Jan. 24, 2008

WACO, Texas - Baylor's men's tennis team will begin its dual match season with six straight home matches beginning Saturday, Jan. 26, with their first ever triple-header. The Bears, ranked No. 4 in the initial Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) team rankings, will host Prairie View A&M (9 a.m.), Southeast Louisiana (1 p.m.), and UT-Arlington (7 p.m.) at the Baylor Tennis Center.

Baylor joins Clemson, Florida, Texas A&M, Tulsa and Old Dominion as the only teams in NCAA Division I men's tennis to play a triple-header. "The team is excited to play our first ever triple header," said head coach Matt Knoll. "We know we'll face some challenges over the course of the day and look forward to the day."

Prairie View A&M, Southeast Louisiana and UT-Arlington open their spring seasons with the upcoming matches against Baylor. Prairie View A&M begins its spring season after a loss in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) finals to Alcorn State last fall. Southeast Louisiana finished its fall season with two of its players, Vladimir Paunic and Ondrej Krivka, being named to the 2007 Southland Conference all-academic men's tennis team. UT-Arlington's young team concluded their fall season with Dmitry Minkin advancing to the quarterfinals in the consolation bracket of the Texas Invitational.

The Bears go into Saturday's matches after a successful showing at the Sherwood Collegiate Cup in southern California last weekend, with Lars Poerschke taking the singles title and Attila Bucko and Denes Lukacs winning the doubles championship.

Baylor's Denes Lukacs is the Bears' top-ranked player at No. 10 and David Galic is ranked No. 79 among the top 100 ITA ranked players.