March 21, 2009

Final Stats

Waco, TX- It took a momentous comeback from the 10th-ranked USC Trojans to beat the seventh-ranked Baylor men's tennis team, 4-3, Saturday afternoon at the Baylor Tennis Center. The loss was the first for the Bears at the Baylor Tennis Center this season.

"USC has a great team, as expected they were talented and good," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "I thought that their guys competed well at all positions. We got exactly what we expected from them."

Leading 10th-ranked USC 3-0, the Bears looked to be in control, but within the span of 10 minutes, the Trojans had knotted the contest at three points apiece. The match came down to the final match on the court at No. 3 singles. David Galic had dropped the first set of his contest, so it was going to take a comeback by the senior to secure the victory for the Bears. However, No. 75 Abdullah Magdas closed out Galic in two sets, winning the match for USC in a second set tiebreak, 7-3.

"When you look out there at the nine spots, I think six of them really showed up and were jacked up, competed well," Knoll said. "Then of course three of them didn't. You are not going to beat a team like this if you have three spots not show up."

The Bears are now 11-5 on the season and had a three-match win streak stopped.

"We have to recognize that that wasn't very good," Knoll said. "We have to respond. We have to have some guys make a move."

Baylor is 9-1 this season at the Baylor Tennis Center and had a home win streak of 13 matches broken. The last time the Bears lost at home was on April 16, 2008 to No. 7 Texas, 4-3.

The Trojans were the Bears' sixth top-10 ranked opponent of the season. Baylor is 2-4 in those six matches after falling today and to third-ranked Ohio State, 7-0 on March 1, downing No. 9 Mississippi, 4-3 on Feb. 27, defeating No. 6 UCLA, 4-3 on Feb. 22, tripping against eighth-ranked Tennessee, 4-0 on Feb. 13, and dropping a 7-0 decision to No. 10 Florida on Jan. 25.

Baylor got off to a good start by winning the doubles' point. The pair of David Galic and Jordan Rux raised their record to 4-3, after defeating Magdas and Daniel Nguyen, 8-5. Rux and Galic have now won their last four matches. At No. 2 doubles Baylor head coach Matt Knoll moved Denes Lukacs and Maros Horny up, where the group beat Steve Johnson and Jason McNaughton, 8-4. At the No. 3 slot, Dominik Mueller and Julian Bley fell for the first time this season as partners, losing to Jaak Poldma and Matt Kecki, 8-5. Mueller and Bley were 2-0, before this match. It was the first time Baylor has won the doubles' point and then lost the match this season. The Bears are 7-1 when they win the doubles point, but just 4-4 when they fall in doubles.

In doubles' play the Bears have a 24-21 record in dual match competition.

In singles, Mueller kept the momentum from Baylor's doubles win rolling, as he took down Jason McNaughton 6-1, 6-2. ITA All-American and sixth-ranked Lukacs followed that with a 6-4, 6-1 win over 101st-ranked Jaak Poldma. It was the 98th singles win of Lukacs career. That win put the Bears within one point of winning the match, but then USC won the next four points. At the four spot Matt Kecki took down Attila Bucko 6-1, 6-4. The Trojans then won at No. 2 with No. 92 Johnson beat No. 49 Rux 6-3, 6-3 and Daniel Nguyen swept Maros Horny in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to tie the match at three. That is when the contest came down to Galic and Magdas at the three slot, with Magdas winning 7-5, 7-6 (7-3).

"It was a funny match up and down in the singles," Knoll said. "There were no three setters. We really got blown out in three of the matches."

The USC Trojans are now 13-4 in the spring season.

The Bears are 4-4 all-time versus USC and have dropped the two contests to the Trojans.

"We know we can play with everybody," Knoll said. "We have proven to ourselves that we have a chance. If all nine guys show up and we fight hard, I like our chances, but that is our challenge at this stage."

On Sunday, Baylor will host its third doubleheader of the year. The Bears are 4-0 in double-header matches this year.

At 3 p.m. the Bears face the UT-Dallas Comets, who are 2-6 in the spring. Baylor is 2-1 versus the Comets all-time, but hasn't played them since 1979.

The Bears are 2-0 this season against non-Division I opponents.

In later action at 6 p.m. Baylor takes on the UT-Arlington Mavericks, who are 7-5 on the year. The Bears are 7-5 against the Mavericks all-time, but have won the last six contests dating back to 1997.

Next week Baylor will host No. 2 Stanford in the HP CUP match on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Then the Bears will face No. 54 Virginia Commonwealth on Friday, March 27 at 6 p.m. and No. 17 Pepperdine will come to town on Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m.