Baylor University Team Page
WACO, Texas - With wins in all three doubles matches and each of the six singles contests, the 15th-ranked Baylor men's tennis team shutout Oklahoma State, 7-0, on Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
"I think we are playing better and better," head coach Matt Knoll said. "It is conference season and it is time to increase our focus level and energy level and I thought the guys did a great job of that today. We had a couple quick doubles and a couple quick singles matches. The matches have been more competitive and we were resilient and bounced back from some tough situations, but were able to finish."
Baylor's seventh consecutive win improves its season record to 17-4 and ups its Big 12 record to 3-0. The Cowboys drop to 11-12 on the season and are still in search of their first conference win at 0-4.
Baylor's shutout win was the team's eighth of the season and first since blanking No. 34 Memphis 5-0 on March 28.
BU got off to a strong start by sweeping the doubles matches. Patrick Pradella and Roberto Maytin were first to finish with an 8-2 victory on court two over OSU's Denys Pume and Richard Del Nunzio.
Marko Krickovic and Robert Verzaal were next off as they were able to get past Chris Haworth and Brady Bohrnsted 8-6 on court three to secure the doubles point for the Bears. The pairing of Diego Galeano and Mate Zsiga were last to finish on court one as they held off Rifat Biktyakov and Matt Campbell en route to securing an 8-4 win.
Baylor continued to press the Cowboys as singles action got underway. Pradella was the first BU player to secure a win in the No. 1 spot over OSU's Biktyakov 6-2, 6-1.
Zsiga was close behind with a 6-1, 6-1 win in the No. 2 spot to give Baylor a 3-0 advantage in the match.
Baylor's Maytin clinched the match on court six getting past Trevor Horstmann, 6-2, 6-4. Julian Lenz gave the Bears a 5-0 lead with his 7-5, 6-0 win over Pume on court three.
Galeano secured a Baylor victory on court four with in a third set tiebreaker, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-4) over Bohrnstedt. The match concluded on court five where Marko Krickovic got past Oleksiy Arovin 6-2, 7-5 to complete the Bears' 7-0 shutout.
Baylor has now won nine straight vs. OSU and holds a 22-8 lead in the all-time series record against the Cowboys.
The Bears will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Austin to take on the 23rd- ranked Texas Longhorns at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
"They have a great team," Knoll said. "They have always been a great rivalry for us. It is always a challenge to play on the road. I am sure they will have a nice crowd down there and I think we are going to have some folks come down and support us. I would like to invite everyone to make the drive down. It will be a great night for college tennis in Austin and we are really looking forward to it."
To stay up to date with the team all season follow @BaylorMTennis on Twitter.
