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THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas - The fourth-ranked Baylor men's tennis team used a 4-2 victory over No. 49 Oregon to punch its ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.

Despite falling in an early 2-0 deficit, the Bears (2-0) rebounded to beat the Ducks (4-1) to advance out of the ITA Kickoff Weekend to the national event in Charlottesville, Va., Feb. 12-15.

Baylor went up early in doubles as the pairing of Jimmy Bendeck and Tommy Podvinski rolled to a 6-3 victory over Bart Sawicki and Cormac Clissold at the No. 3 position. However, the lead was short-lived as Felipe Rios and Max Tchoutakian dropped a 6-3 decision on court two. The BU pairing fell behind 4-0 and were never able to dig out of the hole against Daan Maasland and Simon Stevens.

That result left the doubles point to be decided at the top of lineup as Will Little and Julian Lenz were tied 4-4 with Jayson Amos and Armando Soemanro. The match would reach a 5-5 stalemate, before Oregon held and then broke Little to capture the doubles point.

The Ducks quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in singles play as Podvinski fell 6-1, 6-1 on court six against Ethan Young-Smith.

Baylor quickly knotted up the score 2-2 as Bendeck improved to 2-0 in singles action on the year with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Clissold at the No. 5 spot and Lenz produced a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over the 113th-ranked Maasland at the top of the lineup.

Little put the Bears in front for good with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory on court four. The redshirt freshman improved to 2-0 on the season and broke Amos to close out the match.

With the Bears looking for one more point, the 59th-ranked Tchoutakian had built a 6-2, 3-6, 4-1 lead at the No. 2 spot. However, the momentum in the match swung quickly as Tchoutakian's opponent Thomas Laurent won five of the next six games to take a 6-5 lead in the final set.

The BU junior fought back to hold and force the match into a third-set tiebreaker.

Meanwhile on court three, Rios was locked in a battle of his own as he had dropped the first set 6-2 and then rebounded to claim a 6-3 victory in the second against Stevens. In the third set, Rios got broken to force the match into a third-set tiebreaker that would go unfinished.

Tchoutakian clinched the match for the Bears, winning the final four points of the tiebreaker to close out a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3) victory.

NOTABLES
- Baylor won a match when losing the doubles point for the first time since March 15, 2014, snapping a string of four match losses after losing the doubles point.
- Baylor went 28-2 in doubles points last year and lost both matches in which it dropped the doubles point.
- Baylor has now competed in and hosted the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in six of the eight years of its existence, winning all 12 matches and advancing to the national event each year.

TOP QUOTE #1
"Any positive experience is a great experience. Certainly, Max will gain confidence that he was able to win 7-6 in the third set with the match on the line. That's special. Not a lot of guys have had a chance to be in that situation. He was able to get through it, so that's pretty cool." --head coach Matt Knoll on Max Tchoutakian's match-clinching moment

TOP QUOTE #2
"Oregon just hammered us for the first hour. They did a great job. They beat us in doubles, and they were killing us in singles. We did a great job in the middle, and we starting feeling like we were taking control of the match. At the end, they fought back and it was a coin flip. We're fortunate. Oregon was really good, really competitive." -- Knoll on today's match

TOP QUOTE #3
"Watching those guys compete makes you proud to be wear a Baylor uniform. I had so much fun watching those guys get out there and fight for every point. The pride, effort and energy that they showed was really special. I hope the people that are out there watching our program are as excited as I am to watch those guys for the next four years. Boy, they're going to be unbelievable for us. Real heroes." -- Knoll on freshman Jimmy Bendeck and redshirt freshman Will Little

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will host three matches next weekend as Prairie View A&M comes to town Friday at 6 p.m. The Bears will then host their first doubleheader of the season Saturday against Incarnate Word (2 p.m.) and Midwestern State (6 p.m.). All three matches will be played at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

Follow the official Twitter and Instagram accounts of the team: @BaylorMTennis for an inside look with results, photos and stories.

Avoiding its first loss in six ITA Kick-Off Weekend appearances, the fourth-ranked Baylor men's tennis team pulled out a third-set tiebreaker to get by No. 49 Oregon, 4-2, Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.

Battling back from a 2-0 deficit, the Bears (2-0) won straight-set matches at Nos. 1, 4 and 5 singles and then got the clincher when Max Tchoutakian rallied from back-to-back service breaks to beat the Ducks' Thomas Laurent, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3), for the clincher at No. 2 by winning the last four points in the tiebreaker.

"Certainly Max will gain confidence that he was able to win 7-6 in the third with the match on the line. That's special," said Baylor coach Matt Knoll. "Not a lot of guys have had a chance to be in that situation. He was able to get through it, so that's pretty cool."

With the win, Baylor advances to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship that will be held Feb. 12-15 at Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va. Including the host and top-ranked Virginia team, the 16-team field will include all of the top 10 and as many as 15 of the top 16.

Hosting the ITA Kick-Off Weekend for the sixth time in the last eight years, the Bears improved to 12-0 in the event and advanced to the national tournament for the sixth time.

That streak was in jeopardy when Oregon (4-1) took the doubles point and won three of the six first sets in singles. Ethan Young-Smith breezed through a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Baylor freshman Tommy Podvinski to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead.

The tide started to turn when senior Felipe Rios earned a split with Simon Stevens at No. 3, dropping the first set 6-2 and coming back to win the second, 6-3.

"One thing (that got Rios' match turned around) was he got his serve in," Knoll said. "He double-faulted three times to open the match and then made a first-ball backhand error. He lost four points before we even knew what day it was. . . . The guy was very good, a tough opponent, and just ran us out of the first set. Then we started to play a little better and started to figure out a tactic that we thought was a good tactic against the guy."

Freshman Jimmy Bendeck got the Bears' first point on the board with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 5 over Oregon's Cormack Clissold, then senior Julian Lenz knotted the match at 2-2 with a straight-set victory at the top of the lineup over 113th-ranked Daan Maasland, 6-4, 6-4.

Redshirt freshman Will Little gutted out a first-set tiebreaker at No. 4 and then gave Baylor a 3-2 lead with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win Jayson Amos.

"Watching (Bendeck and Little) compete makes you proud to wear a Baylor uniform," Knoll said of the two freshmen. "I had so much fun watching those guys get out there and fight for every point. The pride, effort and energy that they showed was really special."

With the Bears needing to win just one of the remaining two matches, Rios twice served for the match and was broken both times, sending his match to a tiebreaker as well. That one was knotted at 3-3 when Tchoutakian finished it off.

"At the end, (Stevens) just played out of his shoes," Knoll said of Rios' opponent. "We had double-match points, and it's ace, a 20-ball rally ending with a forehand winner and a 20-ball rally ending with a backhand winner. I thought I was in Australia (at the Australian Open). The guy was playing unbelievable. Felipe came to me after the match and said, `Did I do something wrong?' And I told him, `No, you were playing beautiful tennis.' The guy was good, you've got to give him credit."

As the crowd got behind him on match point, Tchoutakian hit a big serve to the ad court and then finished it off with a cross-court forehand winner.

"At the turnover (at 3-3), I was like, `Just make it tough. Make him hit 10,000 balls, if you need to, but just never miss,''' Tchoutakian said. "And then on the last point, was like, `Just give everything you can.' I served big, he made a ball, and I went cross court and luckily I made it."

Before heading to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, the Bears will play five straight matches at home, beginning with a matchup against Prairie View A&M at 6 p.m. Friday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.