Men's Tennis Set For NCAA Championship Run
5/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 13, 2010
Men's Tennis NCAA Championship Notes | 
NCAA Championship Central
WACO, Texas - The eighth-ranked Baylor men's tennis team will begin this year's NCAA €ˆTeam Championship the way it has begun seven out of the last eight - at home as the Bears host unranked Oral Roberts (7-8) on Sat., May 15, at noon at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Baylor enters the 2010 tournament as the No. 7 seed for the first time as the Bears seek the program's second NCAA €ˆChampionship crown. This will be Baylor's 13th straight NCAA €ˆChampionship appearance under 14th-year head coach Matt Knoll. The seventh-seed is the second lowest for the Bears, who have been seeded 10 out of the 13 years they have been selected for the NCAA €ˆChampionship. Baylor was unseeded in 1998, 1999 and 2001 and was the No. 9 seed in 2008. In NCAA Championship matches played in Waco, the Bears are 14-0 with 10 of those matches being 4-0 sweeps.
The Bears enter NCAA play with a 21-6 record, after bowing out of the 2010 Big 12 Championship to 10th-ranked Texas A&M on May 1. This season, the Bears are 14-1 at home, 5-2 on the road and 2-3 in neutral site contests.
LOOKING AHEAD: If Baylor gets past Oral Roberts in first round action, the Bears will host the winner of No. 25 Washington and No. 33 Rice on Sun., May 16 at 2 p.m. with a chance to advance to the round of 16 for the ninth-straight year. The Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., will host the final four rounds of championship play May 21-25.
CURRENT €ˆTEAM €ˆSTREAKS €ˆAND €ˆTRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 36 of 43 matches dating back to last season, including 16 of their last 20. The Bears had a five-match win streak halted in their last match. It was the Bears' second five-match win streak of the year after starting the season with five wins in a row. However, the Bears had an eight-match win streak earlier in the season
DOUBLES POINT STREAKS AND TRENDS: Baylor has won the doubles point in five of its last six matches, after losing the previous three. The catalyst for the turnaround has been the team of Maros Horny and Sergio Ramirez, who have gone 5-0 at the No. 3 spot over the last six matches. The team of Jordan Rux and Attila Bucko are 3-2 at the two spot during the stretch, but the Bears' No. 1 duo of Denes Lukacs and Roberto Maytin are only 2-4 in the last six. Baylor is 18-0 in matches when winning the doubles point and just 3-6 when losing it.
SINGLES STREAKS AND TRENDS: Senior Dominik Mueller enters Saturday's match with a seven-match win streak. Julian Bley has also played well, going undefeated in his last six matches (four wins and two unfinished), while at the top of the Bears' lineup Denes Lukacs has won five of his last seven contests.
BAYLOR'S NCAA HISTORY: The Bears have had tremendous success in NCAA €ˆTournament play with the pinnacle of that success coming in 2004 when the program claimed the university's first ever team national championship. Before the title run, the Bears had reached the quarterfinals in both 1999 and 2003, the round of 16 in 2000 and 2002 and had appearances in 1998 and 2001. After the championship, Baylor continued to experience success clawing its way back to the title match in 2005 before losing to UCLA 4-3. In 2006, the Bears lost to top-seeded Georgia in the semifinals, then dropped a 4-3 semifinal thriller to Illinois in 2007 and lost in the quarterfinals to top-ranked and undefeated Virginia 4-2 in 2008. Last season, Baylor returned to the quarterfinals before falling to No. 3 Ohio State, 4-1. Overall, Baylor is 35-11 in NCAA Championship play.
SCOUTING ORAL ROBERTS: ORU is making its fourth NCAA Championship appearance in the last six seasons under head coach Chris Milliron. The Golden Eagles are 7-8 overall and went 4-2 in Summit League regular-season play. ORU €ˆreceived an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship by avenging its two losses during the conference season to IUPUI and UMKC in the conference tournament and winning the Summit League crown. Milliron has a roster that features one senior, two juniors and four sophomores. The Golden Eagles and Bears only had one common opponent this season - SMU. Oral Roberts went 0-2 (0-4 & 1-6) against the Mustangs, while Baylor won its lone matchup against SMU, 6-1. Saturday's match will mark the third time in the last four years that ORU has played Baylor in Waco in the NCAA first round.
PLAYERS €ˆTO €ˆWATCH: Igor Sobolta, Dmitry Suslov and Mikhail Trukshanin all earned a spot on the All-Summit League Team after combining for a 32-4 mark in conference singles and doubles matches. Sobolta, a sophomore from Kiev, Ukraine, recorded a 7-0 mark in singles play at the top two positions. Suslov (Novgorod, Russia) posted a 4-2 singles record. Trukshanin, a sophomore from Minsk, Belarus, also earned a 7-0 singles mark in league action this season at the top two positions.
SERIES RECORD: The Golden Eagles have a 3-2 all-time series advantage over the Bears. However, Baylor has won the last two meetings in 2007 and 2008. Both of those meetings were NCAA Championship first round matches that Baylor won 4-0. Oral Roberts' three wins in the series came in 1971, 1972 and 1981.
LAST €ˆTIME €ˆAGAINST ORAL ROBERTS: The 10th-ranked Bears breezed past the unranked Golden Eagles on May 10, 2008, in the first round of the NCAA €ˆChampionship held in Waco. Baylor claimed the doubles point with wins at courts two and three and then used straight sets singles wins from Matt Brown, Dominik Mueller and Gwen Corches to close out ORU €ˆand advance to the second round of play.
Quotes - Coach Matt Knoll
On getting the process started:
"We are real anxious. The thing that happens this time of year is you practice a little bit shorter, but with a little more intensity. I think it is a great time to be an athlete. You are getting into championship season. It is not a lot about practice now; it is about competing. I think we are really excited."
On if his team has improved in the past week:
"I hope so. You don't know until you play. We just have to get out there and push ourselves to play as well as we can. We feel fortunate to get a match on Saturday where we can work some kinks out, then we will be ready to play a great match on Sunday."
On the benefits of hosting the event:
"You can't say enough about it. It is a world of difference. This year, the schedule has been a little kinder to us because we are done with finals already. To be able to be here, be in our routine and be able to practice a little bit harder with a little more focus, I think makes a huge difference."
On where his team is at heading into the NCAA Championship:
"I think we are in the best possible situation. We are pretty good, but we are in an underdog role. Nobody is walking around talking about how Baylor is the favorite to win the national championship. To me that is a great position to be in. We have confidence that we can beat everybody out there, but we are going to play without pressure. We are going to be able to relax and go for our shots. I think if we do that it is going to be a great tournament."
Players Mentioned
