WACO, Texas – Baylor men's tennis looked to shock the tennis world and take their down its in-state rival, but the momentum couldn't swing the Bears' way on Monday night in Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center as they fell 4-1 against No. 2 TCU.
 
THE RUNDOWN
In a classic Baylor (2-2, 0-0) versus TCU (3-0, 0-0) showdown, the emotions were high for the matchup. In doubles, all three courts took the early lead in Baylor's advantage, going up 2-0. On Court One, No. 3 doubles team of Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen went up against the No. 2 doubles duo and reigning individual national champions of Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted. Although the Bears took the early advantage, the Frogs responded and took the lead going up 3-2. The Baylor duo made a comeback, tying the match 4-4, but were unable to comeback, falling to the No. 2 duo 6-4.
 
On Court Two, the South African pair of Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig paired up together for the first time this season. The Bears went up early 2-0, but the Frogs persisted, going up 4-2. Baylor then ensued a battle tying the match 4-4. TCU went up 5-4, but the Bears never let up. The South African duo persisted to take the match 7-5.
 
All tied up, the Bears now looked to Court Three where Alexandru Chirita and Louis Bowden competed. The match consisted of a back-and-forth battle of who could maintain the lead. At 6-6, both teams and all eyes in Hawkins Indoor turned to Court Three to see who would win the doubles point. Forced into a tiebreaker, the match continued to go back-and-forth with three match points, until TCU took the final point 7-6(9) to earn the doubles point.
 
Moving ahead to singles, Chirita was the first Bear to fall against his Horned Frog opponent. Chirita went down quickly against TCU's Al Pedrico Kravtsov 6-2, 6-2 to put TCU up 2-0.
 
However, Miladinovic proved redeem himself from his doubles loss, dominating Filip Apltauer on Court Six. The senior captain went up early and held his lead against the Horned Frog, taking him down 6-4, 6-3 to put Baylor's lone point on the board.
 
Bowden went up against No. 74 Duncan Chan on Court Four. During the first set, Bowden maintained the lead almost for the entirety, going up 4-2 and the 6-5. Moreover, Chan wasn't giving up and kept battling the Bear back, forcing the first set to go to a tiebreaker. Bowden couldn't carry his momentum and dropped the first set 7-6(2). In the second set, it looked as if the momentum had stuck with the Horned Frog as Chan went up 4-2, but Bowden kept fighting tying the set back up 4-4. However, that's all that Bowden was able to get from Chan as Bowden fell 7-6(2), 6-4.
 
The three matches left standing were all on Courts One, Two and Three and all thrillers. On Court One, Badenhorst went up against Jack Pinnington. Badenhorst took the first set 6-4, but Pinnington responded with a quick 6-4 second set win for the Horned Frogs. It all came down to the third set as the momentum pendulum kept swinging back and forth between the two. In the end, Pinnington was able to come out victorious and clinch the match for the Frogs, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
 
On Court Two, Brostrom Poulsen proved to be a resilient fighter as he came back from his 6-4 first set fall to force a tiebreaker second set against TCU's No. 9 Pedro Vives. This is the second straight match Brostrom Poulsen has come back to take the second set after falling in the first. Brostrom Poulsen took the second set 7-6(4) to extend the match to a third set, leaving it unfinished down 2-0.
 
On Court Three, Koenig gave Baylor valuable efforts as he went up against No. 12 Maxted. The South African junior went up in the first in a feisty battle, 7-6(6), but Maxted was quick to respond with a dominant 6-1 second set. In the third set, Maxted went up against Koenig 4-2 before leaving the match unfinished.
 
HEAD COACH MICHAEL WOODSON
On the team handling adversity from the two-loss weekend…
"I think that defines great team. How quickly can you bounce back from when something goes your way? I was really impressed with how we've been the last couple of days coming off the Wake Forest match going into this match. Without a doubt, we started fast here against TCU. Unfortunately, we let the doubles slip away but I think great teams have to lose together before they win together. This is one of those situations. There's a lot of great things I saw out there today and hopefully these guys understand just how close they are to doing something special."
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor now takes the week to prepare for its first road match of the spring season in Dallas against SMU on Sunday at 4 p.m.