Feb. 6, 2016 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas - The fourth-ranked Baylor men's tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 20 Mississippi Saturday evening at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
To start doubles play, senior Julian Lenz and redshirt freshman Will Little downed Zvonimir Babic and Filip Kraljevic 6-2 at the top of the lineup. However, the Bears couldn't pull together another doubles victory on the remaining courts.
Senior Felipe Rios and freshman Jimmy Bendeck dropped a 6-4 loss to Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton at the No. 3 spot, and Ole Miss clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win over junior Max Tchoutakian and freshman Tommy Podvinski on court two. BU had early leads on both courts, but ended up dropping six consecutive games on court two and four straight games on court three to lose the doubles point.
Ole Miss went up 2-0 early after Bendeck fell 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 5 position. Baylor clinched its first point of the night after Lenz upset No. 36 Lindmark 7-5, 6-2 on court one.
Baylor fell behind 3-1 after Podvinski lost 6-2, 6-3 to Vinod Gowda at the No. 6 position. The Bears then tied up the match with two quick points on courts two and four.
Little fought off three set points and took a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory over Fallert at the No. 4 position. To tie the match, the 59th-ranked Tchoutakian captured a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against Kraljevic on court two.
Although he forced a final set by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the second set, Rios fell behind in the third frame, 5-3, and was unable to recover. He lost the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to Gustav Hansson to end the contest.
NOTABLES
- With the result, Baylor is now 5-2 on the season and the Rebels are 3-1.
- Baylor now trails the all-time series lead to Mississippi, 4-3.
- Baylor is now 1-2 when losing the doubles point this season.
- Baylor captured singles wins on courts one, two and four, respectively.
- Despite the loss, senior Julian Lenz and redshirt freshman Will Little are 6-0 in singles play through seven dual matches.
TOP QUOTE #1
"I was really pleased with how we did once we were down 3-1. We really rose up and fought. Will and Max just did a fantastic job. It was a great effort from Felipe to come back and win the second set. We gave ourselves a chance to win." -- head coach Matt Knoll on tonight's match
TOP QUOTE #2
"We have a lot to talk about. We controlled No. 1 doubles and were up a break on the other two and we just kind of let our foot off the accelerator. I think our guys started scoreboard watching and thinking we were just going to show up at the finish line. They outcompeted us in the doubles at the end. You have to credit them. We have to get a lot better. We are playing good teams and learning that we have a lot of growing to do. We are going to have to grow fast." -- Knoll on doubles play and improvements for next week
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor heads north to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va. on Feb. 12-15. The full bracket will be revealed next week.
Follow the official Twitter and Instagram accounts of the team: @BaylorMTennis for an inside look with results, photos and stories.
