Men's Tennis Preps For Laredo Community College
3/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 7, 2010
WACO, Texas- The 14th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team (9-2) will play the final match of a four-match homestand on Tuesday when it hosts Laredo Community College (4-4) at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.
This season the Bears are 8-0 at home and will look to run their home win streak to 15 matches dating back to last season. Currently, Baylor is on a four-match win streak. Tuesday's contest will be the first match for Baylor in 10 days.
Live results of the match will be available on BaylorBears.com
SCOUTING LCC: The Palominos come into Tuesday's match with a 4-4 record after winning their last three matches. On Saturday, March 6 Laredo beat both Seminole State College and Temple Junior College in Temple. Laredo Community College started the year off with a win over the University of the Incarnate Word on Oct. 23, but then the Palominos dropped four straight matches. Laredo CC has been swept this season by Texas and Texas A&M. Laredo has also beaten Trinity University this season . LCC is currently slotted as the No. 2 team in the NJCAA National Team rankings released on Nov. 6, 2009. The Palominos have won the NJCAA men's tennis championship title for the past five years.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears and the Palominos have only met once prior to Tuesday's contest. On March 29, 2008, Baylor took a 5-2 win over LCC in Waco.
CURRENT TREAKS AND TRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 24 of 27 matches dating back to last season. Baylor is 9-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-2 when losing it this season. Senior Denes Lukacs has won 28 of his last 32 matches overall, which includes an 9-0 start to this dual match season. Senior Dominik Mueller has won nine of 10 to start the dual match season, while junior Jordan Rux has won eight of nine.
WINNING AGAINST THE BEST: The Matt Knoll era has seen Baylor play 322 ranked opponents with the Bears going 237-86 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 they went 29-1 against the nation's elite with the only loss coming to No. 6 UCLA in the NCAA Tournament finals.
LAST TIME OUT: Baylor blew past No. 73 SMU, 6-1, on Friday, Feb. 26 on a day with winds gusting over 30 miles per hour and the temperature hovering in the middle 40s. Baylor took two of three doubles contests and won five of six singles matches.
LOOKING AHEAD: This week after Tuesday's Baylor will travel to California to face No. 6 UCLA at 1:30 p.m. (PT) on Thursday and then battle 27th-ranked Pepperdine on Saturday. The Bears will then return to Waco for a three-day break before hosting TCU on March 17.
BAYLOR IN THE RANKINGS: In rankings released by the ITA on March 2, Baylor dropped from No. 12 to No. 14 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.
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 four straight singles victories by winning three times at the No. 6 position and once at the third spot in the lineup. Baylor is also 4-0 in the three 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 123 career singles wins, 79 career dual match singles wins and a .809 winning percentage (123-29). 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 106 career singles wins, 82 career dual match singles wins and a .785 (106-29) winning percentage. He is fifth in career wins, second in dual match wins, and fifth in winning percentage.
HOME SWEET HOME: The friendly confines of the Baylor Tennis Center have been very kind to the Bears. Over the eight years of its existence, Baylor is 121-6 in matches played in Waco. Under Knoll the Bears are 163-21 when 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 a 14-match win streak at the Baylor Tennis Center and have won 26 out of 27 in Waco.
SHUTTING OUT THE COMPETITION: In 11 matches this spring, Baylor has blanked its opponent seven times. Six of the wins have been 7-0 victories over Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 58 Iowa, No. 38 TCU, UT-Pan American, Prairie View A&M and UT Arlington, 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 NON-CONFERENCE OPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought much success in non-conference play with Baylor sporting a 239-65 mark in non-league play over the last 13+ years.
Quotes: Head Coach Matt Knoll
On the match... "We have taken a little break for the Spring Break holiday. It is a chance for us to get in a competitive environment and get everybody back firing on all cylinders before we go out to California next week."
On the motivation for his team... "I think our players are pretty good about coming and playing hard everyday. It is not something we really talk about. We don't sit around and have a speech about it. We just try to come out and play our best tennis and get the most out of it we can."
Players Mentioned
