Dec. 31, 2008
WACO, Texas -
Complete Schedule in PDF Format 
After a strong showing in the 2008 fall season, the Baylor men's tennis team will look to build on its success, while facing a daunting spring schedule.
Head coach Matt Knoll, whose team has produced a final ranking no lower than eighth over the past six years, has again in his 13th season as Baylor's coach, assembled one of the toughest tennis schedules in the nation.
The Bears have 21 known dual match opponents, not counting the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, where their opponents are yet to be determined. In those 21 matches the team will face 18 teams ranked in last season's final ITA rankings. Within those 18 teams, there are seven top-10 squads (No. 2 Virginia, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 Mississippi, No. 7 USC, and No. 10 Florida) and 13 top-30 squads (No. 12 Pepperdine, No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Texas Tech, No. 21 Stanford, No. 23 Texas A&M, and No. 28 Virginia Tech).
Baylor's schedule includes the runner-up (Texas), three national semifinalists (Virginia, UCLA), and six quarterfinalists (USC, Ohio State, and Mississippi) from last year's team championships.
"This schedule will provide some tremendous opportunities for our team to grow and improve over the course of the season. There may be as many as eight of the top ten teams in the preseason National ranking on this list. I thank Hewlett-Packard for their support for the third annual HP Cup in March. Our team certainly has our work cut out for us this year and I know everyone is excited about the challenge," said head coach Matt Knoll.
Baylor will begin their 2009 spring campaign with selected individuals traveling to the Sherwood Invitational, Jan. 16-18, in southern California. The next week the Bears kick-off their dual matches with trips to SMU on Jan. 22 and Florida on Jan. 25.
The team will open its home schedule by hosting qualifying rounds of the National Indoor Qualifier, where it will play matches against Utah (Jan. 30) and if victorious, they face Georgia Tech or San Diego State on Jan. 31.
The month of February finds the Bears home for three matches against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Feb. 8), UCLA (Feb. 22), and Mississippi (Feb. 27) and a possible trip to Chicago to compete in the National Team Indoors, Feb. 13-16.
The men will take a trip to Ohio State to begin the month of March, visiting Columbus on March 1, before returning to Waco for the first Big 12 conference match against Oklahoma on March 4. The Oklahoma contest marks the first of eight straight matches for the Bears at home, the homestand also includes contests with Virginia (March 13), Virginia Tech (March 15), USC (March 21), UT-Arlington (March 22), Stanford (March 24), Virginia Commonwealth (March 27), and Pepperdine (March 29).
Big 12 conference matches dominate the schedule for the Bears in April as the team will go on the road for match-ups against Texas (April 2), Nebraska (April 4), and Texas Tech (April 14). At the Baylor Tennis Complex the Bears will face Texas A&M (April 8) and close out league play against Oklahoma State (April 19).
The Big 12 Championships will be held in Norman, Okla., on April 23-26, prior to NCAA first and second round action (May 8-9) and the NCAA Championships hosted by Texas A&M, May 14-25.
