Men's Tennis Hosts First Doubleheader
2/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 19, 2010
WACO, Texas- The 13th-ranked men's tennis team (6-2) returns to the Baylor Tennis Center on Sunday to face Prairie View A&M at 11 a.m. and UT Arlington at 3 p.m. It will be the first time that the Bears have played a match at home since sweeping UT Pan American, 7-0, on February 9. This season Baylor is 5-0 at home and will look to run its home win streak to 13 matches as the Bears host their first doubleheader of the season.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆOUT: Last weekend, the Bears dropped their first two matches at the ITA €ˆNational Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va., falling to 11th-ranked Florida and No. 16 Louisville both by a 4-2 score. The Bears rebounded in their last match of the tournament taking down No. 19 Alabama 4-0.
CURRENT €ˆSTREAKS €ˆAND €ˆTRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 21 of 24 matches dating back to last season. This season Baylor is 6-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-2 when losing it. Senior Denes Lukacs has won 26 of his last 30 matches overall, which includes a 7-0 start to this dual match season. Senior Domink Mueller has won seven of eight to start the dual match season.
BAYLOR IN DOUBLEHEADERS: Sunday's matches will be the first time Baylor has played a doubleheader this season. Last season Baylor was 6-0 in three doubleheader matches. Under Matt Knoll Baylor is 32-1 when playing more than one match on the same day. The Bears have not lost a match on a day they play multiple matches since March 7, 1998. The Bears were supposed to play a doubleheader earlier in the year on February 3, but it was cancelled due to inclement weather. As of right now the Bears have a second doubleheader scheduled for March 27 when they host Abilene Christian and St. Edwards.
BAYLOR IN THE RANKINGS: In rankings released by the ITA on February 18, Baylor fell from No. 5 to No. 13 as a team. It is the lowest ranking Baylor has had since being ranked No. 14 in April of 2008. Individually, Baylor is represented in the singles rankings by Denes Lukacs at No. 20 and Jordan Rux at No. 26. The Bears have three doubles tandems in the current rankings as Rux partners with Maros Horny to be the 15th-ranked pairing. Horny is also teamed with Lukacs to make up the 51st-ranked duo, while Julian Bley and Attila Bucko are currently ranked 60th.
HOME €ˆSWEET €ˆHOME: The friendly confines of the Baylor Tennis Center have been very kind to the Bears. Over the eight years of its existence, Baylor is 118-6 in matches played in Waco. Under Knoll the Bears are 160-21when playing at home including matches played at the Streich Courts, the Baylor Tennis Center and various indoor courts in the area. Currently, the Bears hold an 11-match win streak at the Baylor Tennis Center and have won 23 out of 24 in Waco.
SHUTTING €ˆOUT €ˆTHE €ˆCOMPETITION: €ˆIn eight matches this spring, Baylor has blanked its opponent five times. Four of the wins have been 7-0 victories over Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 58 Iowa, No. 38 TCU and the UT-Pan American, while the Bears beat No. 19 Alabama, 4-0. All of last season the Bears only had eight 7-0 wins and blanked only 10 opponents.
OWNING €ˆNON-CONFERENCE €ˆOPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought much success in non-conference play with Baylor sporting a 236-65 mark in non-league play over the last 13+ years.
FAST €ˆSTART: The Bears got off to a 5-0 start to the season for the seventh time in Matt Knoll's 14 years at Baylor. Before Knoll arrived the Bears had only started a season at least 5-0 four times in 27 years. Baylor's best start to a season came in 2005 when the Bears reeled off 33 straight before losing in the national championship match to UCLA.
SCOUTING PRAIRIE €ˆVIEW €ˆA&M: The Panthers enter Sunday's match sporting a 1-4 record.
PLAYERS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: Prairie View A&M's roster features one senior, Jose Alejandro Garcia and, one junior, Caz Tankersley, two sophomores and seven freshmen.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears hold a 2-0 lead in the all-time series over the Panthers after defeating them in 2005 and 2008. In 2005, Baylor hosted Prairie A&M in the first round of the NCAA €ˆTournament and swept the Panthers, 4-0.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆAGAINST PRAIRIE €ˆVIEW €ˆA&M: The Panthers came to Waco on Jan. 26, 2008 as Baylor opened the season against Praire View A&M, winning 7-0. The win was part of a triple-header sweep for Baylor as they also beat Southeastern €ˆLouisiana and UT Arlington to open the 2008 season.
SCOUTING UT ARLINGTON: The Mavericks currently have a 0-2 record, but will play Wichita State on Friday before traveling to Waco on Sunday. In their previous matches this season UTA has fallen to TCU, 5-2 €ˆand to Southern Miss, 4-3.
PLAYERS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: The Mavericks are led by senior captain Dmitry Minkin and sophomore Mindaugas Celedinas. Both players are 1-1 in the spring dual match season.
SERIES RECORD: Baylor holds a 8-5 all-time series lead over the Mavericks and the Bears have won the last seven matches dating back to 1997. The Bears have played the Mavericks every year since 2006. Before Matt Knoll arrived at Baylor the Bears were 1-5 against UTA since he has arrived they are 7-0.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆAGAINST UT-ARLINGTON: The last time the Bears and Mavericks met was March 22, 2009, with BU taking a 7-0 win. Baylor had defeated UT-Dallas by a score of 6-1 earlier in the day, so Sunday's match will mark the fourth straight year that the Bears are playing the Mavericks on a day they host another school as well.
Live results for all this weekend's matches can be found on BaylorBears.com.
Quotes- Head Coach Matt Knoll
On playing a double header...
"I think we are lucky in that we have a lot of guys that can play and this is a good chance for us to get some match play for everybody. We can work on executing a little bit better than we did this past week. We are excited to play well."
On recovering from the recent losses...
"I have confidence in the group. I think that is a question that I am not going to be able to answer for a while. I think that they are high character guys, but so far they have not done anything. Hopefully in the next few weeks they can try to do something."
On settling on a lineup...
"There has definitely been progress. You always have to pay attention to what emerges. We are lucky to have a lot of good guys, a lot of competition. We feel like Julian and Maros both did a great job in Charlottesville when given the opportunity and they certainly deserve to play again."
On Sunday's match...
"It gives us more match play. Tennis is a competition sport. You have to play as much as possible and we are going to get a lot of matches in. Hopefully we will get sharper and more confident with our execution and hopefully that will carry over to our match with Ohio State."
Players Mentioned
