Dec. 3, 2007
WACO, Texas -
2008 Schedule in PDF Format 
Baylor's men's tennis team finished up its fall season with positive results and is now taking a break prior to embarking on an impressive spring tennis schedule.
Head coach Matt Knoll, whose team has been the most successful men's tennis team over the past five seasons, ranking no lower than No. 4 in the final poll during that span, has again assembled one of the toughest tennis schedules in the nation.
The Bears have 22 known dual match opponents, not counting the ITA National Team Indoor Championships where they don't yet know their opponents, and 19 of those 22 were ranked no lower than No. 58 in last season's final ITA rankings. In fact, the Bears are playing four top-10 squads (No. 2 Virginia, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 USC) and eight top-20 squads (No. 11 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Texas, No. 16 Florida, No. 20 Pepperdine). To get the Bears ready for the challenges of the NCAA Tournament, three of Baylor's matches against last season's top-10 teams will be on the road (Virginia, UCLA and USC).
"We're very pleased with the schedule this year. We're to the point where we expect to play Florida and UCLA and Stanford; people who are nationally competitive each year. We are going to be playing teams that are in the hunt. When you look at the rankings from last year it doesn't really reflect the strength of our schedule. USC and Texas are both going to be a lot better along with Texas A&M. Virginia is the elite team out there and we are going to learn a lot about ourselves," said Knoll.
After opening the spring season in southern California playing in the Sherwood Classic, Jan. 18-20, Baylor returns home for six straight matches.
On Jan. 26, Baylor will play a triple-header when it hosts Prairie View A&M (9 a.m.), Southeast Louisiana (1 p.m.) and UT-Arlington (7 p.m.). Baylor has played several double-headers but this will be the program's first tripleheader. Through an informal survey, the Bears appear to be just the fifth team in NCAA Division I men's tennis to play a triple header, joining Clemson, Florida, Texas A&M and Tulsa. Texas A&M-CC, Washington (Feb. 1) and Florida (Feb. 3) all visit Waco to complete the six-match home stand.
A trip to the West Coast to play Stanford (Feb. 13) in the second annual HP Cup and to participate in the National Indoor Team Championships (Feb. 15-18) in Seattle, Wash., precedes two home matches against Ohio State (Feb. 23) and Kentucky ( Feb. 24).
The month of March sees the Bears on the road for five of their seven matches. Bouncing from coast-to-coast, Baylor will face Virginia (March 1) and Virginia Commonwealth (March 2) before taking on USC (March 9), UCLA (March 10) and Pepperdine (March 12). After a short break, the Bears host SMU (March 27) and Old Dominion (March 29).
The entire month of April is taken up with Big 12 matches. After visiting Texas A&M (April 2) the Bears return home to host Texas (April 9) then are at Oklahoma State (April 12) and Oklahoma (April 13) before closing out league play with two home matches, Nebraska (April 18) and Texas Tech (April 19).
The Big 12 Championships will be hosted by Texas A&M from April 25-27 prior to NCAA first and second round action (May 9-11) and the University of Tulsa-hosted NCAA Championships (May 15-26).
