April 30, 2011
|  | | DOUBLES | SINGLES | F | | #1 | #2 | #3 | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | | |  | | | |
| | | | 4 | | | | | |
| | | | | 3 |
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| Singles | Result | | Beleleu d. Peers 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 | | | Paval d. Ramirez 6-4, 6-1 | | | Rux d. Gavrila 6-3, 6-3 | | | Maytin d. Siributwong 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 | | | Grangeiro d. Formentera 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-4 | | | Mihov d. Lengsfeld 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) | |
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| Doubles | Result | Peers/Maytin d. Beleleu/Mihov 8-6
| | | Paval/Siributwong d. Ramirez/Rux 9-7 | | | Formentera/Gavrila d. Bley/Grangeiro 8-4 | |
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MATCH NOTES
Baylor is now 28-8 all-time in Big 12 Championship play. This year's first match exit marks the first time that the Bears have only played one match at the Big 12 Championships. As the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Championships, Baylor is now 20-3. In three years of hosting the Big 12 Championships Baylor is now 3-3 in Waco. Baylor drops to 15-3 at home this season and 11-4 against ranked opponents. |
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WACO, Texas - For only the fifth time in the 15-year history of the Big 12 Conference, the Baylor men's tennis team will not be a part of the Big 12 Championship finals, after the fifth-ranked Bears were knocked out of the league's postseason tournament by 25th-ranked Oklahoma, 4-3, on Saturday at the Baylor Tennis Center.
"It hurts and we are disappointed," head coach Matt Knoll said of the loss. "We feel like we had a chance to win and we wanted to do well here, but we have got to move on. I think Oklahoma really did a great job today. They really fought hard and deserved to win. I think today some of our weaknesses were really exposed. It's up to us now to dig in and try to get better."
The loss drops Baylor to 19-4 on the season and snaps a string of 11 straight wins for the Bears. With the win, Oklahoma improves to 16-6 on the year and advances to play No. 9 Texas A&M in the Big 12 Championship finals on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.
The No. 1-seeded Bears had beaten fifth-seeded Oklahoma, 4-3, on April 15 at the Baylor Tennis Center, but the Sooners turned the results around by capturing the doubles point and then claiming the No. 1, No. 2 and No.6 singles matches.
The doubles point loss was only the second of the season for Baylor and the first since January 23, against No. 9 Florida, to snap a streak of 20 straight doubles points won.
Fifth-ranked Roberto Maytin and John Peers at No. 1 doubles started the day off right for the Bears as they downed 70th-ranked Ionut Beleleu and Tsvetan Mihov, 8-6. The win pushes the BU duo's win streak to nine and raises their dual-match record to 17-2.
However, Baylor would lose the next two doubles matches to drop the point. First, Julian Bley and Kike Grangeiro at No. 3 doubles lost the final five games of their match against Lawrence Formetntera and Laurentiu Gavrila to fall 8-4.
When the match at No. 3 wrapped, Sergio Ramirez and Jordan Rux were in the process of mounting a comeback on 73rd-ranked Costin Paval and Peerakit Siributwong. The 43rd-ranked BU pair rallied from a 7-3 deficit to square the match at 7-all, before the OU tandem responded to take the next two games and seal the doubles decision with a 9-7 win.
In singles, Baylor would lose four of six first sets. However, the 69th-ranked Ramirez would be the only Bear, who would not recover to force a third-set. The senior was taken down by the 48th-ranked Paval, 6-4, 6-1, at the No. 2 spot.
Now down 2-0 in the match, Baylor would claw its way back into the contest by claiming the next three singles matches off the court. Senior Jordan Rux got past Gavrila at the No. 3 spot 6-3, 6-3 to claim Baylor's only straight set win of the day. Rux has now won eight of his last nine matches to raise his dual-match record to 12-8.
The 103rd-ranked Maytin would follow Rux's win with a bounce back victory over Siributwong at No. 4 singles, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. Baylor would then take the lead in the match as the 99th-ranked Grangeiro rallied from an opening set loss to streak past Formentera at the No. 5 position, 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-4.
"I was proud of both Roberto and Kike," Knoll said. "I thought Roberto won only about six points in the first set and really did a great job of staying positive to find a way to win. That was a super effort from him. Kike beat a guy that had beaten him the last time in straight sets. He did a great job of battling back and giving himself a chance to win."
However, the comeback would end there for the Bears as OU claimed the final two matches on court. At No. 1 singles, the 17th-ranked Peers suffered his second straight setback with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 loss to the 30th-ranked Beleleu.
With the match all knotted up at three points apiece the focus of the match shifted down to court No. 6 where the BU freshman, Dennis Lengsfeld, was working to put away Mihov. Only 15 days earlier in the regular season contest against Oklahoma, Lengsfeld had stormed back in a third-set tiebreaker by winning the final four points of the match to hand Baylor the win.
However, today against the same opponent, the result was different. After winning the first set 6-3, Lengsfeld had dropped the second 7-5. The Baylor freshman got out to a 4-1 lead in the third-set, but could not sustain the momentum as Mihov charged back to tie the set at six games each. In the tiebreaker, the OU freshman got out to a 4-1 advantage and then a 6-2 lead, before Lengsfeld took the next three points to get within 6-5, but Mihov won the next point to claim the tiebreak and the match.
"I thought Dennis tried as hard as he could," Knoll said. "He was fighting out there, but he just has some things in his game he has to do better."
The Bears will now wait to hear where and who they will play in the NCAA Championships. The selection show will take place on Tuesday, May 3 at 5:30 p.m.
"We just have to continue to work and improve. We have two weeks before the NCAAs start and we are going to try to be a better team by then," Knoll said.
