WACO, Texas – No. 25 Baylor men's tennis is set to begin four matches in four days over the weekend, hosting No. 33 Virginia Commonwealth, Omaha and Cleveland State at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, while traveling to face No. 2 TCU at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth.
The full weekend for the Bears (12-3) begins with the VCU (7-5) match in Waco on Thursday, March 7, at 6 p.m.
Big 12 Now on ESPN+ will carry Cracked Racquets' CrossCourt Cast of the match with Alex Gruskin on the call. The very next day, BU turns around to host Omaha (10-6) at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 8, in a match that was rescheduled from March 13. Closing the weekend in a 90-mile doubleheader, Baylor travels to TCU (10-1) to face the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth at noon before returning to the Hurd to play Cleveland State (8-5) at 7 p.m.
Playing the VCU Rams for the seventh time, the Bears are looking to extend their 6-0 series record on Thursday. The two teams haven't faced each other since the 2009 season, which ended the six-year scheduling streak. In that time, BU swept VCU twice and held them to seven combined team points.
Only facing off once before, Baylor looks to build its series lead over the Mavericks. With a 7-0 sweep at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center in Feb. 2020, the then-No. 26 Baylor team won the doubles point with a lineup that featured the No. 9 doubles squad of Constantin Frantzen and Sven Lah at Court One, before former Bears Matias Soto, Lah, Adrian Boitan, Frantzen, Rahul Dhokia and Sebastian Nothhaft swept all six singles courts.
Going into the 11th match against the Horned Frogs in the
Michael Woodson era and the 71st match all-time, the Bears trail TCU, 39-31, in the series. Coming off a finals appearance in the ITA Team Indoor National Championship, TCU faces Baylor for the first of two matches in the 2024 regular season, before the possibility of playing each other in the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments. The Horned Frogs have a 7-1 record over ITA-ranked teams and are 6-0 at home.
After dropping two matches against No. 1 Ohio State and at No. 19 Illinois, Marko Miladinović (8-1) and
Devin Badenhorst (8-2) are locked in first for the team lead in singles wins. Miladinović has a perfect record at Courts Three, Four and Five and suffered his only loss of the season at No. 6 against Tulane's Sam Scherer. Badenhorst won eight straight before falling in his last two results against Liam Krall from SMU and Alex Petrov of Illinois.
In doubles,
Tadeas Paroulek and
Zsombor Velcz are tied with Badenhorst and
Luc Koenig at the top of the team with seven wins this spring.
In the newest rankings by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Paroulek was bumped to 59
th in front of Velcz in 84
th and Badenhorst in 123
rd. The Bears still are unranked throughout doubles.
For the opponents of the weekend, TCU has the No. 2 doubles pair in the country of Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, while Duncan Chan and Lui Maxted are 40
th. VCU enters the 31
st-ranked duo with German Samogalov and Oscar Pinto Sansano. Singles rankings feature five Horned Frogs with Jack Pinnington 10
th, Jake Fearnley 11
th, Vives 35
th, Gorzny 53
rd and Maxted 87
th. Two Rams also take spots in the singles list with Mathis Bondaz 41
st and Matisse Bobichon ranked 70
th.
All matches will feature live scoring and Playsight streaming available
online.
For the latest news on the Baylor men's tennis team all year long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorMTennis.
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