March 12, 2011
WACO, Texas - Despite taking an early 1-0 lead against No. 1 ranked Virginia with a doubles point win, the 28th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team lost its first match in more than a month as the Cavaliers recovered to post a 6-1 win over the Bears on Saturday afternoon at the Baylor Tennis Center.
"We certainly came to win, so it is disappointing," head coach Matt Knoll said. "Virginia played extremely well. It was a great opportunity for us to see where we need to get better. I think we will bounce back and try to make some improvements."
The loss drops Baylor to 8-3 on the season and snaps the Bears' six-match win streak. Baylor's last loss came on Feb. 6 against No. 6 UCLA. All three of BU's losses this season have come versus top 10 opponents. It was also the second loss of the year in eight matches for the Bears at the Baylor Tennis Center. The win keeps Virginia (16-0) perfect on the season and gives them a four-match win streak over the Bears.
Baylor's 10th-ranked duo of Roberto Maytin and John Peers opened the match in dominating fashion by handing the nation's second ranked pairing of Michael Shabaz and Drew Courtney an 8-2 loss. With the match tied at two games all Maytin and Peers would go on to claim the last six games of the match. The BU tandem is now 8-1 in dual-match play and 21-4 overall.
"I thought John and Roberto did exactly what they needed to do," Knoll said. "They made a lot of returns and were aggressive with their serves. We did a nice job once we got ahead to stay focused and build the momentum."
Virginia's No. 3 team of Steven Rooda and Alex Domijan would knot the doubles point at one match apiece as they got past Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro, 9-7. It was the first loss of the season for the previously unbeaten 9-0 BU tandem.
The loss for Baylor at No. 3 doubles put the spotlight on the No. 2 doubles match between Baylor's Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux and Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins and Sanam Singh. The contest did not see a break until the Bears got one to go up 6-4. However, Virginia broke back and then held to tie the match at 6-6. From there each team would hold twice to force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, BU jumped out to a 4-2 lead and cruised to a 7-3 win to clinch the doubles point and hand Virginia its first doubles point loss of the season.
"I thought our No. 2 team played a really good match," Knoll said. "I was proud of the way they played. They have played enough together now that you can really see them feeding off of each other."
For Baylor, the doubles point win was its ninth in a row and as a team the Bears improved to 28-5 in doubles matches. However, for the second time this season, BU would go on to lose a match in which it won the doubles point. Last season, Baylor was 20-0 in matches in which it won the doubles point.
In singles, Baylor only won one set all day as the Cavaliers quickly took control of the match. Jordan Rux was the first Bear to go down at the No. 4 spot as he was topped by the 31st-ranked Jenkins 6-2, 6-1. The 81st-ranked Maytin had his six-match win streak stopped next when Justin Shane beat him 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 5 position.
Ramirez would drop the next match off to the second-ranked Domijan 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot. Virginia would clinch the match as the 18th-ranked Singh dispatched of Dennis Lengsfeld 6-3, 6-3.
With the match decided Courtney (No. 30) downed the 91st-ranked Grangeiro at the bottom of the lineup, 6-2, 6-3, and the 10th-ranked Shabaz rebounded to get past No. 22 Peers 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the top of the lineup. The loss was Peers' first in dual-match play, after starting 10-0.
"Virginia's guys were tough and I think you have got to give them a lot of credit," Knoll said. "They are incredibly good and we expected them to be incredibly good and we found out we are not where we need to be."
Baylor will now have another chance to get its first win of the year against a top 10 ranked team as the Bears host No. 2 Tennessee on Tuesday at 2 p.m.
