College Tennis News - Bears face Rebels in only road match of March

WACO, Texas - The 19th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team (10-3) will continue a streak of four straight matches played against top-five teams by traveling to face No. 4 Mississippi (10-2) on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Oxford, Miss. at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.

"It is a huge match for us," head coach Matt Knoll said. "I have been told that Oxford is one of the toughest places to play in the country. That is why we are scheduling them. We want to get down there and see how our guys respond."

Over the past week, the Bears upset fifth-ranked Kentucky on Friday, before losing two consecutive matches on Sunday and Monday to No. 2 UCLA and No. 1 Virginia, respectively.

Baylor currently has four singles competitors listed in the latest ITA rankings. Julian Lenz, Patrick Pradella, Marko Krickovic and Mate Zsiga are ranked No. 49, 64, 97, and 98, respectively. Lenz has a 6-2 record in singles, while playing five of his matches at the top of the lineup. Pradella has split time at the top with Lenz compiling a 9-3 mark and 3-1 record at the No. 1 position.

Zsiga and Tony Lupieri have partnered together to be Baylor's No. 1 doubles tandem over the last three matches, amassing a 1-0 record with two contests going unfinished. As a team, the Bears have won 11 of 13 doubles points on the year.

The Rebels have won seven straight contests and enter Thursday's match with four of their own ranked singles players, including No. 13 Jonas Lutjen, No. 14 Nick Sholtz, No. 69 William Kallberg and No. 99 Stefan Lindmark. Mississippi also has three ranked doubles teams in Scholtz and Lutjen at No. 6, Johan Backstrom and Lindmark at No. 40 and Kallberg and Adrian Skogeng ranked No. 65.

Mississippi leads in the all-time series with the Bears 2-1, but BU won the last meeting between the teams by a 4-3 score on Feb. 27, 2009.

Following the match at Mississippi, Baylor returns home for four matches, starting with Louisiana-Lafayette on March 21 at 3 p.m..

To stay up to date with the team all season follow @BaylorMTennis on Twitter.