March 23, 2009
Waco, TX-Coming off a 2-1 weekend, the seventh-ranked Baylor men's tennis team looks to continue its dominance in the annual HP Cup Tuesday when the Bears take on the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal at 6 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.
"We know it is going to be an unbelievable match," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "They have a great, great team that is super, super talented. They were good last year, but they signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and the two freshmen are playing and winning."
Baylor has never lost to Stanford, holding an 8-0 record over the Cardinal in a series that dates back to 1998. In the two previous meetings of the HP Cup, Baylor recorded a 5-2 victory over No. 40 Stanford in California last year and earned a 7-0 sweep of the 27th-ranked Cardinal in 2007.
"They (Stanford) might be the signature program in our sport," Knoll said. "The other thing that is really neat about this match is the HP relationship with Mark Hurd (Hewlett-Packard CEO) playing tennis at Baylor and the company being right there in Palo Alto where Stanford is. It has just been a cool relationship."
The Bears own a 13-5 dual match record and are 11-1 at the Baylor Tennis Center this season, after falling on Saturday to No. 10 USC, 4-3 and sweeping a doubleheader of UT-Dallas, 6-1, and UT-Arlington, 7-0, on Sunday.
The Cardinal will be the Bears' seventh top-10 ranked opponent of the season. Baylor is 2-4 in the six previous matches after falling to USC and 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.
"I think the two programs respect each other a lot," Knoll said. "We have had a bunch of great matches against each other and I think this will be another one."
The Bears will be playing the seventh contest of a nine match home stand that has seen Baylor go 5-1.
The second-ranked Cardinal team will be the highest-ranked opponent the Bears have faced since losing to No. 1 ranked Virginia 4-2 on May 18, 2008 in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals. The Tuesday match will be against the highest ranked opponent the Bears have hosted since losing to No. 2 Ohio State on Feb. 27, 2008, 4-2.
In doubles' play the Bears have a 29-22 record in dual match competition. Recently, the Bears have gone with the duo of David Galic and Jordan Rux at No. 1 doubles. The pair is 4-3, after winning their last four matches. At No. 2 doubles Baylor head coach Matt Knoll has lately been playing Attila Bucko and Marc Bruche, who are 5-5 this spring. At the No. 3 spot the Bears have junior Denes Lukacs and freshman Maros Horny, who are 6-3 when partnered together. The Bears are 9-1 when they win the doubles point, but just 4-4 when they fall in doubles.
In singles, ITA All-American and sixth-ranked Lukacs has led the Bears to a 70-34 mark in dual match competition. The junior is 11-3 with all of his matches coming at the No. 1 singles slot. In the No. 2 position, No. 49 Rux is 8-7 and at the third spot senior Galic has returned to Bears line-up after battling an injury early in the season and has posted a 5-1 record. Two juniors occupy the fourth and fifth slots in the Bears lineup as Dominik Mueller is 10-5 and Bucko is 11-5. At the No. 6 position, Horny is 12-4 on the season.
This season Stanford is 12-1 with its only loss coming to No. 3 Georgia. The Cardinal has beat four top-10 ranked teams, including No. 7 Florida, No. 2 Texas, No. 4 USC and No. 7 UCLA.
The Cardinal's last match was 20 days ago when they beat Santa Clara, 7-0.
Stanford has three ranked players: No. 13 Alex Clayton, a sophomore, No. 53 Bradley Klahn, a freshman, and junior Richard Wire is at No. 113. The duo of Blake Muller and Wire is also ranked in doubles, earning the No. 30 spot.
"They got a good blend of some older, experienced guys and then the two young guys that are really talented," Knoll said. "A super-experienced coach, Coach Whitinger, who was the assistant at Stanford when they won their national championships."
The match will televised at a later date on Fox College Sports with play-by-play by Derek Smith and color analysis from Baylor women's coach Joey Scrivano.
Live stats for the match will be available on Baylorbears.com .
Later this week Baylor will host No. 54 Virginia Commonwealth on Friday, March 27 at 3 p.m. and No. 17 Pepperdine will come to town on Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m.
