California Team Page
WACO, Texas - Fifteenth-ranked California lost at No. 22 Baylor, 6-1, on Tuesday afternoon at the Hurd Tennis Center. After winning the doubles point, the Golden Bears dropped all six singles matches. Cal's record fell to 8-7 after the nonconference dual match, while the Baylor Bears improved to 13-4.
Cal opened doubles with a win on court one, as the 26th-ranked team of senior Christoffer Konigsfeldt and junior Campbell Johnson defeated Mate Zsiga and Tony Lupieri, 8-3. Baylor knotted things up on court three when sophomores Gregory Bayane and Chase Melton lost to Julian Lenz and Patrick Pradella, 8-4. The 40th-ranked tandem of junior Ben McLachlan and freshman Mads Engsted clinched the doubles point for the Bears when they beat Marko Krikovic and Diego Galeano, 8-5, on court two.
The Golden Bears took their 1-0 lead into singles, but the host Bears tied the overall team score at 1-1 when Roberto Maytin beat Melton, 7-5, 6-1, on court six. Baylor then took a 2-1 lead when Johnson - ranked No. 46 in singles - fell to No. 80 Tony Lupieri, 6-2, 6-0, on court three.
Cal's top singles players then lost in succession, as No. 44 McLachlan dropped a 6-3, 6-4, result to No. 71 Lenz on court one and No. 66 Konigsfeldt lost to No. 33 Patrick Pradella, 6-3, 7-6(5), to give Baylor the team win at 4-1.
The teams played out the remaining two matches. On court four, Bayane lost to No. 99 Zsiga, 7-6(4), 4-6, 1-0(10-7), before Engsted fell to Galeano, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, on court five to make the final score 6-1.
"We started off strong in doubles, and even though we lost six first sets in singles, we had a couple of chances to turn it around," Cal head coach Peter Wright said. "Gregory Bayane and Mads Engsted won their second sets, when Chris Konigsfeldt narrowly lost a tiebreaker in his second set. Has Chris been able to get his match to a third set, I thought we would have the advantage. Baylor played well, but our guys kept up the fight to the end."
Cal next returns home to open Pac-12 Conference play with a dual match against No. 4 UCLA at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, March 29, at the Hellman Tennis Complex. The Bears follow that with a Pac-12 match against No. 2 USC at 1:30 p.m.
No. 22 Baylor 6, No. 15 California 1
March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas
Hurd Tennis Center
Doubles
1: No. 26 Johnson/Konigsfeldt (California) def. Zsiga/Lupieri (Baylor) - 8-3
2: No. 40 Engsted/B. McLachlan (California) def. Krikovic/Galeano (Baylor) - 8-5
3: Lenz/Pradella (Baylor) def. Bayane/Melton (California) - 8-4
(Cal wins the doubles point)
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2.
Singles
1: No. 71 Julian Lenz (Baylor) def. No. 44 Ben McLachlan (California) - 6-3, 6-4
2: No. 33 Patrick Pradella (Baylor) def. No. 66 Christoffer Konigsfeldt (California) - 6-3, 7-6(5)
3: No. 80 Tony Lupieri (Baylor) def. No. 46 Campbell Johnson (California) - 6-2, 6-0
4: No. 99 Mate Zsiga (Baylor) def. Gregory Bayane (California) - 7-6(4), 4-6, 1-0(10-7)
5: Diego Galeano (Baylor) def. Mads Engsted (California) - 6-4, 5-7, 7-5
6: Roberto Maytin (Baylor) def. Chase Melton (California) - 7-5, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6, 3, 1, 2, 4, 5.
