INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – The 21st-ranked Baylor men's tennis team closed its run at the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge Presented by Oracle with a 4-1 loss to No. 12 USC Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Baylor (11-7) held an early 1-0 advantage after doubles play, but struggled to keep the match’s momentum during singles action to drop four-straight contests.
Junior Max Tchoutakian and freshman Tommy Podvinski earned a 6-3 win over Max de Vroome and Jake DeVine for an early BU advantage on court two. The 12th-ranked duo of senior Julian Lenz and redshirt freshman Will Little were upset 7-5 by No. 74 Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven at the top of the lineup to even up doubles play.
Then, senior Felipe Rios and freshman Jimmy Bendeck fought off four match points and took a thrilling 7-6(9) tiebreaker win over Jack Jaede and Tanner Smith to clinch the opening point at the No. 3 spot.
In singles, Bendeck dropped a 6-1, 6-1 loss to No. 91 Thibault Forget at the No. 5 spot, putting the Trojans (10-3) on the board. USC took the lead when No. 17 Lenz fell 6-2, 6-1 to 32nd-ranked de Vroome at the top of the lineup.
The Trojans clinched the match after courts three and four completed seconds apart. Rios lost a 6-1, 6-3 contest to No. 113 DeVine at the No. 3 spot, followed by Little’s loss to No. 40 Logan Smith on court four, 6-3, 6-2.
NOTABLES
• After the loss, Baylor trails the all-time series against the Trojans, 8-6.
• In doubles play, Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski improved to 6-5 at the No. 2 spot. Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck improve to 6-4 at the No. 3 spot.
• Baylor is now 9-3 after winning the doubles point.
TOP QUOTE #1
“I want to thank Oracle for hosting the event. It’s an elite event, really special for our team to be here in this environment with everything that it has to offer. I think it’s really much appreciated that their support of college tennis is led by Mark Hurd. We’re really excited about that.” –head coach Matt Knoll on the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge
TOP QUOTE #2
“The competition was tough. These teams were really good, and you have to give them all the credit in the world. These three teams (Illinois, California, USC) came out and made it hard on us. We have a young team that’s growing, and I think we knew it was going to be a challenge to play this level of competition, but we were excited to come out and play these good teams. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way on the scoreboard, but we gained a lot and our guys are getting better. We’re excited about going back, practicing in a few days and getting after it again.” – Knoll on the team’s performance at the event
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor travels home to complete non-conference play with a match against No. 29 Tulsa on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Hurd Tennis Center.
