THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – In its first outdoor match of the season, No. 5 Baylor men's tennis (13-2) continued its dominant ways at home and claimed a 6-1 victory over No. 33 Arkansas (10-6) Thursday night at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Playing in their first match against the Razorbacks since 1991, the Bears collected their first program win in the all-time series and improved to 1-16 against Arkansas.
In doubles,
Constantin Frantzen and
Adrian Boitan rolled past Alex Reco and Pedro Alonso, 6-3, on court three for the early BU advantage. The duo improved to 3-0 this season.
Facing deuce point,
Will Little and
Matias Soto clinched doubles with a 6-4 victory over Enrique Paya and Maxim Verboven at the No. 2 spot for the 1-0 Baylor lead.
Boitan earned his second victory of the day when he posted a 6-3, 6-0 win against Alex Reco on court four, followed by 65
th-ranked Little's 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Josh Howard-Tripp at the No. 3 spot for the 3-0 lead.
For the third-straight match,
Sven Lah clinched the team win with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Enrique Paya at the No. 5 spot.
With both teams electing to play the rest of the matches out, No. 77 Soto made it a 5-0 Baylor lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 124 Adam Sanjurjo on court two.
Arkansas got on the board when
Kyrylo Tsygura dropped a 5-7, 6-1, 1-0(10) loss to Pedro Alonso at the No. 6 spot, but 42
nd-ranked
Johannes Schretter's 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 triumph over No. 53 Oscar Mesquida on court one made it a 6-1 Baylor win.
To keep up with things all season long, follow the team on social media: @BaylorMTennis.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor won its first match in the all-time series, improving to 1-16 against Arkansas.
• Baylor is now 25-1 in its last 26 home matches dating back to 2017.
• Baylor is now 12-3 in the doubles point and 12-0 when winning the opening point this season.
• Baylor improves to 9-0 in the doubles point at home.
• Baylor is now 6-2 against ranked opponents this season, including 3-2 against top-15 teams.
• Baylor is now 51-3 in doubles and singles points at home.
• No. 65
Will Little improved to 9-1 in singles play.
•
Adrian Boitan won his fifth-straight match, improving to 5-1 in singles action.
•
Sven Lah improved to 13-1 in singles action.
•
Adrian Boitan and
Constantin Frantzen won their third straight doubles match together.
STAT OF THE MATCH
6-1 – the late run senior
Johannes Schretter made in the final set to win his match on court one.
TOP QUOTE
Head coach Brian Boland
On the win…
"I was really pleased with the team, the way they came out with a ton of energy, the doubles and playing well. We've worked so much on the doubles point over the last couple of weeks. You could increasingly see us getting better over time as a team, and we're really working together and fundamentally getting points for doubles. Anytime we can get a doubles point, we're a tough team to beat."
WHAT'S NEXT
Fifth-ranked Baylor heads west to compete in the 2019 BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge presented by Oracle, running March 15-17 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif. The bracket for the tournament will be released soon.
