April 1, 2009
Waco, TX- Almost a month after playing its first Big 12 conference match, the seventh-ranked Baylor men's tennis team will travel to Austin on Thursday to take on the 11th-ranked Texas Longhorns at 6 p.m. for its second conference contest. The match will be held at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center on the UT campus and will be the first road match for the Bears since a March 1 loss to No. 3 Ohio State, 7-0.
"UT has the most talented team in the Big 12," Baylor head coach Matt Knoll said. "They made the final last year and they started off this year No. 2 in the country. We are going to be underdogs in that match and that is never a good place to be, but we are excited about going down and hopefully we can make it a competitive match."
The Bears own a 16-5 dual match record, but are just 2-4 away from the Baylor Tennis Center this season. However, Baylor has won 10 of its last 12 matches overall and is currently on a five-match win streak.
In their last match out Baylor defeated the No. 18 Pepperdine Waves, 4-1, on Sunday, March 29 at the Baylor Tennis Center to close out a season long nine match homes stand in which the Bears went 8-1.
In their last Big 12 match, the Bears cruised by No. 48 Oklahoma, 6-1 on March 4 at the Baylor Tennis Center. After the trip to Austin, the Bears will continue conference play with a trip to Nebraska on April 4, before hosting Texas A&M on April 8. Then Baylor will travel to Lubbock to face Texas Tech on April 14, before hosting Oklahoma State to close out Big 12 play on April 19.
The Bears have won eight Big 12 Conference regular season titles, including seven straight. Under head coach Matt Knoll, the Bears are 77-13 (.856) in 12-plus seasons of Big 12 play and over the past seven-plus seasons, Baylor has posted a 46-2 league record.
In doubles' play the Bears have a 35-25 record in dual match competition this season. In their last match the Bears went with the duo of David Galic and Jordan Rux at No. 1 doubles. The pair is ranked 74th in the country and is 6-4, after winning six of its last seven matches. At No. 2 doubles freshman Maros Horny and junior Denes Lukacs have partnered together for an 8-4 record this spring. In No. 3 doubles, Julian Bley and Dominik Mueller have also won six out of seven matches as partners to post a 6-2 record.
In singles, ITA All-American and seventh-ranked Lukacs has led the Bears to a 83-37 mark in dual match competition. The junior is 14-3 and riding an eight match win streak with all of his matches coming at the No. 1 singles slot. At the No. 2 singles position 44th-ranked Rux has won his last two matches to improve to 10-7. Galic, a senior, played at the No. 3 spot in the Pepperdine match, and has a 6-2 record this spring. At the fourth slot Mueller has amassed a 13-5 record, while winning six straight matches. Another junior occupies the No. 5 position in the Bears lineup as Attila Bucko is 11-6. At No. 6, Horny is 15-4 on the season and has won five matches in a row.
In the all-time series Texas holds a 40-13 edge over the Bears, but since 2000 Baylor has dominated the series winning 12 out of the schools' 15 meetings. The Bears and Longhorns met twice last year with No. 7 Texas taking the first decision, a 4-3 win in Waco, before Baylor responded by beating Texas in the Big 12 Championship match, 4-2 in College Station.
The Longhorns enter Thursday's matchup with a 14-3 spring record, including a 2-0 mark in Big 12 competition. The two Big 12 victories have come in the Longhorns last two matches with 5-2 wins over both Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
The Longhorns have two ranked players: No. 14 Dimitar Kutrovsky and No. 54 Ed Corrie. Corrie and Kellen Damico partner to be the 30th-ranked doubles team in the country. While Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala make-up the No. 38 ranked duo.
After their meeting with the Longhorns the Bears will travel to face the 49th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers, Saturday in Lincoln at 1 p.m.
Live stats for the Texas match are provided by the Texas Athletic Department.
