WACO, Texas – In the final day of the ITA Indoor Championships, Baylor men's tennis couldn't pull through in the back draw third round, falling to No. 4 Ohio State 4-1.  
 
The Bears (7-6) looked to get a rematch against Ohio State (8-2) as the two faced off just last weekend in Columbus. Baylor won the doubles point and now own a 2-0 record against the Buckeyes (8-2) this season.
 
THE RUNDOWN
It looked to be a tight match starting out in doubles play. Court One with the No. 9 duo of Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Marko Miladinovic automatically took the lead and continued their dominance, never letting the Buckeyes take the lead. The two would go on to win 6-4. On Court Three, Alexandru Chirita and Zsombor Velcz were in a battle as the match went back-and-forth and neither team taking a tall lead. Forcing a tiebreaker, Velcz and Chirita couldn't hold off the Buckeyes and fell 7-6(3). All coming down to Court Two, Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig were in a lull, falling early 3-1. The two began to climb back though, catching a big break to tie their match 4-4. The two then went on to force a tiebreaker and clinch the doubles point 7-6(3).
 
In singles, the Bears couldn't hold the momentum on Courts Two and Four, as Brostrom Poulsen (6-1, 6-1) and Chirita (6-1, 6-0) fell quickly on their respective courts for Ohio State to take back the lead.
 
Velcz put up a fight with some key plays made on Court Three but couldn't hold on, dropping 6-3, 6-3 against OSU's Anthrop.
 
With Ohio State up 3-1, Badenhorst on Court One tried to hold on after dropping his first set. The sophomore came back in the second to force a tiebreaker, but ultimately fell 6-4, 7-6(2) against No. 22 Kim as Ohio State took the match.
 
Louis Bowden on Court Five lost his first set 7-5 and was left unfinished with a 2-4 score in the second.
 
Miladinovic on Court Six battled in the first set but fell in the tiebreaker 7-6(5). In the second, Miliadinovic came out hot, going up 3-0. His match would ultimately be left unfinished with a 5-3 second set score.
 
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH MICHAEL WOODSON
"Ohio State is No. 4 in the country for a reason. I thought we did a good job of coming out with great energy, confidence and excitement in the doubles. We got down at Two early, but we were able to jump on them at One. It was just a battle at Three the whole way through. It was great we were able to just hang around at Two, get the break back, and when you get to two tiebreakers, you kind of expect to split one of them. We were fortunate to do a great job at One doubles. We were able to take the doubles point, which was awesome.
 
"I felt like I saw a lot of mental, physical and emotional fatigue out there from our guys. Credit to Ohio State, I thought they handled it much better than we did. They maybe haven't had the emotional matches that we've had, so they were a little bit fresher. They played a couple of fresh guys too, and they got on us early on a few courts. They were able to pull the momentum on the courts when we got ahead just by looking around and it felt like they were winning. You can't do that against a top-team and get away with it. We battled on a few courts, but it wasn't enough. Credit to Ohio State.
 
"We're excited to probably get a little bit of rest. Anytime you get a top 10 win, it's a successful event. Anybody that gets a win at National Indoors had a good tournament. We're happy with where we're at, but we're not satisfied. We're excited to get back to work and heal the bodies and minds. We'll be traveling to Tulsa late next week."
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears now take the week to rest before hitting the road to face off at Tulsa on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m.