By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Finn Bass and Sven Lah weren't decked out in suit and tie for Friday's NCAA first-round match at the Hurd Tennis Center, but Baylor head coach Michael Woodson said the third-seeded Bears' 4-0 win over Abilene Christian "was the most professional performance I've seen."
            After watching 44^th-ranked Tulsa push No. 25 Texas A&M to four three-setters in the Aggies' 4-1 win, Baylor (27-3) didn't mess around, keeping a clean slate through doubles and singles and ending ACU's season at 13-12.
            "I have to give credit to the guys at the top," Woodson said. "They started out right at the beginning, and they were on it, they were engaged. Over the years, the younger guys would say, 'Oh, we've won this match before,' and we'd start looking towards the next round. And nothing's guaranteed."
            Baylor dropped just two games combined in the top two doubles spot to put the first point on the board. Matias Soto and Juampi Mazzuchi blanked Savan Chhabra and Jose Maria Rastrojo, 6-0, on Court 2, then the third-ranked duo of Bass and Lah clinched it with a 6-2 win over Daniel Morozov and Dario Kmet at No. 1.
            "Going back to two huge wins at (the Big 12 tournament), we're really playing some good stuff," Bass said. "(ACU) has some really good players, so it's not a match that we cannot take lightly at all. We all have to come up with good energy and good positivity and do a good, professional job."
            That mindset continued in singles, with the Bears winning the first set on all six courts and squashing any hopes of a Wildcat comeback.
            "We don't need to fire them up anymore," said Woodson, who celebrated the one-year anniversary of officially being announced as the head coach after serving the rest of the year with an interim tag. "They have a goal in mind. These guys know what it's all about. . . . (ACU) is a really talented group, and our guys treated them as such, with respect enough to really be on it from start to finish."
            Taking care of business on the far end of the courts, Bass rolled to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Chhabra at No. 4 singles, followed closely by Mazzuchi finishing off Mihaly Deli, 6-3, 6-0, at No. 6.
            "You take the first sets, then obviously we're in a very good position," Bass said. "Then, it's all about just keeping our foot on the gas and closing out the matches. The guys that got their points done really quickly today did a very good job of that."
            With the Bears in position to win on each one of the remaining four courts, Lah got clinching honors on Court 2, sweeping to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Tyler Stewart.
            By the start of the second sets, Woodson said he was looking around for the bench that he had in last year's final rounds of the NCAA Championship in Orlando, Fla. "I just wanted to go sit on it, to be honest."
            "At this point, we just roll the balls out and let the players play," he said. "The practice has been put in, the training has been put in, we've got the match experience. Now, the guys just need to go out and do their job and compete to the best of their ability. All credit to them, great performance.
            In Saturday's 6 p.m. second-round match, the Bears will play a 25^th-ranked Texas A&M team (22-13) that they split with last season. Baylor won an ITA National Indoor qualifying match, 4-1, at a neutral site in Dallas, but the Aggies held on for a 4-3 win a month later in College Station.
            "Listen, anytime we're playing a Texas school, a rivalry school, you can throw the rankings right out the window," Woodson said. "They're going to be ready to go, they're going to be fired up. We know their guys, they know ours. . . . It's a tough draw, but anytime we can be in the round of 32, we'll take whoever."
            If Baylor wins, the Bears would host a Round of 16 match next weekend against the winner of the regional at 14^th-seeded Harvard, with a spot to the final eight in Champaign, Ill., on the line.
           


WACO, Texas – The No. 3-ranked and national third-seeded Baylor defeated Abilene Christian, 4-0, on Friday night at the Hurd Tennis Center to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Bears (27-3) took out the Wildcats (13-12) for the second time this season with the win.
 
BU improves its record in the NCAA Tournament to 60-21 and 32-1 when playing at home. 
 
THE RUNDOWN
Baylor clinched doubles with wins on courts one and two. The middle court finished first, with a straight 6-0 win from No. 9-ranked Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi and Matias Soto over ACU's Savan Chhabra and Jose Maria Rastrojo. Court one with third-ranked pair Sven Lah and Finn Bass took a 6-2 win over Daniel Morozov and Dario Kmet to clinch.
 
On the singles courts, Bass started off the scoring on court five with a 6-2, 6-1, win over Chhabra. Following him up was Grassi Mazzuchi on court six, winning 6-3, 6-0, over Mihaly Deli. The clincher came on court three, with No. 73 Lah besting Tyler Stewart, 6-2, 6-2.
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will face No. 25-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday night at 6 p.m. in the second round. The Aggies defeated No. 44 Tulsa, 4-1, to win their first-round match and advance. They are 22-13 on the season with the win.
 
Live stats for the match can be found at www.BaylorBears.com/stats. The live stream can be found on the TennisOne app.
 
A full recap and final stats can be found at BaylorBears.com after the conclusion of the match.
 
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
#3 [3 seed] Baylor (4) vs. Abilene Christian (0)
Waco, Texas – Hurd Tennis Center
SINGLES COMPETITION
1. #5 Adrian Boitan (BU) def. Daniel Morozov (ACU) 6-4, 3-1 unfinished
2. #36 Matias Soto (BU) def. Dario Kmet (ACU) 6-3, 4-3 unfinished
3. #73 Sven Lah (BU) def. Tyler Stewart (ACU) 6-2, 6-2
4. Finn Bass (BU) def. Savan Chhabra (ACU) 6-2, 6-1
5. #58 Tadeas Paroulek (BU) def. Oswaldo Cano (ACU) 6-2, 4-2 unfinished
6. Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (BU) def. Mihaly Deli (ACU) 6-3, 6-0
 
Order of finish: 4, 6, 3
 
DOUBLES COMPETITION
1. #3 Sven Lah/Finn Bass (BU) def. Daniel Morozov/Dario Kmet (ACU) 6-2
2. #9 Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi/Matias Soto (BU) def. Savan Chhabra/Jose Maria Rastrojo (ACU) 6-0
3. Adrian Boitan/Tadeas Paroulek (BU) vs. Tyler Stewart/Riley Tran (ACU) 3-4 unfinished
 
Order of finish: 2, 1