March 9, 2017 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The ninth-ranked Baylor men's tennis team continued its winning ways Thursday by defeating UC Santa Barbara, 4-3, at the RecCen Tennis Courts.
For the third-straight match, the Bears lost the doubles point, but went on to recover in singles for the victory.
Facing the country's sixth-ranked doubles duo of Simon Freund and Morgan Mays, Baylor's Will Little and Constantin Frantzen dropped a 6-3 decision on court one to open doubles play.
Jimmy Bendeck and Johannes Schretter got the Bears right back in the opening point with a 7-5 triumph over Nicolas Moreno and Anders Holm at the No. 2 spot.
With the focus of the match moved to court three, Juan Benitez and Max Tchoutakian couldn't close out Cody Rakela and Kristian Prior, falling 7-6(7) to put the Bears in a 1-0 hole.
In singles action, the Bears rolled to three straight-set victories to open up a 3-1 lead in the contest. First, the 15th-ranked Benitez powered past Mays at the top of the lineup, 6-3, 6-2. That decision was followed by the 81st-ranked Schretter's 6-2, 6-4 victory over Freund at the No. 3 spot. Little put the Bears on the cusp of victory by beating Rakela, 6-3, 6-3 on court five.
However, Baylor had lost the first set on the three remaining singles courts. UCSB was able to only convert one of those early advantages into a straight-set win as Frantzen came up short, 6-4, 7-5, against Chase Masciorini at the No. 6 spot.
Hanging on to a 3-2 lead, Baylor used a three-set victory by No. 35 Tchoutakian to clinch the win. He bested Moreno, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 on court two.
With the match decided, Jimmy Bendeck lost in three sets, 7-5, 6-7(8), 10-8 to Holm at the No. 4 position.
TOP QUOTE #1
"I think that we are improving every day in doubles, but we still have a long way to go. The guys are coming into their own as to what type of doubles player they are and meshing with a new partner in some instances. We got off to a really slow start today in doubles, but we came back strong and had match points to win doubles. We just didn't go after them aggressively enough. I think that will change moving forward, but it was a good learning experience." - assistant coach Michael Woodson on the doubles point
TOP QUOTE #2
"For us to come back in singles and play the way we did was impressive. The court layout was kind of funky and so our guys were really spread out. The conditions were not ideal, but that is why we play matches like this. I think their crowd made it really tough on us and they can really play. We got a lot of respect for them and for us to battle and really steamroll at three spots was impressive. I don't think we have been playing our best tennis, but we have never had a team that is this close and that has been getting us over the edge in these matches." - Woodson on singles action
OTHER NOTABLES
- Baylor is now 13-2 on the season, while UCSB is 6-4 - Baylor won for the third-straight match when losing the doubles point. - Baylor improves to 2-0 in true road matches in 2017. - Baylor is now 1-3 in the all-time series against UC Santa Barbara.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will now head to face No. 13 UCLA Saturday at 5:30 p.m. CT.
For more information on the Baylor men's tennis team all season long, follow the team's official Twitter and Instagram account: @BaylorMTennis.
