March 2, 2011
WACO, Texas - In its last match before Spring Break, the 28th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team recorded its second 7-0 victory of the season on Wednesday afternoon against Purdue at the Baylor Tennis Center.
"Today, we lost just one set and that is a good move in the right direction," head coach Matt Knoll said. "We couldn't be more optimistic. I think we are absolutely working through some things and making some improvements. We feel we are going to have nine tough spots when the time comes."
The win was Baylor's fourth straight victory and boosted the team's record to 6-2. Purdue falls to 6-3 on the year as the Bears stopped the Boilermakers five-match win streak. BU also improved to 1-0 all-time versus Purdue.
For the sixth consecutive match the Bears got out to a fast start by capturing the doubles point. Knoll had to alter his No.1 doubles tandem as Roberto Maytin was away preparing to play a match with the Venezuelan Davis Cup team. However, the change did not keep BU from winning all three doubles matches for the sixth time this season.
The new duo at No. 1 of John Peers and Dennis Lengsfeld was the first team off for the Bears. The senior and freshman got out to a 5-0 lead on Krisztian Krocsko and Mark Kovacs and then cruised to an 8-3 victory in their first-ever match together.
"Those guys at No. 1 got up 5-0 really quickly," Knoll said. "They really served well the whole match and did a super job. I have to give John a lot of credit: he came out yesterday and practice one day with a new partner and then a great job of making that work."
Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux followed the lead of Peers and Lengsfeld as Baylor's No. 2 doubles duo secured an 8-2 win over Szymon Tatarcyzk and Eric Ramos by winning the last seven games of the match. Ramirez and Rux are now 5-1 in dual-match play.
In No. 3 doubles, Kike Grangeiro and Julian Bley kept their perfect record intact by downing Pawel Poziomski and Aaron Dujovne, 8-3. The Baylor juniors are now 12-2 on the year and 8-0 in dual-match play.
Baylor's singles lineup was also modified slightly because of Maytin's absence as Grangeiro moved up to the No. 5 position, while Julian Bley was inserted into the sixth spot, after sitting out the previous two matches.
For the 91st-ranked Grangeiro the move caused no problems as he earned his third straight win with a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of Ramos. Grangeiro is now 5-1 in dual-match play and 12-6 overall. The Bears would build a 3-0 lead when Rux dispatched of Dujovne, 6-1, 6-0 at the fourth spot. The win comes on the heels of Rux's 6-0, 6-3 loss on Sunday and evened his dual-match record at 4-4.
"I think it is hard to not talk about Jordan's match as being the highlight," Knoll said. "He won three games the other day and today he lost one game. That was a pretty dramatic turnaround for a short period of time. He worked hard this week and I thought he did a great job today. We need him if we are going to be the team we want to be."
At the No. 2 position, Ramirez also bounced back from a loss on Sunday as he took care of Krocsko 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the match for Baylor. The senior is now 5-3 for the Bears in dual match play.
"Sergio had a chance when he was down in the second a break to falter and he didn't," Knoll said. "He did a really good job of righting the ship and getting back on track."
With the match in hand, Bley beat Poziomski 6-3, 6-3, the 22nd-ranked Peers moved his dual match record to 8-0 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Tatarczyk at the top of the lineup and Lengsfeld snapped a two-match losing streak with a 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-8 victory over Kovacs at the No. 3 spot.
Baylor will now have seven days off, before taking to the courts on Thursday, March 10 for its first doubleheader of the season against Lamar at 10 a.m. and UT Pan American at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. Live scoring and a live blog for both matches will be available at BaylorBears.com.
