By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Facing a top-10 team for the sixth time in its first 11 matches, the 10^th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team (5-5) will play conference-rival and third-ranked TCU (8-0) at 9 a.m. CT Friday at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago.
            Baylor and TCU are meeting for the second time in 10 days and the fifth time in the last 10 months. The 14^th-seeded Bears won two of last year's three meetings, including the final of the Big 12 Championship, but the third-seeded Frogs pulled out a 4-1 win last Wednesday in Waco in a tight match that included three three-setters in singles.
            "We're going to get a couple rematches, but there will be some things that are different. And I think that's a good thing for our team," Baylor coach Michael Woodson said. "There's no one on their team that we don't know very well, and there are no matchups that we feel are unwinnable. When you have a 14 versus 3, you feel like it's a big mismatch, ranking-wise, but that's not how we feel going into it. And that's a great position to be in."
            In last week's matchup, TCU's tandem of Luc Fomba and Jake Fearnley clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 win over ninth-ranked Finn Bass and Juampi Mazzuchi. Baylor actually won four of the six first sets in singles, but Horned Frog freshman Sebastian Gorzny rallied to beat Mazzuchi, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, to end it with two other courts starting a third set.
            Tadeas Paroulek picked up the Bears' lone point with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2 over TCU freshman Jack Pinnington, while freshman Zsombor Velcz and sophomore Ethan Muza split sets with the Frogs' Sander Jong and Lui Maxted at Nos. 4 and 6, respectfully.
            "Teddy has done a fantastic job and is certainly, I think, plugging that hole at No. 1 singles," Woodson said of Paroulek, who is 6-1 combined at Nos. 1 and 2 singles.
"A couple of our freshmen, Z (Zsombor) and Luc (Koenig), are stepping up and starting to play some really good tennis. And Juampi is finding his range. So, with Finn getting healthy, I feel like we're putting together a strong lineup. It's just a matter of time where we have all six guys or all nine spots clicking, we're going to have some real success."
            Even in a 4-0 loss to top-ranked Ohio State on Tuesday, Woodson saw signs of the Bears heading in the right direction. Paroulek, Velcz and Mazzuchi were in tight second sets after dropping the first set when the match ended.
            "I walked away from (Tuesday) night feeling very positive about the direction we're headed," Woodson said. "It may take time to see that on the court. Maybe it's Friday morning, maybe it's Sunday afternoon, maybe it's in two months, but we're definitely headed in the right direction. I'm feeling very good about this group."
            TCU has five of its top six players back from a 26-5 team that was the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, losing to ninth-seeded Kentucky, 4-3, in the quarterfinal round. The Horned Frogs are also the defending ITA Indoor champions, beating third-seeded Tennessee, 4-1, in the final after upsetting top-seeded Ohio State, 4-3, in the semifinals.
            "Given the schedule that we've had already, there are really going to be no surprises for us as far as what the level is, what our level is in comparison and how we can best be prepared to have succeed," said Woodson, whose team lost to North Carolina in the 2021 ITA Indoor final.
            "It's always fun to be able to play one of our biggest rivals. I think it's going to be a really good match. And I think our guys are starting to understand what's necessary to be able to put themselves in position to have success."



CHICAGO – No. 10 Baylor men's tennis travels to the ITA Indoor Team Championships in the windy city, held Friday through Monday, at the XC Tennis Village indoor courts.
 
BU (5-5) will open the tournament with a rematch against third-seeded TCU (8-0) at 9 a.m. CT on the first six indoor courts in the round of 16.
 
The Bears make their 20^th appearance at National Indoors, qualifying with wins over Arizona State and No. 9 Florida State in Waco during ITA Kickoff Weekend. Baylor enters even at 29-29 all-time in the tournament, winning the title in 2005 and finishing as finalists in 2021.
 
Last season, the Bears knocked off No. 15 Ole Miss and No. 10 Kentucky before falling to No. 2 Tennessee, 4-2, in the semifinal round.
 
Baylor is joined in Chicago by (in seeded order) Ohio State, Kentucky, TCU, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, USC, Texas, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Stanford, Florida and Illinois, who earned the auto-bid as the tournament hosts.
 
Being guaranteed three matches at the tournament, the Bears will face either sixth-seeded South Carolina or 11^th-seeded Georgia, depending on Friday's results.
 
In the first individual rankings of the spring season, the Bears have Finn Bass at No. 44, Tadeas Paroulek at No. 117 and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi at No. 125 in the singles rankings. In doubles, Bass and Grassi Mazzuchi are BU's lone ranked pair at No. 9.
 
In the 2022 season, the Bears took two of the three matches against the Horned Frogs, including the Big 12 Championship title match that finished in a 4-2 decision to hand Baylor its third-straight postseason championship. This season, the Horned Frogs won a 4-1 decision on Feb. 8 at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center in the first of at least three matches with the conference rivals.
 
Cracked Racquets will be carrying commentated coverage of the tournament on their YouTube channel and court feeds will be available from Track Tennis. Live scoring will also be available online.
 
To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor men's tennis, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorMTennis.