Fresh off its 4-3 upset of No. 1 Tennessee, the 31st-ranked Baylor men's tennis team will face No. 28 Louisville on Thursday at 5 p.m. in its third match in six days at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Baylor (9-3) recorded the upset victory over the top-ranked Volunteers on Tuesday to post its seventh victory in its last eight contests. Louisville (9-8) has lost eight of its last nine matches and is currently 0-2 on a three-match road trip that will end with the match in Waco.
Thursday's match will be Baylor's seventh in a nine-match homestand with the Bears owning a 5-1 record in the first six contests of that stretch in Waco. This season, the Bears have racked up an 8-2 record when they are the home team and hold a 7-2 mark at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Since 1997, Baylor is 251-84 against ranked teams and 6-0 in the match following a contest versus the No. 1 team. Against Louisville, the Bears are just 0-1 all-time with the lone match between the two schools coming in 2010.
Live scoring and a live blog for Thursday's match will be available on BaylorBears.com.
RANKED BEARS: In the latest ITA €ˆteam rankings released on March 15, the Bears fell from No. 28 to No. 31, after previously being ranked as high as No. 7 to start the season. The ranking is the lowest the Baylor program has been listed since being ranked No. 31 in April 2001. Individually, Baylor has three singles players ranked in the ITA €ˆtop 125 as senior John Peers is ranked No. 27 with a 10-2 record in dual-match play, sophomore Roberto Maytin, who has a 8-2 mark in dual-match play, is ranked 96th and junior Kike Grangeiro (9-2) is now ranked No. 99. The Bears also have a doubles team listed in the rankings with Peers and Maytin partnering together to be ranked seventh, after posting a 9-1 record to start the season.
CURRENT SINGLES STREAKS & TRENDS: Senior John Peers has lost his last two matches out to two top-15 ranked players, but before that he was unbeatable for the Bears at the top of the singles lineup as he started the season 10-0. Now Peers is 10-2 in 11 matches at No. 1 and one match at No. 2. The rest of Baylor's singles lineup has been influx throughout the year. As part of the changes Roberto Maytin has played at three different positions, but has recorded a 8-2 mark with seven wins in his last eight matches. Kike Grangeiro has also played well for the Bears with an 9-2 record competing at the five and six spots.
CURRENT DOUBLES STREAKS & TRENDS: BU has gotten consistent play throughout the dual-match season from all three of its doubles teams. At the top of the lineup, Roberto Maytin and John Peers are 9-1, at the No. 2 spot Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux are 7-2, while at the bottom of the lineup Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro have a 10-1 mark. Overall, Baylor has won 10 straight doubles points and has swept all three doubles matches seven times this year.
OWNING €ˆNON-CONFERENCE €ˆOPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought much success in non-conference play with Baylor enjoying a 259-67 mark in non-league play over the last 14+ years. Last season, the Bears held a 20-4 record in such matches and so far this season they are 9-3.
WINNING AGAINST THE BEST: During Knoll's time in Waco, Baylor has played 335 ranked opponents with the Bears going 251-84 in those matches. This season the Bears have played or are currently scheduled to play 15 ranked teams and seven of the other nine schools inside the ITA preseason top 10. Last season, the Bears were 16-7 against teams in the ITA's rankings of the top 75 college teams, so far this season they are 4-3 in such matches.
LAST TIME OUT: Baylor won its first match ever against a No. 1 ranked opponent as the Bears rode Julian Bley's third-set tiebreak-win to a 4-3 victory over top-ranked Tennessee on Tuesday at the Baylor Tennis Center. In the match Baylor won its 10th-straight doubles point and got singles wins from Roberto Maytin, Kike Grangeiro and Bley to pull off the upset.
LOOKING AHEAD: After taking on Louisville, the Bears will play their final contest in a nine-match homestand by hosting No. 12 Stanford on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Baylor owns a 10-0 record over the storied Cardinal program in a rivalry that dates back to 1999.
SCOUTING LOUISVILLE: The 28th-ranked Cardinals (9-8) come to Waco for the final contest of a three-match road trip. In the first two matches of the trip, the Cardinals have fallen to No. 7 USC, 5-2, on Saturday and No. 13 Pepperdine, 4-3, on Monday. Louisville started the year 8-0, but has since lost eight of its last nine matches. All eight of Louisville's losses have come against ranked teams and five were versus teams ranked inside the top-10. Head coach Rex Ecarma is in his 21st year at Louisville and has a roster that features four seniors, four juniors and six freshmen.
CARDINALS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: The Cardinals have two players listed in the ITA singles rankings led by Austen Childs at No. 16, who is followed by Alejandro Calligari at No. 122. Childs, a senior, has an 11-5 record on the season with all of the matches coming at the No. 1 spot. Childs was the runner-up at last season's NCAA Singles Championship. Calligari has played at positions three through five, while posting an 8-7 record. In doubles, Louisville has just one ranked duo as Childs teams with Viktor Maksimcuk to be ranked 24th. The duo is 11-3 in dual-match play this spring.
SERIES HISTORY: Baylor is 0-1 versus Louisville all-time with the only contest between the two schools coming last year at the ITA €ˆNational Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va.
LAST TIME AGAINST LOUISVILLE: In the lone match between the Bears and the Cardinals, 16th-ranked Louisville took the doubles point and then won the necessary three singles matches to post a 4-2 win over fifth-ranked BU on Feb. 13, 2010 in consolation action at the ITA €ˆNational Team Indoor Championship. The only Bears to post singles victories on the day were seniors Denes Lukacs and Dominik Mueller.
Quotes - Head Coach Matt Knoll:
On Louisville:
"We do have a big challenge in front of us in Louisville. They beat us last year. We know that they pretty much have the same team back, so we know we have a lot of work to do out there. They played Pepperdine on Monday and lost 4-3 at Pepperdine, which is really tough. It is incredibly difficult to win out there. They are a very good team and we are going to have to play well to have a chance to win."
On his doubles lineup:
"You have to be careful about getting over juiced about the doubles. It is just one point. We are not going to wave our flag around that we are doing anything special with winning some doubles points, because again it is the same thing as winning at No. 2 singles."
On his singles lineup:
"Against Tennessee we saw some great things. I thought we had some great efforts up and down the lineup. We got a couple guys that aren't there yet, but I think there are great things ahead for this team and we will get clicking on all cylinders here shortly and I think we will be pretty tough."
