No. 2 MT Wins 6-1 Over No. 9 Texas

Monday, February 7

Waco, Texas

6 PM

Baylor

Texas

No. 2 MT Wins 6-1 Over No. 9 Texas

2/7/2022 10:56:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Bears best UT in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center on Monday evening

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            In a top-10 matchup that proved to be the first real test for the second-ranked Baylor men's tennis team, the No. 9 Texas Longhorns had no answer for either the Bears on the court or a packed house in the stands Monday night at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
             Fueled by the vocal crowd, Baylor (9-0) got out to early breaks on all three doubles courts and then clinched it with straight-set wins by Marko Miladinovic, Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi and Adrian Boitan to clinch its second-straight and fourth win over the Longhorns (4-3) in the last five meetings.
            "I'm someone that feeds off a lot of energy and a lot of noise," said Finn Bass, who pulled out a 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 win over 73^rd-ranked Cleeve Harper at No. 5. "Baylor Nation makes a massive difference. I just want to thank everyone for coming out today, and hopefully they keep coming to our matches and filling it up."
            Crediting the crowd for the win, second-year Baylor head coach Michael Woodson said it was "overwhelming for everybody that was out on the court."
            "I don't think Texas was ready for it, frankly," Woodson said. "Credit to our guys, they played poised early, disciplined; they didn't let the crowd affect them. They just used it, brought good energy and got the fans engaged right away. Now that we can have packed stands again, it just makes such a huge difference for us as a home-court advantage."
            Trailing on all three doubles courts and down multiple breaks on Courts 2 and 3, Texas fought back to make things interesting by taking the 18^th-ranked duo of Bass and Sven Lah to a tiebreaker and knotting it up at 5-5 on the No. 2 court.
            "It was funny how it was almost identical to what happened (Sunday) against Idaho State," Woodson said of dropping the doubles point in a 6-1 win over the Bengals. "We won at 2 doubles, we were up a break on 1, we were up 5-1 on 3. And then, all of a sudden, we're in a breaker on 1 and it's 5-all on 3. And I thought, 'No way, this is déjà vu all over again.'''
            But, not this time.
            Baylor's No. 2 team of Matias Soto and Jaumpy Mazzuchi closed out Pierre-Yves Bailly and Siem Woldeab, 6-4, then Boitan and TCU transfer Tadeas Paroulek got a break back and clinched the first point with a 7-5 win over the Longhorns' Chih Chi Huang and Micah Braswell.
            "Honestly, the crowd was so into it, I think it kept them in it," Woodson said. "But, our guys didn't allow what could have been and then wasn't affect them. They did a great job to get the break back on 3 and serve it out pretty clean."
            Baylor didn't give Texas any kind of window to get back in the match, winning the first set on five of the six singles court.
            A first-semester freshman from Serbia, Miladinovic remained unbeaten, dominating 105^th-ranked Siem Woldeab, 6-4, 6-0, at No. 4.
            "I just continue to be so impressed by Marko's competitiveness," Woodson said. "He's only been here for a month, and he's just doing a great job of playing within himself and enjoying the environment. . . . I feel his best tennis coming out because he's happy and he's playing his game."
            Just a few minutes later, UCF transfer Mazzuchi finished off Evin McDonald, 6-2, 6-2, on Court 6 to give the Bears a 3-0 lead.
            "I guess I should give Jaumpy (Mazzuchi) some credit, he just does that every match," Woodson said. "Early on, I thought Evin did a good job of exposing a few things, and Jaumpy made some changes to his game that he probably shouldn't have. But, he stayed true to himself and did a great job of gaining control and kind of overwhelming him."
            Up a set on two of the remaining four courts, the Bears got the clincher from Boitan at No. 1. After winning nine-straight games, Boitan got a late break to upset the 20^th-ranked Braswell, 6-0, 6-3, to make it 4-0.
            "That's why I'm here, that's why I'm at Baylor, that's why I play Court 1," Boitan said. "This is what the standard is for me, I feel like. I'm just trying to achieve it every single time."
            Woodson said Boitan "kept it simple, played his game, just kept the clamps down and stayed focused."
            "Adrian has been battling himself for the first couple weeks of the season," Woodson said, "but he's just the ultimate competitor. He locked it down early, I thought, and just made it really hard."
            While Texas got its only point on Richard Ciamarra's 6-4, 6-4 win over 48^th-ranked Sven Lah at No. 3, while Soto and Bass pulled out third-set super tiebreakers to close it out. With the crowd behind him, Bass bounced back from a 6-3 loss in the first set to dominate the second set, 6-1, and then won the last four points in a 10-6 super tiebreaker.
            "I had a great start, up a break, and then I got distracted a little bit, lost a bit of focus," Bass said. "I got a little bit negative and distracted, but fueled it in a positive way to come back out firing in the second set. I knew I was right in there, just lost a few deuce points. I stuck it out and came out playing great tennis in the second set."
            Up 6-4, 5-4 and serving on Court 2, Soto got broken and then lost the tiebreaker, 7-5, to Bailly. After falling behind 7-4 in the super tiebreaker, Soto reeled off six-straight points to finish off Baylor's 6-1 win over the Longhorns.
            "It's really hard when the match gets clinched for everybody to just keep playing, keep battling," Woodson said. "It's almost a true test of character to see who's willing to dig in there and just keep going and try to set an example. . . . For those three guys (Soto, Lah and Bass) to do that the way they did was impressive."
            Before next week's ITA National Indoor in Seattle, Baylor will host Tulsa (4-2) at 2 p.m. Friday and No. 6 Virginia (5-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. Tulsa upset 18^th-ranked Pepperdine, 4-3, on Sunday, while the Cavaliers lost to No. 5 Ohio State, 4-0.

