April 9, 2011
Match No. 1 Results | Match No. 2 Results
WACO, Texas - On a breezy Saturday afternoon at the Baylor Tennis Center, the 13th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team picked up 7-0 shutout wins over both Seminole State College and UT Arlington to extend their season-long win streak to eight matches.
"I thought today was great, especially for some guys that haven't had a chance to play much or that have struggled a bit," head coach Matt Knoll said. "I thought the star of the day was Robert Verzaal. He just had a great day in doubles and played very well in singles as well. I thought, frankly, that it was the best that I have seen him play."
Verzaal, a freshman, was one of only two Bears along with freshman Dennis Lengsfeld to have a 4-0 record on the day with wins in both sets of singles and doubles matches.
Baylor is now 16-3 and 11-2 at home with three more matches remaining in regular season play. Since losing to No. 6 UCLA on February 6, the Bears have won 14 of their last 15 matches with the only defeat in that stretch coming against No. 1 Virginia.
In both matches, Knoll altered his singles and doubles lineups, but the changes did not stop the Bears from recording their sixth and then seventh shutouts of the season.
With the two wins, Baylor improves to 40-1 on days when it plays multiple matches. The Bears have not lost a match on a day when they played more than one match since March 7, 1998.
Match No. 1 vs. Seminole State College
In doubles, Roberto Maytin and Verzaal opened with a shutout of Jason Bleakey-Milner and Robert Martin, 8-0, at the No. 2 spot. BU's No. 1 doubles tandem of John Peers and Lengsfeld followed that win with an 8-5 victory over Mbonisi Ndimande and Admire Mushonga to clinch the point.
In the third match, Oliver Andersen and Corey Huggins got past Julian Bley and Chris Gordon, 9-8(3) to hand Baylor its only doubles loss on the day.
In singles action, Verzaal polished off Borislav Gacina in 30 minutes at the No. 6 spot, before Jordan Rux raced past Mushonga at the No. 2 position 6-0, 6-2.
To clinch the match, the 88th-ranked Kike Grangeiro took care of Andersen 6-1, 6-1 at the No. 3 spot. The Baylor junior is now 14-3 in dual-match play.
To close out the match, the 81st-ranked Lengsfeld beat Huggins 6-3, 6-1, Sergio Ramirez in his first match of the season at No. 1 disposed of Ndimande 6-1, 7-5 and Bley bested Martin 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 5 spot.
The loss dropped Seminole State, the No. 1 ranked junior college team in the country, to 16-4, while Baylor now holds a 1-0 lead in the overall series between the two schols.
Match No. 2 vs. UT Arlington
The Bears captured their 17th straight doubles point win against UTA as they swept all three doubles matches for the 10th time this season. First, Maytin and Ramirez blew past Mindaugas Celedinas and David Subirats, 8-1, at No. 1 doubles. Then Grangeiro and Verzaal dispatched of Brieuc Hamon and Lucas Leepen, 8-2 at the No. 2 spot. Bley and Lengsfed secured the sweep with an 8-5 win over Nicolas Moreno and Yauheni Yakauleu at the bottom of the lineup.
The Bears carried the winning over into singles as Verzaal once again was the first Bear off the court, beating Jason Lateko 6-0, 6-3 at No. 6. Rux got his third win in his last four matches with a win at No. 2 singles over Yakauleu, 6-2, 6-1.
"I think it is great for Jordan to get a winning streak going," Knoll said. "I thought tonight he played the best match he has played all season. I thought he looked real clean and confident and hit the ball great."
The 18th-ranked Peers would clinch the match for the Bears as he took down Celedinas 6-0, 6-2 at the top of the lineup.
With the match in hand, both Bley and Lengsfeld got their second singles win of the day as the junior beat Moreno, 6-2, 6-2 and the freshman defeated Erik Hjertonsson, 6-0, 6-4. The 83rd-ranked Maytin closed out the night for BU with a 6-2, 7-6 (1) win against Subirats at the No. 3 position.
The Bears will be back in action on Friday when they host 26th-ranked Oklahoma at 6 p.m. It will be Baylor's fourth conference match of the season, but its first home Big 12 contest.
"We are going to take two days off, which we haven't done in a really long time," Knoll said. "I know the guys are excited to decompress a little bit and be normal college students for a couple of days. I think it will be good for us to get away from each other and take a deep breath. We will come back next week and get ready for another tough conference weekend."
MATCH NOTES: Baylor improves to 141-9 in matches at the Baylor Tennis Center since it opened, including an 11-2 mark there this season. In Matt Knoll's tenure the Bears are now 262-67 in non-conference competition with a 13-2 record this season. With its win over Seminole State College the Bears improved to 38-7 against first-time opponents since 1997. With the two wins today, BU is now 85-2 against unranked foes since 1997. Currently, the Bears are on a 71-match win streak against unranked foes with their last loss coming on March 6, 2000 at San Diego State.
