Men's Tennis Renews Rivalry With Stanford
3/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 21, 2011
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No. 31 Baylor (10-3) vs. No. 12 Stanford (8-3) |
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To close out a season-long eight-match homestand the 31st-ranked Baylor men's tennis team will welcome No. 12 Stanford to the Baylor Tennis Center on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
In its last match out, Baylor (10-3) posted a 6-1 victory over No. 28 Louisville on Thursday night. The win was Baylor's eighth victory in its last nine contests. Stanford (8-3) has not played a dual match in the month of March, but the Cardinal has won four of its last five.
In the first seven matches of the homestand, the Bears are 6-1 with three wins over ranked opponents. This season, the Bears have racked up a 9-2 record when they are the home team and hold an 8-2 mark at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Since 1997, Baylor is 252-84 against ranked teams. Against Stanford, the Bears are a perfect 10-0 all-time with a 4-0 mark over the Cardinal at home.
Live scoring and a live blog for Tuesday's match will be available on BaylorBears.com.
RANKED BEARS: In the latest ITA €ˆteam rankings released on March 15, the Bears fell from No. 28 to No. 31, after previously being ranked as high as No. 7 to start the season. The ranking is the lowest the Baylor program has been listed since being ranked No. 31 in April 2001. Individually, Baylor has three singles players ranked in the ITA €ˆtop 125 as senior John Peers is ranked No. 27 with a 10-3 record in dual-match play, sophomore Roberto Maytin, who has a 9-2 mark in dual-match play, is ranked 96th and junior Kike Grangeiro (10-2) is now ranked No. 99. The Bears also have a doubles team listed in the rankings with Peers and Maytin partnering together to be ranked seventh, after posting a 9-1 record to start the season.
CURRENT SINGLES STREAKS & TRENDS: Senior John Peers has lost his last three matches out to three top-20 ranked players, but before that he was unbeatable for the Bears at the top of the singles lineup as he started the season 10-0. Now Peers is 10-3 in 12 matches at No. 1 and one match at No. 2. The rest of Baylor's singles lineup has been influx throughout the year. As part of the changes Roberto Maytin has played at three different positions, but has recorded a 9-2 mark with seven wins in his last eight matches. Kike Grangeiro has also played well for the Bears with an 10-2 record competing at the five and six spots.
CURRENT DOUBLES STREAKS & TRENDS: BU has gotten consistent play throughout the dual-match season from all three of its doubles teams. At the top of the lineup, Roberto Maytin and John Peers are 10-1, at the No. 2 spot Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux are 7-3, while at the bottom of the lineup Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro have a 11-1 mark. Overall, Baylor has won 11 straight doubles points and has swept doubles seven times this year.
OWNING €ˆNON-CONFERENCE €ˆOPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought much success in non-conference play with Baylor enjoying a 260-67 mark in non-league play over the last 14+ years. Last season, the Bears held a 20-4 record in such matches and so far this season they are 10-3.
LAST TIME OUT: Baylor continued its hot streak of play with a 6-1 win over No. 31 Louisville on Thursday night at the Baylor Tennis Center. The victory was Baylor's tenth win of the season and its eighth win in its last nine contests. Baylor won at No. 1 and 3 doubles to secure its 11th straight doubles point win and then BU €ˆtook singles matches two through five to coast to the win.
LOOKING AHEAD: After closing out the eight-match homestand versus Stanford, the Bears will open their 15th season of Big 12 play with a trip to No. 17 Texas Tech on Sunday at 1 p.m. BU €ˆis 23-25 against Texas Tech all-time, but the Bears have never lost to the Red Raiders in the Matt Knoll era holding a 16-0 mark against them in that span.
SCOUTING STANFORD: The 12th-ranked Cardinal (9-8) comes to Waco for its first dual match since Feb. 26. when Stanford was beaten by No. 9 USC, 5-1. Before the loss, Stanford had won its last four matches out. The Cardinal's other two losses this year came at the National Team Indoor Championship against No. 11 Florida and No. 16 Georgia. Coach John Whitlinger has assembled a roster in his seventh season as head coach that features three seniors, three juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen.
RANKED €ˆCARDINAL: Stanford has three players listed in the ITA singles rankings led by Bradley Klahn at No. 10, who is followed by Ryan Thacher at No. 36 and Alex Clayton at No. 93. Klahn, a junior, is 6-4 on the season with all of the matches coming at the No. 1 spot. Klahn won last season's NCAA Singles Championship. Thacher, who is also a junior, has played exculsively at the No. 2 spot, while posting a 5-4 record. The senior Clayton has played at positions one through three and is 5-3 in dual match play. In doubles, Stanford has two ranked duos as Klahn and Thacher partner together to make up the sixth-ranked tandem and Clayton teams with Ted Kelly to be ranked 79th.
SERIES HISTORY: Baylor has never lost to Stanford, holding a 10-0 record over the Cardinal in a series that dates back to 1999. The Bears and the Cardinal have met at least once for the last nine years. In the two previous meetings, Baylor has pulled out two 4-3 wins with a win at seventh-ranked Stanford last year and a victory over the fourth-ranked Cardinal in 2009. The Bears are 4-0 at home, 5-0 in Palo Alto and 1-0 in neutral site contests against Stanford.
LAST TIME AGAINST STANFORD: In last season's edition of the Baylor-Stanford rivalry, the 11th-ranked Bears got a 4-3 upset victory at No. 7 Stanford on March 20. Baylor fell in the doubles point, but then Dominik Mueller, Jordan Rux, Roberto Maytin and Attila Bucko all took their singles match to pull out the victory.
SHERWOOD CUP MATCHES AGAINST STANFORD:The Bears €ˆgot a view of some of the competition they will be facing on Tuesday in January when Baylor and Stanford players took part in the Sherwood Cup matches in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Overall, in singles BU players held a 5-2 advantage over their Stanford opponents. In doubles, BU €ˆwon three matches versus the Cardinal and lost two. In all likelihood the only rematch will come at No. 1 doubles where in the first meeting the 16th-ranked Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher beat fourth-ranked Roberto Maytin and John Peers, 8-6, in the championship match of the tournament.
QUOTES: Head Coach Matt Knoll
On Stanford:
"They are bringing another great team to town. You have to start off with the defending NCAA singles champion Bradley Klahn. He is obviously incredibly outstanding. He and Ryan Thacher are also very good at one doubles. They beat John and Bobby in the finals of the Sherwood tournament. Thacher, who is playing No. 2 for them was ranked No.1 in America in juniors and Alex Clayton who is playing No. 3 for them was ranked in the top-10 his freshman year of college. Those three guys are just terrific. The guys down the line are also very good and physical. Stanford has a great tradition of recruiting the best players and doing a great job of making them better."
On the importance of already having seen some of the Stanford players at the Sherwood Cup:
"We have seen them over the years with playing them every year like we have been. We are going to know what is coming that is for sure. We have a ton of respect for their program and their players. I know our guys know they are going to have to play very good tennis to have a chance to win."
On his singles lineup:
"We felt good about how everybody competed last match. I thought we got a lot out of every position. We have really been searching to get the right guys out there that will really be competitive at all nine spots, the six singles and three doubles. We did that in this last match and we are going to try to build on that."
Players Mentioned
