April 27, 2008

Final Stats

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The 11th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team claimed its six Big 12 Conference Championship title by upsetting seventh-ranked Texas, 4-2, at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas, on Sunday.

Battling a rain delay, extremely windy conditions and the absence of its top-ranked player, the Bears overcame all obstacles to prevail over the Longhorns. The start of the match was delayed an hour and 15 minutes because of rain, and singles matches were played first due to the threat of more inclement weather. No doubles matches were contested.

Due to an injury to Lars Poerschke on Saturday, all of the Bears moved up a spot and Gwen Corches entered the lineup at No. 4 singles. After Texas earned a point at No. 4, Denes Lukacs, the tournament's most outstanding player, was the first Bear off the court with a win when he downed Dimitar Kutrovsky in straight sets at No. 1. Attila Bucko followed with a victory at No. 5 before the Longhorns triumphed on court two.

With the match knotted at 2-2, Baylor needed wins on the final two courts to earn the championship. After losing their first sets in tiebreakers, sophomore Dominik Mueller and freshman Jordan Rux rebounded to claim the win for the Bears. Mueller, ranked No. 110, gained the Bears' third point with an upset win over 46th-ranked Ed Corrie, 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2. That put the pressure on the rookie, Rux. His third set was tied at 2-2 when Mueller's match ended. At that point he broke Josh Zavala's serve to go up 3-2. Each player held serve until the last game when Rux broke Zavala's serve again. After gaining the first point of the final game, Zavala double faulted twice then Rux hit a passing shot and a cross-court shot to claim the match for the Bears.

""The thing about our whole season has been adversity. We've faced a lot this year, and we haven't done a great job overcoming it. Today we did. We didn't have Lars (Poerschke) out there, and rather than feel sorry for ourselves, our guys really rallied and circled the wagons. They came out and fought hard on every court. We won three, three-set matches and that was the difference today. This is a different group. I'm proud of a guy like Jordan Rux (who clinched the match at No. 6 singles). It's neat for him to come out and be the guy out there at the end and come through for the team. That's real special for me to see a young guy go out and achieve like that. It's part of the process for him to get better and better," said head coach Matt Knoll.

#11 Baylor 4, #7 Texas 2
Big 12 Conference Championship - College Station, Texas
Finals

Singles - Order of finish: 4, 1, 5, 2, 3, 6*
1. #11 Denes Lukacs (BU) def. #10 Dimitar Kutrovsky (UT) 7-5, 6-3
2. #38 Kellen Damico (UT) def. David Galic (BU) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
3. #110 Dominik Mueller (BU) def. #46 Ed Corrie (UT) 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2
4. #119 Luis Diaz Barriga (UT) def. Gwen Corches (BU) 6-2, 7-5
5. Attila Bucko (BU) def. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) 7-5, 1-6, 6-3
6. Jordan Rux (BU) def. Josh Zavala (UT) 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-3

Doubles - not contested