March 24, 2016 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas -- The 30th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team looked poised to knock off No. 27 Tulsa, but ended up dropping a 4-3 decision to the Golden Hurricane Thursday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Baylor (11-8) fell behind early to Tulsa (9-8) in a tightly contested doubles point. Tommy Podvinski and Max Tchoutakian lost a 6-4 contest on court two to Dylan McCloskey and Dominic Bechard.
The Bears knotted up the doubles action at one match apiece as Julian Lenz and Jimmy Bendeck secured a 7-6(2) win over Matthew Kirby and Okkie Kellerman at the No. 1 spot.
That decision left the doubles point to be determined at the No. 3 spot where Felipe Rios and Tyler Stayer had fallen behind Majed Kilani and Carlos Bautista, 5-1. However, the BU duo clawed back into contention with Rios serving the match into a tiebreaker when all attention turned to that court. In the tiebreaker, the Bears won the opening point, but then lost five straight and dropped the contest 7-6(2) to give Tulsa the early lead.
In singles play, the Golden Hurricane jumped out to a 2-0 advantage with Stayer's 6-4, 6-1 setback to Francois Kellerman on court six.
Bendeck pulled out a 7-6(8), 6-0 victory over McCloskey at the No. 4 spot to get BU on the scoreboard. The freshman Bear came out on the winning end of a hard-fought first-set tiebreaker, before rolling in the second set.
From that point, all four remaining singles matches were forced into third sets.
Baylor drew even with Tulsa with 66th-ranked Tchoutakian picking up a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 triumph at the No. 2 spot over Juan Matias-Gonzalez.
Tulsa took back the lead, 3-2, with Tommy Podvinski's 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 loss on court five, leaving just matches at No. 1 and No. 3 singles.
The 20th-ranked Lenz was locked in a battle with 53rd-ranked Or Ram-Harel at the top of the lineup. The BU senior had won the first set 6-4, before Ram-Harel responded with a 6-1 second-set triumph. In the third and deciding set, Lenz jumped out to a 5-2 advantage, but then lost four straight games to fall behind, 6-5. He bounced back quickly by breaking the Golden Hurricane's only ranked singles player at love to force the match into a tiebreaker.
Once again in the tiebreaker, Lenz sprinted out to a 4-0 lead, before Ram-Harel tied it at 4-4. The two traded points til Ram-Harel took a 6-5 lead in the first of four-match points that Lenz would face. The BU senior survived all four, including a powerful inside-out forehand winner to draw the tiebreaker even at 9-9. Lenz went on to win the next two points to clinch the contest 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(9).
Moments later Rios was broken on court three to fall behind Bautista, 5-4, in the third set. The BU senior had captured the opening set, 6-4, but then lost a tight second-set, 7-6(5). Rios had held a 5-3 advantage in the second-set tiebreaker, but lost four straight points to tie the match at one set apiece. Rios looked to be on the cusp of winning the third set, after using two breaks to take a 3-1 lead in the deciding set, but he was then broken and lost five of the next six games to lose the match, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
NOTABLES
- After the loss, Baylor still leads the all-time series, 8-3, but had a four-match win streak in the series snapped.
- Baylor now has a 10-3 record at home and a 7-1 record at the Hurd Tennis Center.
- Julian Lenz's singles victory moves him into sole possession of No. 7 on Baylor's all-time singles wins (105). He passes Matias Marin.
- Lenz (12-3), Bendeck (12-5) and Tchoutakian (11-3) are the only three Bears with double-digit singles wins in dual-match play.
- Baylor is now 2-5 after losing the doubles point.
TOP QUOTE #1
"The goal was to come out and have positive energy throughout the match on every court regardless of how the scores were, and I think the team did a really good job of doing that. I'm really proud of the team. In singles, Julian and Max fought really hard. We fought like little dogs, and we tried everything we could to win. In my match, it was really tough in the first set. Then, I was able to open up a little bit. I think the crowd supported us well. It was a tough match." --freshman Jimmy Bendeck on tonight's match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor starts Big 12 Conference play by hosting No. 9 Texas Tech Saturday, April 2, at the Hurd Tennis Center at 6 p.m. The first 200 fans at the match will receive a Baylor Tennis scarf.
Follow the official Twitter and Instagram accounts of the team: @BaylorMTennis for an inside look with results, photos and stories.
