Saturday, March 16
Winston-Salem, N.C.
1 pm
Baylor
2
at
5
Wake Forest
Paroulek, Velcz Down No. 1 Doubles Duo in No. 19 MT’s 5-2 Loss to No. 4 Wake Forest
3/16/2024 5:07:00 PM | Men's Tennis
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The No. 19 Baylor men's tennis team lost its final match before the Big 12 conference season begins on Saturday afternoon, 5-2, to No. 4 Wake Forest.
Court One doubles saw a huge win for the Bears, as unranked Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz handed the No. 1 doubles team in the country their first loss of the season before Louis Bowden earned BU its lone singles point of the day.
THE RUNDOWN
Handing the first-ranked doubles pair their first loss of the 2024 dual match season, Paroulek and Velcz took down Holden Koons and DK Suresh Ekambaram, 6-3. Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow responded at No. 3 doubles with a 6-2 defeat of Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Christopher Frantzen just moments later.
The Bears took their 16th doubles point of the season with a battle won by Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig, as they were fought off a late push from Filippo Moroni and Matthew Thomson to win, 7-5.
In singles, the Bears' early advantage was tested by 98th-ranked Tacchi at the No. 4 spot, as he defeated Brostrom Poulsen with a pair of 6-2 sets. Koons got the Demon Deacons their second point in singles play over Marko Miladinovic, defeating the junior, 6-1, 6-3.
Pow put the home squad one point away with a straight-set win over Koenig, 7-5, 6-2, and No. 22 Moroni clinched the match for fourth-ranked Wake Forest in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Playing out the remaining courts, freshman Bowden added a point for BU at the No. 3 spot, beating Thomson, 6-3, 7-5, before No. 90 Suresh Ekambaram came back to finish the match at One, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Michael Woodson...
On Saturday's match...
"Doubles was interesting. I thought we did a really good job at one, obviously that's a great team that we feel like is at our level we just haven't been able to put it out onto the match court consistently for a number of reasons to this point. I am really happy with what Teddy [Paroulek] and Zsombor [Velcz] brought, it was tough but the energy was there. Court Two was a little strange, Devin [Badenhorst] has been battling with some sickness and, for whatever reason we returned very well but couldn't get moving to hold serve, and turned out no one could so it was just a battle of will. You know, who's going to play the scrap out the big points a little bit better. We took some momentum in the singles and closed out three first sets, which is what you need. The unfortunate part was that we got behind on some courts and weren't able to ever get into those matches, and then it just got hard at the end, credit to [Wake Forest]. I thought they played well under pressure. They were very composed and just handled those situations and the adversity better than we did. That's playing a top-five team on the road, but I think we've learned a valuable lesson and hopefully we can do something with it and grow. as we move into conference play."
UP NEXT
Baylor opens conference play by hosting No. 2 TCU at the Hurd Tennis Center on Friday at 6 p.m. CT, and the match will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
Court One doubles saw a huge win for the Bears, as unranked Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz handed the No. 1 doubles team in the country their first loss of the season before Louis Bowden earned BU its lone singles point of the day.
THE RUNDOWN
Handing the first-ranked doubles pair their first loss of the 2024 dual match season, Paroulek and Velcz took down Holden Koons and DK Suresh Ekambaram, 6-3. Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow responded at No. 3 doubles with a 6-2 defeat of Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Christopher Frantzen just moments later.
The Bears took their 16th doubles point of the season with a battle won by Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig, as they were fought off a late push from Filippo Moroni and Matthew Thomson to win, 7-5.
In singles, the Bears' early advantage was tested by 98th-ranked Tacchi at the No. 4 spot, as he defeated Brostrom Poulsen with a pair of 6-2 sets. Koons got the Demon Deacons their second point in singles play over Marko Miladinovic, defeating the junior, 6-1, 6-3.
Pow put the home squad one point away with a straight-set win over Koenig, 7-5, 6-2, and No. 22 Moroni clinched the match for fourth-ranked Wake Forest in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Playing out the remaining courts, freshman Bowden added a point for BU at the No. 3 spot, beating Thomson, 6-3, 7-5, before No. 90 Suresh Ekambaram came back to finish the match at One, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
QUOTABLE
Head coach Michael Woodson...
On Saturday's match...
"Doubles was interesting. I thought we did a really good job at one, obviously that's a great team that we feel like is at our level we just haven't been able to put it out onto the match court consistently for a number of reasons to this point. I am really happy with what Teddy [Paroulek] and Zsombor [Velcz] brought, it was tough but the energy was there. Court Two was a little strange, Devin [Badenhorst] has been battling with some sickness and, for whatever reason we returned very well but couldn't get moving to hold serve, and turned out no one could so it was just a battle of will. You know, who's going to play the scrap out the big points a little bit better. We took some momentum in the singles and closed out three first sets, which is what you need. The unfortunate part was that we got behind on some courts and weren't able to ever get into those matches, and then it just got hard at the end, credit to [Wake Forest]. I thought they played well under pressure. They were very composed and just handled those situations and the adversity better than we did. That's playing a top-five team on the road, but I think we've learned a valuable lesson and hopefully we can do something with it and grow. as we move into conference play."
UP NEXT
Baylor opens conference play by hosting No. 2 TCU at the Hurd Tennis Center on Friday at 6 p.m. CT, and the match will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
- BaylorBears.com -
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,1,2
#1 Singles Match
123
643
DK Suresh Ekambaram / 0 (90/-) [WF]
266
#2 Singles Match
123
623
Filippo Moroni / 0 (22/-) [WF]
366
#3 Singles Match
12
67
Matthew Thomson / 0 [WF]
35
#4 Singles Match
12
22
Luciano Tacchi / 0 (98/-) [WF]
66
#5 Singles Match
12
52
Luca Pow / 0 [WF]
76
#6 Singles Match
12
13
Holden Koons / 0 [WF]
66
Order of Finish:
4,6,5,3,2,1
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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