FORT WORTH, Texas - The 43rd-ranked Baylor men’s tennis team suffered a 4-0 setback against No. 4 TCU Wednesday at the Bayard Friedman Tennis Center.
The Bears (14-12, 1-4 Big 12) dropped a match against the Horned Frogs (22-2, 4-0) for the first time since April 3, 2001. BU has still won 16 of the last 17 and 19 of the last 22 contests between the two schools.
To open the match, the No. 3 doubles tandem of Julian Lenz and Tyler Stayer came out on the wrong end of a 6-1 decision against Cameron Norrie and Alex Rybakov. BU would drop the doubles point for the 10th time in 2016 with the 77th-ranked duo of Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski losing 6-4 to No. 73 Reese Stalder and Hudson Blake on court one.
In singles play, the Bears fell behind early and ended up losing all six first sets.
Those early advantages for the Horned Frogs led to three straight-set wins. First, Stayer fell to Trevor Johnson at the No. 6 spot, 6-1, 6-0. Next, Podvinski lost 6-2, 6-3 to Jerry Lopez on court five to put the Bears behind 3-0. The 87th-ranked Tchoutakian failed in his upset bid of No. 25 Rybakov, 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 2 position to decide the match.
NOTABLES:
· BU is still 19-6 against TCU under head coach Matt Knoll.
· Even with the loss, the Bears have won 16 of the last 17 matches against the Horned Frogs.
· Baylor now trails the all-time series against TCU, 32-24.
· Baylor is now 2-8 after dropping the doubles point in 2016.
· Baylor has now lost three matches in a row.
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor has now concluded its regular season schedule and will next play in the Big 12 Championship, which run April 29-May 1 in Stillwater, Okla.
