May 14, 2011
WACO, Texas - Matt Knoll's fifth-ranked and fifth-seeded men's tennis team defeated the 22nd-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders, 4-1, in the second round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships in Waco on Saturday afternoon.
The victory was Baylor's 18th straight win over the Red Raiders and the Bears advanced to the NCAA Championships' final site for the 10th consecutive season. Stanford University will host the final 16 teams at the Taube Family Tennis Center, May 19-24. BU will begin round of 16 action play on Thursday, May 19 at 5 p.m. (CT) against 12th-seeded UCLA, a 4-3 winner over Mississippi.
"We're thrilled to be able to advance to Stanford. It's big deal, that's our sport's "Final Four," our final site. A trip to Stanford validates a good season. We'll be there with other good teams, we're going to Stanford to win. It's going to be challenge to deal with distractions, but it's a real thrill for our student-athletes to experience especially for John (Peers), Kike (Grangeiro) and Sergio (Ramirez) who haven't had many opportunities. For Jordan (Rux), this will be his fourth time (at the Round of 16). Hopefully we'll rise to the occasion," said Knoll.
Both singles and doubles were suspenseful events, going down to the wire in doubles but the Bears knuckled under to get the three singles wins necessary.
"Boy, Texas Tech is good. It was 4-3 at their place and it was really tough here. I thought Texas Tech fought incredibly hard. Today will help us, there are no easy matches in this tournament. This was as tough as it needs to get," said Knoll.
The doubles point was about as close as a match can get. Texas Tech's 50th-ranked tandem of Gonzalo Escobar and Vitor Manzini completed play first with an 8-4 win over No. 52 Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux on court two. Roberto Maytin and John Peers, ranked No. 5, evened the match with a 9-7 win on court one over No. 20 Raony Carvalho and Rafael Garcia. When the match on court one ended, Texas Tech's Jeff Bryan and Raphael Pfister were leading BU's Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro, 8-7 after winning three straight games. Bley held serve to even the match at 8-8. After Tech won the first point of the tiebreaker, BU reeled off four straight points to take a 4-1 lead. After trading points then Tech won two in a row to make it 5-4, with Grangeiro serving, Bley hit two short angled volleys to clinch the doubles point for Baylor.
In singles, Jordan Rux, playing at No. 3, soundly defeated Rafael Garcia, 6-1, 6-1, to give the Bears their second point. Tech's 26th-ranked Gonzalo Escobar countered with a 6-2, 6-0 win on court two over 68th-ranked Sergio Ramirez. Baylor earned its third point when, playing at No. 4, Maytin won in straight sets over Manzini, 6-3, 6-2. From that point on, it would be an hour before the match was decided. After dropping his first set to Tech's Gabriel Wanderley, 6-4, Grangeiro bounced back and won the next two sets, 6-4, 6-1, to clinch the match for the Bears.
"Jordan Rux is a truck. He's going out there and doing his thing, he's a lawnmower. You need guys like that. He's incredibly focused, incredibly self-contained and disciplined in his choices. That makes you good. That makes you hard to deal with."
With the victory, Baylor raised its season record to 21-4 while Texas Tech falls to 17-10.
