Feb. 25, 2017 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas -- The 11th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team continued its dominant start to the 2017 regular season with a 4-0 sweep over Abilene Christian, and then a 4-1 victory UT-Arlington Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
MATCH ONE
The Bears reeled off two easy wins to clinch the doubles point against the Wildcats. First, Jimmy Bendeck and Tyler Stayer won their match, 6-1, at the No. 3 position. Meanwhile on court two, the No. 53 ranked doubles tandem of Will Little and Johannes Schretter clinched the opening point with a 6-3 win.
After the opening point went to the Bears, Juan Benitez and Constantin Frantzen's match went unfinished as the Bears moved on to singles play.
BU rolled the early momentum over to singles with Bendeck producing a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Nicholas Agritelley at the No. 3 spot. The fast start continued as Little dominated Hunter Holman, 6-2, 6-2, to stake the Bears to a 3-0 lead. To clinch the match, the 50th-ranked Schretter bested Jonathan Sheehy, 6-2, 6-2, on court two. Schretter won his first ever dual-match as a ranked player.
With the match in hand, the remaining three singles contests went unfinished as BU picked up its ninth win of the season and its sixth shutout.
MATCH TWO
In the second contest of the day, the Bears opened the doubles point over the Mavericks with a victory from Schretter and Little, 6-4, at the No. 2 spot, but Benitez and Frantzen's 6-4 loss to Jhonathan Gonzalez and Mauricio Del Rio at the No. 1 spot left the doubles point to be decided on court three. A 6-4 triumph for Jimmy Bendeck and Tyler Stayer at that spot clinched the match for BU.
In singles, the 13th-ranked Benitez carded the first BU win by powering past Guanarteme Nuez, 6-1, 6-0, on court one. The 50th-ranked Schretter followed with a 6-1, 6-0 decision over Mario Muniesa at the No. 2 spot to put the Bears on the brink of the victory.
However, UTA got its lone point of the day next with Tyler Stayer falling 6-2, 6-1 to Marcos Sanz on court six.
The rally was short-lived as Bendeck clinched the match for BU with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory against Gonzalez on court 3.
With the match decided, Little and Frantzen did not finish their singles matches.
OTHER NOTABLES
- Baylor improved to 10-2 on the season, while dropping Abilene Christian to 8-7 and UT Arlington to 8-3.
- Baylor leads Abilene Christian 12-3 in the all-time series, including a 7-0 mark under head coach Matt Knoll.
- Baylor is 14-5 all-time against the Mavericks, but the Bears have won the last 13 in the series.
- Baylor is 5-0 at home in 2017.
TOP QUOTE #1
"Tough win. I was really proud of how Tyler closed out some of the points for us down the stretch. In singles we had some trouble in a few spots. We were a long way from getting to four, waited to see where our next point was coming from, but I was proud of Jimmy for securing the match point." -- head coach Matt Knoll on the UT Arlington win
TOP QUOTE #2
"These preseason matches are really important. We're a young team, I think we only have one senior and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. Every time someone plays, they get better no matter what. If they win or lose, they're going to improve every time we have eyes on the court. Our team is improving a lot and that's exciting." -- sophomore Jimmy Bendeck on the team's improvement
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will now host the UCF. The match is set to take place on Monday at 3 p.m. at the Hurd Tennis Center.
For more information on the Baylor men's tennis team all season long, follow the team's official Twitter and Instagram account: @BaylorMTennis.
