Feb. 27, 2009
Final Stats
WACO, Texas - The 10th-ranked Baylor's men's tennis team slipped past ninth-ranked Ole Miss, 4-3, at the Baylor Tennis Center on Friday evening. Junior Denes Lukacs, clinched the match for the Bears with a second-set tiebreak win over 39th-ranked Jonas Berg.
After dropping the doubles point, the Bears won four singles matches to produce the victory and raise their record to 8-3 while Ole Miss drops to 7-2 on the year.
"It was a huge win for us tonight against such a quality team, especially without the doubles point, it was a big step up for our program," said head coach Matt Knoll. "I thought we had huge performances from a lot of guys. Maros (Horny) winning quickly gave us a lot of momentum after losing doubles. Dominik (Mueller) has kind of struggled lately and he played great tennis. And of course Attila (Bucko) and Denes (Lukacs) winning under pressure was fantastic. I couldn't be more happy about how those guys played with such tremendous heart."
Doubles was a hard-fought contest but Ole Miss prevailed, taking wins on courts one and two. Ole Miss' tandem of Devin Britton and Tucker Vorster walked off the court first with an 8-5 win over Attila Bucko and Marc Bruche at No. 2 doubles. On court one, fourth-ranked Jonas Berg and Bram ten Berge and Baylor's David Galic and Jordan Rux, were locked in a 6-6 tie when the Ole Miss duo broke Rux's serve then ten Berge held his serve to allow the Rebel tandem to clinch the doubles point. Baylor's lone doubles victory came when Denes Lukacs and Maros Horny claimed a 9-8 (7-2) tiebreak win over Christoph and Marcel Thiemann. The Baylor tandem fell behind 0-2 before reeling off wins in the next five games but the Ole Miss team claimed the next five to take a 7-5 lead. BU won four of the next five games to claim the win.
Singles turned out to be a thrilling contest. Horny, a freshman, made quick work of Marcel Thiemann at No. 6, winning 6-2, 6-1, next junior Dominik Mueller breezed past 79th-ranked Bram ten Berge, 6-1, 6-3, on court four to put the Bears up 2-1. The Rebels countered with two wins at courts three and two when 32nd-ranked Kalle Norberg eased past No. 121 Julian Bley, 6-2, 6-1, and the 40th-ranked Britton posted a 7-5, 6-2 triumph over Rux, ranked No. 38. The two wins would five the Rebels a 3-2 lead.
At that point, Baylor needed to win the two remaining matches to claim the victory. Lukacs, on court one, and Bucko on court five, had each won first sets, 6-3 and 6-2, respectively. Bucko dropped the second set of his match, 6-3, making things interesting. Lukacs sprinted out to a 5-1 second-set advantage and looked poised to claim the match, however, Berg won five straight games to go up 6-5. Meanwhile, Bucko went on to win the third set and tie the match at 3-3, putting the pressure all on Lukacs' shoulder. Lukacs claimed the 12th game of the set to even the score at 6-6. He then raced out to a 3-1 advantage in the tiebreaker but Berg closed it to within a point at 5-4. Lukacs won the next two points, clinching the match for the Bears.
Baylor will now travel to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday, March 1 at noon. The Bears will try to snap Ohio State's 79-match home win streak. The third-ranked Buckeyes enter the match with a record of 12-1.
"They have a huge home win streak going, they just never lose there," said Knoll. They're going to have the OSU band there, cheerleaders and around 500 people will be there, it'll be indoors, it will be a great environment. And, we'll be the underdog for the third straight match."
for the match against Ohio State can be found on the Buckeyes Web site.
