April 23, 2003
WACO, Texas - Both of Baylor's tennis teams have moved up in the latest Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis Rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) today. The men are now No. 5 while the women check in at No. 36.
The men's team, after being tied with the University of Mississippi for sixth last week, moved up to No. 5 after defeating then-No. 10 Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last week. The Bears are now 22-1 on the season and recently claimed their second straight Big 12 championship with an undefeated mark of 7-0. It was their second straight undefeated league season. Illinois, who dealt Baylor their only loss of the season, sits atop the rankings at No. 1. Florida is No. 2, Stanford No. 3 and UCLA is No. 4.
In individual rankings, sophomore Benedikt Dorsch slipped from the top spot to No. 2. Dorsch claimed the No. 1 ranking for five straight weeks before falling to No. 2. He recently set a Baylor record for most singles victories in a season. His season record now stands at 40-3 and he is 20-2 in dual match competition. Matias Marin, a junior, dropped two spots to No. 41 and senior Zoltan Pap is No. 51. Sophomore Benjamin Becker made the biggest leap, going from No. 92 to No. 60. In doubles, Becker and Papp moved up two spots to No. 31 and after dropping out of the rankings for a month, Dorsch and Reiner Neurohr reappeared at No. 33.
On the women's side, Joey Scrivano's team crept up one place to No. 36. The team won their first-ever Big 12 Championship despite being the fifth-highest ranked Big 12 team. The women are 11-11 on the season and finished Big 12 action at 9-2, losing only to Texas and Oklahoma State. Senior Vida Mulec is the team's lone ranked player. After being ranked No. 89 in the April 9th rankings, she dropped to No. 100 this week.
Both team open up Big 12 Tournament play on Friday, April 25 at 9 a.m. as the tourney's No. 1 seeds. The men's team plays Nebraska and the women will take on the Colorado/Kansas winner. All matches are played at the Plaza Tennis Center in Kansas City, Mo.
