazing every time we play them it is a 4-3 match it seems like and today was just another one of those deals where it got down to the very, very end and both teams had a chance to win," head coach Matt Knoll said. "We had some opportunities certainly out there and just need to do a better job executing, but give a lot of credit to the Bruins they did a great job of fighting and deserved to win."
Baylor (2-2) got out of the gates quickly as the Bears won all three doubles matches for the third time this season. The fourth-ranked duo of John Peers and Roberto Maytin raced past Amit Indbar and Adrien Puget, 8-3, at the No. 1 spot to improve 3-1 in dual match play and 16-4 overall.
BU's No. 2 duo of Jordan Rux and Sergio Ramirez claimed the doubles point for the Bears by rebounding from a 3-1 deficit to earn an 8-5 win against Holden Seguso and Alex Brigham. At No. 3, doubles the tandem of Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro remained a perfect 4-0 on the season by getting the better of Daniel Kosakowski and Clay Thompson, 8-6.
The win was Baylor's first doubles point victory against a top 10 team since March 21, 2009 versus No. 10 USC. That match is also the last time Baylor grabbed the doubles point and then failed to win the match like it did Sunday against UCLA to snap a streak of 35 match wins.
"I thought we were incredibly impressive today in doubles," Knoll said. "I think that is going to bode well for us down the stretch."
However, the Bears were unable to carry the momentum over to singles as UCLA came out and won five of the six first sets in the singles matches.
"You wonder if we were a little flat after winning the doubles," Knoll said. "We felt like we played pretty well out there and maybe just didn't do a good enough job of restarting. We will try to do a better job coming out of the gate, but I think some of the credit goes to UCLA. They came out and really took it to us at the beginning of singles."
Baylor would respond though as four of the five BU players that lost the first set rebounded to take the second set. The lone match that was decided in straight sets was at the No. 6 position as Seguso beat Bley, 6-3, 6-3 to tie the match at one point apiece.
UCLA would then pull ahead as 86th-ranked Inbar beat Rux at the No. 2 spot 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. The Baylor senior dropped the first set by losing three straight games, but then bounced back to control the second set, however in the deciding set he fell down 5-0 and was never able to get back into it. With the loss, Rux falls to 1-3 in dual matches.
Maytin would grab Baylor's first singles victory of the day to square the match at two points each with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 upset of No. 64 Maxime Tabatruong at the No. 3 spot. The win boosts Maytin's record to 3-1 in team play.
"Maytin just really won with heart," Knoll said. "He won with a style that is not really his style and just kind of found a way to win and that was really gratifying to see him dig down when he wasn't playing his best tennis."
The next two matches off finished within a matter of minutes each other as UCLA first pushed Baylor to the brink of defeat when Puget came back to beat Grangeiro at the fifth position, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. The Baylor junior was the lone Bear to win his first set, but then was unable to pull out the victory. Grangeiro held a 4-2 lead in the second set, but then lost 10 of the next 11 games to suffer his first loss of the dual match season.
The 22nd-ranked Peers would next grind out a three set victory at the No. 1 spot over the freshman Kosakowski, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4). The two players went back and forth, trading highlight shots, but in the third set tiebreaker the BU senior jumped out to a 5-1 advantage and never looked back to take the win. The win kept Peers unbeaten in dual match play with a 4-0 record.
"I thought that match at one was consistently even," Knoll said. "I thought the maturity that John showed to just hang in there and stay focused and be ready to win it when he had the opportunity was really impressive."
Peers' victory came as Ramirez was in the process of breaking Thompson at the No. 4 spot to tie that match at four games all in the third set. Thompson had taken the first set 6-4, before the BU senior claimed the second 6-3. After Ramirez tied the match at four, Thompson responded by breaking back to open up a 5-4 lead to serve for the match. Ramirez proceeded to break Thompson again to push it to five games apiece. The next two games resulted in another break for each player to force the match into a third set tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker, the players never got ahead by more than a single point before Thompson won the tiebreaker and the match for UCLA, 10-8.
The loss snaps Baylor's five match winning streak at home and moves its record to 2-2 for the first time since 2006. With Sunday's result the Bears and Bruins have played nine all-time matches with seven of those resulting in a 4-3 score. Baylor holds a 4-3 edge in such matches and has a 6-3 lead in the series overall.
"The reason we play the schedule we play is we want to be in these situation, but unfortunately it didn't go our way," Knoll said. "We are encouraged, but everyone is disappointed to lose that is for sure, but we played a very good team and I thought there were some positives out there and I think the guys are going to take this and get better."
Baylor will close out its three match home stand again TCU on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. Live scoring and a live blog for the match will be available on BaylorBears.com.
