The seventh-ranked and seventh-seeded Baylor men's tennis team blanked Lamar, 4-0, in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Championships on a windy Friday afternoon at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The win advanced Baylor (22-7) to the second round of the NCAA Championship for the 16th-straight season and the 18th-time overall in program history. The victory also snapped a three-match losing streak for the Bears and closed out Lamar’s season at 17-8.
In doubles, Max Tchoutakian and Bjoern Petersen rolled through Michael Feucht and Benny Schweizer, 6-2, at the No. 2 spot to give BU the early advantage. Johannes Schretter and Constantin Franzten clinched the opening point for the Bears by edging Juuso Laitinen and Logan Powell, 7-5, on court three.
Baylor was even more dominant in singles where they earned three straight-set wins to clinch the match.
First, Will Little polished off Schweizer on court five, 6-3, 6-3. Moments later, the 63rd-ranked Schretter powered past Jeandre Hoogenboezem, 6-1, 6-3, at the No. 3 spot, to put the Bears on the brink of victory.
To close out the match, freshman Constantin Frantzen bested Laitinen, 6-3, 6-3 at the bottom of the singles lineup.
NOTABLES
• Baylor advances to the NCAA 2nd round for the 16th-straight season and 18th-time overall.
• Baylor is 54-18 (.750) all-time in NCAA Championship play.
• BU is 18-2 in first round matches.
• The Bears are 10-2 in home matches in 2017.
• Baylor is 25-0 when hosting first and second round NCAA Championship action and 27-1 all-time in NCAA matches in Waco.
• BU is 18-11 in doubles points and 17-1 in matches when winning the doubles point this year.
• The Bears have won 9-straight matches over Lamar and lead the all-time series 10-4
TOP QUOTE #1
"Lamar is a pretty strong team. We knew that they would be pretty good. They have some physicality, some guys that make a lot of balls and I thought the challenge was good for us. It is now the second round of the NCAAs. Everyone is good. You are not going to get easy matches. Cornell is another conference champion that has won a lot of matches. They are going to be confident. They are going to be good and it is going to be a big challenge." - head coach Matt Knoll on the victory and looking forward to second round
TOP QUOTE #2
"Will and Johannes both got off to great starts in singles. Will has been around. He knows what the deal is. He came out and did a really nice job. You can’t expect to play your best tennis on a day like today. The conditions were not easy and they did a good job of just managing that." - Knoll on singles play
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will now face No. 26 Cornell in second round action Saturday at 4 p.m. at Hurd Tennis Center. The Big Red swept No. 43 Rice, 4-0, on Friday to advance to the second round.
