March 7, 2006

FORT WORTH, Texas - The No. 7 Baylor men's tennis team knocked off No. 23 TCU in a 4-3 match in Fort Worth tonight. The win marked the sixth consecutive victory for the Bears increasing their record to 8-3 while TCU fell to 6-4 on the season.

Baylor started out slow winning only one doubles match-up against the Horned Frogs. The team of Lars Poerschke and Michal Kokta knocked off Cosmin Cotet and Andrei Mlendea of TCU 8-6 to start things off but Baylor couldn't hang on to the doubles point.

After dropping the ball in doubles, the Bears rallied back winning four-of-six singles matches to capture the victory from TCU. Will Ward started off the winning for Baylor defeating Jacopo Tezza 6-2, 6-0. Ward increased his winning streak to seven consecutive matches with the victory, his season and career-long win streak.

Kokta fought hard through a three set match with two sets being forced to tiebreakers but finally defeated TCU's Cotet 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3). Also picking up wins for the Bears were Vladimir Portnov who took down Jordan Freitas 6-4, 7-5 and Matt Brown who defeated Kriegler Brink 6-1, 6-4.

Fourth-ranked Poerschke and fifty-sixth ranked Matija Zgaga had trouble in the top two positions for the Bears. Poerschke dropped his match in the number one spot to TCU's Andrei Mlendea 6-4, 6-2 and Zgaga fell to No. 76 Rafael Abreu on the number two court.

Next up, the Bears will travel to California to take on USC on Friday, March 10, UCLA on Saturday, March 11, and Pepperdine on Monday, March 13.

Baylor 4, TCU 3
Singles
1. Andrei Mlendea (TCU) def. Poerschke (BU) 6-4, 6-2
2. Rafael Abreu (TCU) def. Zgaga (BU) 6-4, 6-4
3. Ward (BU) def. Jacopo Tezza (TCU) 6-2, 6-0
4. Kokta (BU) def. Cosmin Cotet (TCU) 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3)
5. Portnov (BU) def. Jordan Freitas (TCU) 6-4, 7-5
6. Brown (BU) def. Kriegler Brink (TCU) 6-1, 6-4

Doubles
1. Freitas/Abreu(TCU) def Reckeway/Zgaga (BU) 8-4
2. Poerschke/Kokta(BU) def. Cotet/Mlendea(TCU)8-6
3. Brink/Tezza (TCU) def. Brown/Ward(BU) 8-6