Men’s Tennis Downed By No. 8 Texas Tech, 4-3

STILLWATER, Okla. - The 43rd-ranked and fifth-seeded Baylor men’s tennis team was eliminated from the Big 12 Championship with a 4-3 loss to No. 8 and top-seeded Texas Tech Saturday at the Greenwood Tennis Center. 

The loss in the semifinal round of the event drops the Bears to 15-13 on the season and 0-3 against the Red Raiders (27-4) with all three losses coming by 4-3 scores. 

Just as it had done in the previous two matches against Texas Tech, Baylor claimed the doubles point. 

First, Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck powered past Connor Curry and Felipe Soares, 6-4, at the No. 2 spot. Meanwhile, Julian Lenz and Tyler Stayer also captured a 6-4 triumph over Carlos DiLaura and Hugo Dojas on court three.

In singles, Baylor only captured two of six first sets, and the Red Raiders quickly turned that advantage into points.

At the bottom of the lineup, Stayer dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision to Bjorn Thomson to tie the score at 1-1. Then Friday’s hero, Bendeck, was beaten 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 4 position by Jolan Cailleau to put the Bears behind 2-1.

The Texas Tech lead was then stretched to 3-1 with Tommy Podvinski’s 6-2, 7-5 setback to Curry on court five. 

At that point all three remaining matches were into third sets.

The 16th-ranked Lenz had won the first set against No. 18 Soares at the No. 1 spot, 6-3, and then dropped the second set, 6-1. The BU senior fell behind 4-1 in the third and deciding set before rolling to five straight game wins to produce a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 triumph.

Rios was locked in a three-set battle of his own with Alex Ssendegeya on court three. After losing the first set in a tiebreaker, 6-7(8), Rios rolled to a 6-1 victory in the second set and built a 4-1 lead in the third set when Lenz’s match wrapped. He went on to close out Sendegeya, 6-2, to tie the team score at 3-3.

With the score now all knotted up, the attention turned to court two where the 99th-ranked Max Tchoutakian was working to stay in the match against No. 110 Dojas. Tchoutakian had won the first set, 6-3, but then lost the second-set 6-3 and was behind 5-1 in the third set. When Rios won his match, Tchoutakian had held and broken Dojas to get the score to 5-3. He went on to hold again for a 5-4 score before Dojas served out the match.