Texas Tech Athletics
Baylor
No. 4 Baylor Narrowly Edges Red Raiders 4-3
April 15, 2007 | Men's Tennis
April 15, 2007
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech men's tennis team dropped their first home match of the season to No. 4 ranked Baylor Bears today at the McLeod Tennis Center. Baylor advances to 19-3, 3-0 in Big 12, as Tech falls to 13-7, 1-3, heading into their last two matches of the season.
Despite the win, Baylor head Coach Matt Knoll felt his team could have played better in today's match-up against the No. 40 Red Raiders.
"I thought Tech played great," commented Coach Knoll. "They out-competed us in the doubles and got out to a super start in the singles. Our backs were clearly against the wall as their guys were more committed to playing some aggressive tennis earlier on than we were. Frankly we were lucky to win."
The Raiders jumped out to an early 1-0 lead over the Bears, after winning the doubles point for the seventh time this season. The No. 3 senior duo of Teddy DiBlasi and Dimitrio Martinez sunk in the first win 8-6 over BU's Michal Kokta and Dominik Mueller. Baylor's No. 18 pair of David Galic and Matija Zgaga proved too much for Tech's No. 51 Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanski, as they won 8-6 and advance to 3-0 in Big 12.
The fate of the doubles point rested on the No. 2 court as sophomores Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic searched for their first conference win in BU's Lars Poerschke and Denes Lukacs. With the lead volleying back and forth, the match tied up at eight all advancing play into a tiebreaker. Breler and Markovic were able to pull ahead, clinching the doubles point 9-8, 7-3 in the tiebreak.
Tech entered singles with a huge momentum boost looking to upset Big 12 powerhouse Baylor, but their chances came and went as the Bears sunk in the first three singles wins at No. 5, 1 and 6. At No. 1, BU's No. 13 Lars Poerschke avenged a loss earlier this fall at the ITA Regionals to No. 39 Szumanski by winning 7-5, 6-3.
At No. 3, Markovic came back from losing 6-4 in the first set to BU's Matt Brown, claiming the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. The win puts Markovic 4-0 in conference, 13-2 overall. With two matches to go, any hopes of a win for the Raiders were quickly put to rest by Baylor's Matija Zgaga, who defeated Tech's Breler in a third set 6-3.
Perhaps the biggest win of the day came from the No. 2 court as Red Raider senior Martinez upset No. 16 ranked Michal Kokta 7-1 in the second set tiebreaker. Defeating his first ranked opponent this season, Martinez advanced to 12-4 overall, 2-2 in Big 12.
"Today's match should prove that we are capable of beating anyone in the nation," said Tech Captain Martinez. "Hopefully we can improve with this match, build more confidence as a team, and work hard in practice to be ready for next weekend."
The Red Raiders will close out their 2007 regular season next weekend as they host No. 32 Oklahoma on Fri., April 20, at 6:30 p.m., and No. 14 Oklahoma State on Sun., April 22 at 1 p.m. For more information and complete results, visit www.texastech.com.
#40 Texas Tech, 3 #4 Baylor, 4
Doubles: 3, 1, 2*
1. Galic/Zgaga (BU) def. Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU), 8-6
2. Breler/Markovic (TTU) def. Lukacs/Poerschke (BU), 9-8 (3)
3. DiBlasi/Martinez (TTU) def. Kokta/Mueller (BU), 8-6
Singles: 5, 1, 6, 3, 4*, 2
1. #13 Lars Poerschke (BU) def. #39 Bojan Szumanski (TTU), 7-5, 6-3
2. Dimitrio Martinez (TTU) def. #16 Michael Kokta (BU), 6-4, 7-6(1)
3. Sinisa Markovic (TTU) def. Matt Brown (BU), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
4. #124 Matija Zgaga (BU) def. Michael Breler (TTU), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
5. #93 Dominik Mueller (BU) def. Christian Rojmar (TTU), 6-4, 6-4
6. Denes Lukacs (BU) def. Milos Kustudija (TTU), 7-5, 6-3
Players Mentioned