WACO, Texas – The No. 2 Baylor men's tennis team won triumphantly, 6-1, over No. 9 Texas on Monday night in front of a strong crowd in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

The Bears (9-0) clinched the doubles point and won five of the six singles matches to secure the win over the Longhorns (4-3).

BU has allowed only one point to be scored by their opponent in just three matches this season.

To start the Bears off, Matias Soto and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi took the first doubles match with a 6-4 win over Pierre-Yves Bailly/Siem Woldeab on court two. Clinching the doubles point was Adrian Boitan and Tadeas Paroulek, winning 7-5 over Chih Chi Huang/Micah Braswell on court three. No. 18 Finn Bass and Sven Lah were in a 6-6 tie on court one when Boitan and Paroulek finished, with Texas' No. 13-ranked pair of Cleeve Harper/Richard Ciamarra ahead 5-2 in the tiebreaker.

In singles competition, Marko Miladinović had the hot start, besting No. 105 Siem Woldeab on court four at 6-4, 6-0. Grassi Mazzuchi followed not long after with his 6-2, 6-2 win over Evin McDonald on court six. Boitan finished next with his win over No. 20 Braswell on court one, a dominant 6-0, 6-3 win over the Longhorn.

Playing out the match, Bass also had an upset win over UT's 73^rd-ranked Harper on court five, winning 3-6, 6-1, 10-6. On court three came Texas' lone point, with Ciamarra besting No. 48 Lah, 6-4, 6-4 after the senior had put up a fight. Court two was the last to finish but ended victoriously as Soto won six-straight points to take the match 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 10-7 to best Bailly.

NEXT UP
The Bears host Tulsa on Friday and No. 6 Virginia on Saturday, both in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center at 2 p.m. on their respective days. Free t-shirts will be given away against the Cavaliers while supplies last.

To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor men's tennis, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorMTennis.

TENNIS RESULTS
#2 Baylor (6) vs. #9 Texas (1)
Waco, Texas – Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center
SINGLES COMPETITION
1. Adrian Boitan (BU) def. #20 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-0, 6-3
2. Matias Soto (BU) def. Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 10-7
3. Richard Ciamarra (UT) def. #48 Sven Lah (BU) 4-6, 4-6
4. Marko Miladinović (BU) def. #105 Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-4, 6-0
5. Finn Bass (BU) def. #73 Cleeve Harper (UT) 3-6, 6-1, 10-6
6. Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (BU) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 4, 6, 1, 5, 3, 2

DOUBLES COMPETITION
1. #18 Sven Lah/Finn Bass (BU) vs. #13 Cleeve Harper/Richard Ciamarra (UT) 6-6 (2-5) unfinished
2. Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi/Matias Soto (BU) def. Pierre-Yves Bailly/Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-4
3. Adrian Boitan/Tadeas Paroulek (BU) def. Chih Chi Huang/Micah Braswell (UT) 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 3

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