Baylor
Tennessee
Men's Tennis Loses at Tennessee
3/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
 4TENNESSEE (9-9) Rank: #24 |
|  3BAYLOR (9-7) Rank: #39 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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March 17, 2012
WACO, Texas - Baylor's men's tennis team, playing its eighth road match of the season, dropped a close one to the Tennessee Vols in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday at Barksdale Stadium.
The 24th-ranked Tennessee squad downed 39th-ranked Baylor, 4-3. With the loss, Baylor falls to 9-7 on the season while Tennessee moves to 9-9.
"Tennessee did a super job today," said head coach Matt Knoll. "Their guys were tough and resilient. We are getting some wonderful experience and look forward to a big challenge against Kentucky on Monday."
Tennessee earned the first point of the match with a hard-fought sweep of all three doubles matches. The seventh-ranked tandem of Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese out-dueled No. 78 Roberto Maytin and Kike Grangeiro, 8-6, on court 1. Jarryd Chaplin and Edward Jones downed Mate Zsiga and Julian Bley, 9-7, at No. 2 doubles , while Bryan Swartz and Bryan Fickey defeated Marko Krickovic and Robert Verzaal, 8-5, on court 3.
In singles, the Volunteers went up 2-0 when Fickey downed Verzaal in straight sets on court 3, 6-3, 6-0. Baylor got on the scoreboard when the 33rd-ranked Zsiga won his seventh straight match with a straight sets win over No. 51 Libietis. Zsiga, now 26-4 on the season and 12-1 in dual match action, took the first set 6-2 and claimed the match with a 7-6(5) tiebreak in the second. Tennessee inched closer to the win when Edward Jones, playing at No. 5, downed Grangeiro, 6-3, 7-6(5). Bley, playing at No. 6, earned Baylor's second point with a win over Peter Nagovnak, 6-3, 6-4. With the win, Bley extended his win streak to five matches. Tennessee clinched the match when the unranked Reese downed 82nd-ranked Maytin on court 2 in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Baylor added its final point when Diego Galeano defeated Chaplin. Galeano dropped the first set, 5-7, but bounced back to take the next two, 6-4, 6-4.
The Bears remain on the road as they travel to Lexington, Ky., to take on the 4th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Monday, March 19 at 11 a.m. (CT) at the Boone Tennis Center.
Players Mentioned
