Baylor
Louisiana-Lafayette
Men's Tennis Sweeps Season Opener
1/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 22, 2010
WACO, Texas- The sixth ranked men's tennis team swept its way to a season opening 7-0 win over Louisiana-Lafayette at the Baylor Tennis Center on Friday. It was the 16th win in a row for the Bears in season openers and their first 7-0 sweep of a team since taking down 24th-ranked Oklahoma State by that score at home on April 19, 2009."I thought it was a great performance from our guys," head coach Matt Knoll said. "I was pleased with how it went. It is the first match of the year, so that is a place you don't usually see guys playing unbelievable, but I thought we managed the situation very, very well. I was pleased with the performance of everybody."
Baylor opened the match by winning all three doubles matches with the 11th-ranked duo of Jordan Rux and Maros Horny rolling to an 8-2 victory over Tomasz Krzyskowski and Javier Pulgar. The 38th-ranked pairing of Attila Bucko and Julian Bley followed shortly after with a 8-3 take down of Carlin Murray and Piotr Olechowski. To cap off the doubles Sergio Ramirez in his first dual match action for the Bears partnered with Dominik Mueller to beat Neil Schneider and Yanick Mandl, 8-4. The Baylor tandem was down 3-1, but responded with a 7-1 run to take the match, closing on a five-point streak. It was the first time the Bears have won all three doubles points since doing so against fourth-ranked Stanford on March 24, 2009.
"We are going to look and see what we are going to do with some combinations out there," Knoll said. "I don't know if any of those teams honestly will play together, but I thought that the energy level was right and the execution has a way to go. But I feel confident we are going to have three really good doubles teams."
In singles, Baylor carried the momentum over from doubles and won all six matches in straight sets. Horny got the Bears started at the No. 6 spot as he took down Schneider 6-0, 6-1. Mueller, a senior, grabbed the third point for the Bears at No. 4 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Yanick Mandl. The Bears claimed the match when senior Denes Lukacs at the No. 1 position earned a 6-3, 6-0 win over Kryskowski. From there newcomer Ramirez streaked by Olechowski 6-2, 6-2, the 11th-ranked Rux beat Pulgar 6-2, 6-4 and Bucko finished off the night with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Murray.
The Bears are now 1-0 on the year and improved to 115-6 all-time at the Baylor Tennis Center. Baylor is also now a perfect 14-0 on in home openers under Matt Knoll.
Louisiana-Lafayette falls to 0-1 on the year. All-time the Bears lead the series with the Ragin' Canjuns 7-5 and have won six straight.
Baylor will next host No. 11 Florida on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Gators, also won their opening match of the year over UCF, 7-0 on Friday in Gainesville.
During the break between doubles and singles in the Bears' match against Florida, Baylor will officially dedicate the Hurd Tennis Building, which is being named after former Baylor standout tennis player and current HP Chairman of the Board, CEO and President Mark Hurd, and his wife, Paula. During the last six months, the Hurd Tennis Building at the Baylor Tennis Center has been renovated to provide outstanding locker rooms and offices for Baylor's championship tennis programs.
Players Mentioned
