Men's Tennis Set To Battle No. 1 Virginia
3/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 19, 2010
WACO, Texas- The eighth-ranked men's team looks to knock off its first top five opponent of the season as the Bears travel to face No. 1 ranked Virginia (18-1) at 1 p.m. (ET) on Sunday at the Sheridan Snyder Tennis Center in Charlottesville, Va.
The Bears currently own a 13-2 record, after winning eight straight matches. It will be Baylor's second match against a top 10 ranked opponent this season after taking down eighth-ranked UCLA, 4-3 last week in Los Angeles.
This season the Bears are 2-0 on the road with the UCLA victory and a 5-2 win in Malibu, Calif. against No. 24 Pepperdine.
Live stats will be available on BaylorBears.com courtesy of VirginiaSports.com.
LAST TIME OUT: The Bears lost the doubles point for second time in three matches, but prevailed 6-1 over the 42nd-ranked TCU Horned Frogs at the Baylor Tennis Center on Wednesday. Five of the six Baylor singles players won their matches in straight sets.
CURRENT STREAKS AND TRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 28 of 31 matches dating back to last season. The current eight match win streak is Baylor's longest of the season after starting the year with a five-match win streak. Baylor is 11-0 when winning the doubles point and 2-2 when losing it. Senior Denes Lukacs has won 31 of his last 35 matches overall, which includes a 12-1 start to this dual match season. Senior Dominik Mueller has won 12 of 14 to start the dual match season. Meanwhile at the No. 2 spot Jordan Rux is 11-1 and has won five straight.
BAYLOR IN THE RANKINGS: In the latest rankings release by the ITA on March 16, Baylor as a team jumped to No. 8 from No. 16 in the country after knocking off eight-ranked UCLA and No. 24 Pepperdine the week before. Individually, the Bears continued to have two singles players ranked as Lukacs and Rux came in at 16th and 28th, respectively. In doubles, the tandem of Rux and Maros Horny are ranked 33rd, while Horny partners with Lukacs to make up the 72nd-ranked team.
SCOUTING VIRGINIA: The Cavaliers are 18-1 on the year and have won 62 straight matches at home. Virginia coming off a 7-0 win at No. 62 Maryland on Friday that pushed its overall win streak to 15 matches. During this season, Virginia has shutout 12 opponents and suffered its only loss on February 6 to 14th-ranked Kentucky in Lexington, 4-3. The Cavaliers captured their third-straight ITA National Team Indoor competition by beating 15th-ranked Alabama (4-0), seventh-ranked Georgia (4-0), third-ranked Ohio State (4-1) and fifth-ranked Tennessee (4-1). This season the Cavaliers are 4-0 against top 10-ranked competition. Brian Boland is in his ninth year as the head man at Virginia.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Virginia has eight singles players ranked in the ITA top 125. The Cavaliers are led by two juniors Sanam Singh and Michael Shabaz, who are ranked third and fourth. Freshman Jarmere Jenkins is listed at No. 33 on the singles list, while Drew Courtney is 53rd and Lee Singer is 68th. Houston Barrick at 87th, Philippe Oudshoorn at No. 102 and Steven Rooda at No. 113 close out the ranked Cavaliers. In doubles, the Cavaliers have seven ranked duos.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears are 3-3 all-time versus Virginia, but dropped two matches in 2008 to the then No. 1 ranked Cavaliers. Before 2008, Baylor beat Virginia in 2007, lost to the Cavaliers in 2006, and won the first two matches of the series in 2005. The Bears are 2-0 in Waco, 0-2 in Charlottesville and 1-1 in neutral site meetings against the Cavaliers. In each of the series six meetings, both teams have been ranked among the nation's top 10 teams.
LAST TIME AGAINST VIRGINIA: The Cavaliers ended the Bears' season in 2008 as Virginia won a 4-2 match on March 18 in Tulsa, Okla. in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals.
WINNING AGAINST THE BEST: The Matt Knoll era has seen Baylor play 326 ranked opponents with the Bears going 240-86 in those matches. This year, Baylor is 8-2 against ranked teams. 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 38-36 all-time against teams ranked in the top 10. This season Baylor has beaten its lone top 10 opponent in eighth-ranked UCLA, 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.
BAYLOR VERSUS NO. 1 RANKED OPPONENTS: It will be the first time the Bears will play a No. 1 ranked team since losing 4-2 to No. 1 Virginia on May 18, 2008 in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals. Since Matt Knoll took over at Baylor in 1997, the Bears have never beaten a No.1 ranked team, going 0-4 in such matches.
OWNING NON-CONFERENCE OPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought success in non-conference play with Baylor sporting a 243-65 mark in non-league play over the last 13+ years.
LOOKING AHEAD: After traveling to Virginia, Baylor will return to Waco and wait six days before playing its next match. The Bears will host a doubleheader on Saturday, March 27 by welcoming Abilene Christian and St. Edward's to the Baylor Tennis Center at 1 and 6 p.m. respectively.
BLEY SPARKS TURNAROUND: Since being inserted in the lineup for the first time this season against No. 19 Alabama on Feb. 14, sophomore Julian Bley has produced eight straight singles victories by winning seven times at the No. 6 position and once at the third spot in the lineup. Baylor is also 8-0 in the seven matches that the Veitshoechheim, Germany, native has played singles after going 0-2 in the previous two contests.
LUKACS AND MUELLER CONTINUE MARCH: Two of Baylor's seniors, Denes Lukacs and Dominik Mueller, are moving up the ladder in the Baylor record books with each win. Currently, Lukacs has 126 career singles wins, 82 career dual match singles wins and a .808 winning percentage (126-30). He is second on the career wins list, third on the dual match wins list and in fourth place on the percentage list. Mueller has 109 career singles wins, 85 career dual match singles wins and a .784 (109-30) winning percentage. He is fifth in career wins, second in dual match wins, and fifth in winning percentage.
Quotes- Head Coach Matt Knoll
On Virginia:
"They have tremendous talent. They have done an unbelievable job recruiting. Their talent level is exceptional and they have kind of had that the last couple of years. Coach Boland has done a super job of bringing really good players to Virginia."
On the challenge his team faces:
"We are going to play a really high end guy at every position and we are going to have to raise our level, if we are going to have a chance to make the match competitive."
On coaching his team as they face a No. 1 ranked opponent:
"We have played a lot of good teams and so it is not that unusual for us. We have a pretty mean schedule. We went to UCLA and beat them on the road out there. We have played at Virginia before, so we kind of know what to expect. It is just a matter of trying to execute and trying to compete as hard as we can. Hopefully, we can play hard for three hours and in the end we can have a chance to win."
On the importance of doubles on the road:
"I actually think doubles is less important. We don't want to freak out about the doubles point. That is one of seven points out there. I think you can make the mistake of overdoing it. We, obviously, want to try to be competitive there, but we are not all of a sudden going to change our whole philosophy and practice doubles three hours a day. We have guys that are pretty good tennis players and we are going to trying to go out and do the things that we need to do to be better."
Players Mentioned
