OXFORD, Miss. - Playing its first match as the No. 2 team in the country, Baylor men's tennis recorded a 4-1 triumph over 13th-ranked Ole Miss Tuesday at the Gillom Sports Center.
Due to inclement weather, the match was played indoors.
Baylor (12-2) earned the victory and handed Ole Miss (9-4) its first home loss by getting the doubles point and singles wins at the No. 2, 3, and 4 spots.
To open the match, Felipe Rios and Vince Schneider carded their ninth straight win by downing Vinod Gowda and Grey Hamilton, 6-1, on court three. To clinch the point Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano took care of Gustav Hansson and Stefan Lindmark, 6-4, on court two.
Singles was played three matches at a time due to facility constraints. In total, singles action consisted of four set tiebreakers with each team winning two.
The Rebels were able to tie up the match fairly quickly as fourth-ranked Lenz was upset, 7-6(8), 6-3 at the top of the lineup by No. 23 Nik Scholtz.
However that was the only point Ole Miss would get as the 29th-ranked Tony Lupieri put the Bears ahead for good with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 victory on court two.
The 36th-ranked Max Tchoutakian also logged a three-set triumph, 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-1. The first-year Bear had led 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker, but ended up dropping it to push the match into a third set. Tchoutakian regained the momentum and cruised in the deciding set.
To clinch the match, Vince Schneider, who didn't take the court until the Lenz-Scholtz match was competed, tallied his fifth-straight victory as he took down Zvonimir Babic, 7-6(7), 6-2 on court four.
With the match decided, singles contests on courts five and six were abandoned.
NOTABLES
• Baylor tied up the all-time series against the Ole Miss, 3-3, and has won two straight over the Rebels.
• Baylor won for the first time in Oxford, Miss., after losing there in 2013.
• The Bears are now 5-1 away from Waco this year and 3-0 in true road contests.
• Tchoutakian has won three straight matches and is 8-4 in dual-match play.
• Schneider has won five straight singles matches and is 8-1 in dual-match play.
• Schneider and Rios improved to 9-1 in doubles play.
• Baylor improved to 11-0 in doubles points in 2015.
• All 12 of Baylor's wins have been over ranked opponents.
TOP QUOTE #1
"I think we did a great job in doubles. The guys all competed well. One of the story lines to the match was that they were missing a guy that usually plays at No. 1 doubles, but I thought their guys really responded well. We think they are a great program and we think Toby (Hansson) is a really good coach. He had his guys ready to go. The crowd was very active, which made for a great college tennis atmosphere. With all that said we got off to a pretty good start." - head coach Matt Knoll on doubles
TOP QUOTE #2
"They play on three courts indoors and when you look at it from that perspective there was tiebreak at No. 1, tiebreaker at No. 3 and 7-5 at No. 2, so those three sets were incredibly close. With the crowd being active, I thought our guys just did a super job of being focused, aggressive and competitive to give them a chance to get out of those matches." - Knoll on the singles wins
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will take part in the Oracle Collegiate Challenge in Indian Wells, Calif., March 20-22.
For the latest news on the Baylor men's tennis team follow its official Twitter account: @BaylorMTennis
