April 5, 2011
The two most successful programs in Big 12 Conference history will meet on Wednesday as the 11th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team travels to face No. 7 Texas at 6 p.m. at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Texas.
Baylor (13-3, 2-0) and Texas (15-5, 1-1) have combined to win 13 of the 14 regular season conference titles in the Big 12 era. Wednesday's match will also be the 10th consecutive time that the two teams have met when both are ranked inside the top-15.
Overall, Baylor has won 11 of its last 12 matches and five straight contests. Against ranked opponents this season the Bears are 8-3. In the series versus Texas, BU has won three of the last four matches and the Bears hold a 15-9 advantage in matches during the Big 12 era.
The match will be the final road contest of the season for Baylor. Currently, the Bears are 3-1 on the road with a loss at No. 9 Florida and wins at No. 71 SMU, No. 17 Texas Tech and No. 39 Nebraska.
All-time in Big 12 play, Baylor is 88-15 and the Bears are 45-7 in league play on the road.
Live scoring for the match will be available from TexasSports.com and a live blog will be at BaylorBears.com.
LAST TIME OUT: Baylor won its second straight Big 12 road match and recorded its first conference shutout since 2009 with a 7-0 victory at No. 39 Nebraska. The Bears got wins at all three doubles positions for the ninth time this season and then swept the singles matches to remain perfect against the Cornhuskers in the Big 12 era.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Bears will take a break from conference play and return home for a pair of matches on Sat., March 9. First, Baylor will welcome Seminole State at 1 p.m. and then close out the day with a contest against UT Arlington at 6 p.m. The Bears have never faced Seminole State, but hold a 9-5 overall series lead against the Mavericks.
RANKED BEARS: In the latest ITA €ˆteam rankings released on March 22, the Bears jumped five more places to No. 11, after defeating No. 8 Stanford and No. 17 Texas Tech. Baylor has been ranked as high as No. 7 to start the season and as low as No. 31 on March 15. Individually, Baylor has four singles players ranked in the ITA €ˆtop 125 as senior John Peers is ranked No. 18 with a 13-3 record in dual-match play. Freshman Dennis Lengsfeld broke into the rankings for the first time at No. 81, while sophomore Roberto Maytin, who has a 12-2 mark in dual-match play, is ranked 83rd and junior Kike Grangeiro (13-2) is now ranked No. 88. The Bears also have two doubles team listed in the rankings with Peers and Maytin partnering together to be ranked seventh, after posting a 12-2 record to start the season. Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux, who are 10-3 on the season are ranked No. 83.
BAYLOR AGAINST BIG 12 CONFERENCE COMPETITION: Since the founding of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, the Bears have produced an 88-15 mark in league play, including a 58-4 record over the last nine years. In the 14 years of league play, Baylor has won nine Big 12 regular season titles and seven Big 12 Championship titles. During that span, the Bears have finished with a perfect league record seven times. In the five times that they did not win the conference regular season crown, the Bears finished second three times, third once and eighth once.
BAYLOR IN BIG 12 ROAD €ˆMATCHES: In 14-plus years of Big 12 play, the Bears have gone 45-7 on the road. The Bears have been undefeated on the road during a season of conference play nine times and over the last 11-plus seasons the Bears are 36-2 away from Waco in Big 12 competition.
BAYLOR ON THE ROAD: Baylor has racked up an impressive overall road record in the last 14 years as the Bears have been victorious in 73 percent of road matches. Knoll has led the Bears to a 92-34 record on the road with their best season of travel in 2005 (9-0). This season BU is 3-1 on the road.
BAYLOR VS. RANKED OPPONENTS: During Knoll's time in Waco, Baylor has played 339 ranked opponents with the Bears going 255-84 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 8-3 in such matches.
SINGLES STREAKS & TRENDS: Senior John Peers won his third straight match over a ranked opponent by downing No. 61 Christopher Aumueller of Nebraska in his last match out. Now Peers is 13-3 in 15 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 12-2 mark with 10 wins in his last 11 matches. Kike Grangeiro has also played well for the Bears with an 13-2 record competing at the five and six spots.
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 12-2, at the No. 2 spot Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux are 10-3, while at the bottom of the lineup Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro have a 14-1 mark. Overall, Baylor has won 14 straight doubles points and has swept doubles nine times this year.
SCOUTING TEXAS: The seventh-ranked Longhorns enter Wednesday's match with a 15-5 record and a 7-2 mark at home this season. UT €ˆopened conference play with a loss at No. 30 Oklahoma, but rebounded to beat Oklahoma State for a 1-1 mark in Big 12 action. In their last match, the Longhorns took down Rice, 6-1, on April 2. Texas is coached by 11th year head coach Michael Center, who has a roster that features two seniors, two juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen.
RANKED €ˆLONGHORNS: Texas has three ranked players in its singles lineup. Senior Ed Corrie leads the trio of Longhorns at No. 28, while the 59th-ranked Kellen Damico and Jean Andersen at No. 90 round out the Longhorn contingent. The Longhorns also have three ranked doubles tandems as Corrie and Andersen partner together to form the third-ranked duo, while Damico teams with David Holiner to be ranked 30th and Ben Chen and Daniel Whitehead are ranked No. 57.
SERIES HISTORY: The Longhorns own a 41-15 mark over the Bears in the all-time series, but since the start of the Big 12 Conference Baylor has returned the favor by racking up a 15-9 record against Texas including wins in three of the last four contests. In the Big 12 era, Baylor is 6-4 at home, 6-3 on the road and 3-2 in neutral site contests against Texas.
LAST TIME AGAINST TEXAS: A ninth-ranked Baylor squad fell 4-3 to No. 5 Texas on April 10, 2010, as the Bears opened Big 12 play with back-to-back losses for the first-time ever. The Longhorns took the doubles point on the strength of wins at the No. 2 and 3 . UT then built a 3-0 lead as Ed Corrie and Kellen Damico beat Jordan Rux and Attila Bucko in straight sets at No. 2 and 3 singles, respectively. At that point, BU rallied to tie the match at three as Roberto Maytin, Domink Mueller and Denes Lukacs all reeled off three-set wins. However, Julian Bley was unable to recover from a 5-2 deficit in the third set at No. 6 singles and Vasko Mladenov captured the victory for Texas.
Pre-Match Quotes - Head Coach Matt Knoll
On the Big 12 Conference:
"Our league is the toughest league in the country this year and every match is tough. That is why our guys came to Baylor, because they wanted to play these great matches and they get another opportunity to play one against Texas. We couldn't be more excited."
On Texas::
"They have historically had a great tennis program there, so they are one of our big rivals. When we came into this league they were completely dominant, so they were one of the teams we were chasing. They have continued to run a good program. They are again ranked top-10, so we know we are going to have our hands full with them. They have very mature upperclassmen at the top of the lineup, who are really, really talented."
On his team:
"We are just going to have to worry about ourselves and go out and try to play as well as we can to give ourselves a chance to win. We are just trying to get four points. We will take them at the beginning or we'll take them at the end. We feel like we are going to put nine competitive spots out there and if everybody fights as hard as they can I think we are going to have a good chance."
