WACO, Texas – The Baylor men's tennis doubles duo of Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz reached the NCAA Doubles Championship quarterfinals with a three-set victory Friday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The BU pairing, which is ranked No. 8 in the country, rallied to beat Wake Forest's 13th-ranked tandem of Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-1.
Galeano and Lenz were named to the NCAA Championship all-tournament team on Tuesday and earned ITA All-America honors by being a No. 5-8 seed for the doubles championship.
The Baylor pairing has now won 22 of their last 23 matches to up its record to 25-2.
The 35th-ranked Tony Lupieri had his NCAA Singles Championship run ended by No. 19 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of Virginia, 6-1, 6-1.
Lupieri completes his senior season with an 18-14 record in singles play and as an All-American. He was 69-29 in singles action during his BU career.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Under Knoll, Baylor players have earned 31 All-American honors, including 12 doubles honors by nine different players.
- Four players have garnered All-American status in 2015, including Julian Lenz and Lupieri in singles and Lenz and Galeano in doubles.
- It is BU's first doubles All-American honors since 2011 when John Peers and Roberto Maytin recorded the honors.
- Galeano and Lenz are the first BU duo to make the doubles quarterfinals since Peers and Maytin accomplished the honor in 2011.
TOP QUOTE #1
“The Wake Forest team was two big physical guys that served it well. We had a couple chances in the first and didn't get it and then really played well at the end. I think as the match ended we played some good tennis. Hopefully that is something we can build on for the next round.” – head coach Matt Knoll on the day
TOP QUOTE #2
“We played way more aggressive in the second and third sets. We tried harder to take time away from them. I think those were the key changes we made.”– Diego Galeano on the match
TOP QUOTE #3
“Every single time Diego gets mad, he plays much better because he's more energized and doesn't want to lose to them.” – Julian Lenz on his partner's play
WHAT'S NEXT
Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz will now face Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese. That duo is seeded No. 4 in the event and ranked No. 4 in the country. The match is slated to start at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Live scoring and a video feed of the match will be available for each match through links on BaylorBears.com.
