March 15, 2009

Final Stats

Waco, Texas -

After an 11-day layoff from competition, the 11th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team picked up right where it had left off before Spring Break by defeating the No. 25 Virginia Tech Hokies, 6-1, Sunday at the Baylor Tennis Center.

The Bears had to wait a little longer than expected to get back to action after weather cancelled their Friday showdown with No. 1 Virginia, but after dropping the doubles' point Baylor quickly responded with a sweep of the singles' matches.

"I think the story of the match was absolutely our response to a poor doubles' point," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "I felt like we came out in the singles with a different energy level."

The Bears are 11-4 on the season and are riding a three-match win streak, after the win today and a sweep of a home doubleheader on March 4 against Mary-Hardin Baylor and No. 48 Oklahoma. Virginia Tech falls to 9-3 on the season.

Baylor is 9-0 this season at the Baylor Tennis Center with today's win and victories over No. 67 Utah, 7-0, No. 58 Georgia Tech, 6-1, No. 62 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 7-0, No. 6 UCLA, 4-3, St. Edwards, 7-0, No. 9 Mississippi 4-3, No. 48 Oklahoma, 6-1, and Mary-Hardin Baylor, 7-0.

Baylor now has a home win streak of 13 matches, dating back to a loss on April 16, 2008 to No. 7 Texas, 4-3.

The Hokies were the Bears' 12th-ranked opponent of the season. Baylor is now 8-4 in such matches.

The Bears lost the doubles point, after the Hokie pair of Brandon Corace and Pedro Graber quickly dispatched of the No. 3 doubles' team of Denes Lukacs and Maros Horny, 8-2. It was the first loss for Lukacs/Horny at the third slot, after starting the season at 3-0. The Hokies sowed up the point with a win at the No. 2 spot as Marc Bruche and Attila Bucko also fell 8-2 to Patrick Daciek and Nicolas Delgado de Robles. The Baylor No. 2 duo now owns a 3-5 record. The No. 1 doubles team of Jordan Rux and David Galic won 8-2 over Sebastien Jacques and YoAnn Re, while improving their record to 3-3.

"Our doubles were poor," Knoll said. "We started the match at two and three, very tentatively, to Virginia Tech's credit they really jumped on us and ran us out of those matches."

The doubles point loss breaks a streak of two matches in which Baylor had won the point. With today's match win the Bears are 7-0 when they win the doubles point, but just 4-4 when they fall in doubles.

"I was really disappointed in our doubles," Knoll said. "I challenged our guys to come out and do better and I was pleased with the way they responded to the challenge."

In singles the Bears quickly turned things around as No. 8 Lukacs took down No. 59 YoAnn Re 6-1, 6-0. Re had not lost yet this season, starting with an 11-0 record before his loss to Lukacs. Next 90th-ranked Bucko defeated Jaques 6-4, 6-2 and Dominik Mueller dispatched of Luka Somen 6-2, 6-4. No. 30 Rux clinched the match for the Bears with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 over Delgado de Robles. With the match decided, Galic beat Graber in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Horny beat Corace in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

"Denes (Lukacs) beat a guy that was unbeaten in dual matches, that was gigantic," Knoll said. "To not only win at their best spot, but to beat him quickly and give us some momentum was gigantic."

It was the fourth time this season Baylor has swept the singles matches.

"I was really proud of the way everybody competed," Knoll said. "I think that really bodes well for us down the road. I am super-positive with the way we responded in singles. To win six singles matches against them is a nice accomplishment. They have very good team."

The Bears are now 1-1 versus Virginia Tech all-time.

Baylor will return to action next weekend with three matches in two days. USC will come to town Saturday for a 3 p.m. match. Then on Sunday the Bears will host a doubleheader, with matches against UT-Dallas at 3 p.m. and UT-Arlington at 6 p.m.