Men's Tennis Travels To California
3/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 10, 2010
WACO, Texas- After sweeping a four-match home stand the 16th-ranked men's tennis team will take their five-match win streak on the road to face eighth-ranked UCLA on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. (PT) in Los Angeles and No. 24 Pepperdine on Saturday at 2 p.m. (PT). in Malibu, Calif.
Live results for Thursday's match can be found courtesy of UCLABruins.com.
Live results for Saturday's match can be found here courtesy of Pepperdinesports.com.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆOUT: The Bears dispatched junior college foe Laredo Community College, 7-0, on Tuesday at the Baylor Tennis Center. It was the Bears first match in 10 days, but they had no rust as Baylor swept the doubles contests and won all of the singles matches in straight sets.
BAYLOR IN THE GOLDEN STATE: In 22 matches in California during the Matt Knoll era, Baylor is 13-9. The Bears played no matches in the nation's most populated state in 2009, but Baylor was only 1-3 in 2008 with losses to USC, UCLA and Pepperdine and a win against Stanford. Baylor's best trip west came in the 2006 campaign when the Bears went 6-2 in matches played in California.
CURRENT €ˆSTREAKS €ˆAND €ˆTRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 25 of 28 matches dating back to last season, including five in a row. It is Baylor's second five-match win streak of the season after starting the year with five straight victories. Baylor is 10-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-2 when losing it. Senior Denes Lukacs has won 29 of his last 33 matches overall, which includes a 10-0 start to this dual match season. Senior Dominik Mueller has won 10 of 11 to start the dual match season.
BAYLOR IN THE RANKINGS: In rankings released by the ITA on March 9, Baylor dropped from No. 14 to No. 16 as a team. The Bears have been ranked as high as No. 5 in the country in the Feb. 12 edition of the rankings. Individually, Baylor is represented in the singles rankings by Denes Lukacs at No. 22 and Jordan Rux at No. 28. The Bears have three doubles tandems in the current rankings as Rux partners with Maros Horny to be the 17th-ranked pairing. Horny is also teamed with Lukacs to make up the 59th-ranked duo, while Julian Bley and Attila Bucko are currently ranked 45th.
SCOUTING UCLA: The Bruins enter Thursday's match sporting a 7-3 record after beating No. 33 Duke, 4-3, on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. UCLA €ˆhas lost twice this season to cross-town rival USC €ˆand once to nationally-ranked Tennessee. Overall, Billy Martin's squad has won four of its last five. Martin, in his 17th season as UCLA €ˆhead coach, has the 2005 NCAA title to his credit.
PLAYERS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: The Bruins have four singles players ranked in the March 2 ITA €ˆrankings led by Haythem Abid at No. 40. He is followed by No. 50 Matt Brooklyn, No. 92 Amit Inbar and No. 118 Nick Meister. UCLA also had two doubles teams ranked, as Abid and Meister checked in at No. 55, followed by Brooklyn and Kallim Stewart at No. 57.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears hold a 5-2 series lead over the Bruins in a rivalry that dates back to Baylor's championship season in 2004 when the Bears beat UCLA €ˆtwice, once in the regular season and then a 4-0 win in the NCAA €ˆChampionship title match. In summary, the Bears and Bruins have met seven times in the last six year with five of the seven matches resulting in a 4-3 score. Baylor is 2-1 in California, 1-1 in neutral site meetings and 2-0 at the Baylor Tennis Center against the Bruins.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆAGAINST UCLA: On Feb. 22, 2009, the 12th-ranked Bears and the sixth-ranked Bruins met in Waco with Baylor outlasting UCLA, 4-3. The win was Baylor head coach Matt Knoll's 300th career victory during his 14-year coaching career.
SCOUTING PEPPERDINE: The Pepperdine men are currently 5-5, but sport a 3-1 home record this season. Three of the losses came to top five teams, and all five have been to top 30 teams. Adam Steinberg is in his eighth year at the helm of the Pepperdine program and is just four years removed from winning the 2006 NCAA €ˆChampionship. The Waves will face Duke on Wednesday before playing Baylor on Saturday.
PLAYERS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: Senior Bassam Beidas, who is ranked No. 90 by the ITA, has a 19-6 overall record in 2009-10. Freshman Sebastian Fanselow is ranked No. 120 by the ITA and is 17-5 overall and 7-3 in dual match play.
SERIES RECORD: Baylor owns an 8-4 record against Pepperdine in a series that dates back to 1999 when Baylor took a 4-3 win in Malibu, Calif. The two teams did not meet in 2000, but have played at least one match every year since then. Baylor has won seven of the last nine meetings, in part due to last season's two match sweep of Pepperdine. The Bears are 2-3 in Malibu, 2-0 in neutral site meetings and 4-1 against the Waves in Waco. Seven of the 12 matches between the two schools have been decided by one point.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆAGAINST PEPPERDINE: The 10th-ranked Bears got past the No. 18 Waves, 4-1, on March 29, 2009, at the Baylor Tennis Center. After Baylor lost the doubles point, the Bears quickly responded with four straight singles wins to shut down the Waves. The win closed out a season-long nine-match home stand for the Bears with Baylor going 8-1. It was Baylor's last match before conference play began.
WINNING AGAINST THE BEST: The Matt Knoll era has seen Baylor play 321 ranked opponents with the Bears going 236-86 in those matches. Last season the Bears were 20-6 against teams in the ITA's rankings of the top 75 college teams. Baylor's best year against ranked foes came in 2005 when it went 29-1 against the nation's elite with the only loss coming to No. 6 UCLA in the NCAA Tournament finals.
BAYLOR AGAINST TOP 10 TEAMS: During Matt Knoll's 13+ years at Baylor, the Bears are 37-36 all-time against teams ranked in the top 10. This season Baylor has yet to face an opponent in the top 10, but last season Baylor was 3-5 against such opponents. The Bears best year against top 10 competition came in 2005 when they went 10-1 in such contests.
OWNING €ˆNON-CONFERENCE €ˆOPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought success in non-conference play with Baylor sporting a 240-65 mark in non-league play over the last 13+ years.
LOOKING AHEAD: After its California road trip, Baylor will return home to host TCU €ˆ on March 17, at 6 p.m. It marks the second meeting between the Bears and the Horned Frogs this season as Baylor took the first match, 7-0, on Feb. 1. From there the Bears will travel to Virginia to face the No. 1 ranked Virginia Cavaliers on March 21, at 1 p.m.
Quotes- Head Coach Matt Knoll
On the road trip...
"We are getting a lot of good tennis in the next several weeks and this is the first step in it. It is a huge challenge to play at UCLA. It is almost impossible to win there, and Pepperdine is also incredibly difficult. Those are two very, very good teams that we have played year in and year out, so we know their personnel pretty well. We know they are going to be pretty tough. I think it is a challenge we need now. We are going to go out and see how we do and hopefully we can compete well and have a chance to win."
On his team...
"I certainly think we are fresh. We haven't played that much in the last month. I think we are pretty hungry. We are eager to play, so hopefully those things will pay off for us."
On the UCLA match...
"We lost 4-3 last time we went out there. We know they have great guys at every single spot. I think our guys are really looking forward to the challenge to see how we do."
On dropping two spots in the ITA team rankings to No. 16...
"I think when you look at what's going on, we are just really under-played. They are counting a certain number of wins and we just don't have that many matches against ranked teams at this stage. I think it is maybe the best possible place to be, because we have kind of fallen out of the national conversation. I still think we are very, very good. I am excited, I am going to print it out and put it on my wall and see how high we can climb. If we keep doing what we have been doing we are going to be fine."
Players Mentioned
