Baylor University Team Page
WACO, Texas - The second-ranked and second-seeded Baylor men's tennis team blanked No. 29 LSU, 4-0, Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship Round of 16 for a 14th-consecutive season.
The Bears (23-5) will make the program's 16th-overall appearance in the sport's Sweet 16, after winning the doubles point and taking singles victories on courts four, five and six against the Tigers (18-9).
In doubles action, LSU came out firing as No. 8 Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano had their 17-match win streak snapped with an 8-5 setback to No. 14 Jordan Daigle and Boris Arias at the top of the lineup.
However, BU would weather the early storm with Felipe Rios and Vince Schneider running past Tam Trinh and Andrew Korinek, 8-3, at the No. 2 spot.
That decision left the doubles point to be decided on court three where the duo of Max Tchoutakian and Mate Zsiga were playing together for the first time since April 10. With the match against Chris Simpson and Justin Butsch tied 6-6, Tchoutakian and Zsiga got a 7-6 lead when Butsch was penalized a game for a code violation. The BU tandem went on to hold for an 8-6 win to give the Bears the doubles point.
BU carried the momentum into singles action claiming all six first sets.
For a second-straight day, Rios was the first Bear to finish, beating Simon Freund, 6-1, 6-1, on court six. He is now 28-7 on the year and 19-3 in dual-match play.
The 116th-ranked Mate Zsiga downed Korinek, 6-4, 6-0, on court five to push the Baylor lead to 3-0.
To close out the match, Galeano rebounded from the loss in doubles to post a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Trinh. The BU senior has now won five-straight matches.
STAT OF THE DAY
0 - the number of matches Baylor has lost when hosting NCAA Championship play (24-0)
NOTABLES
• Baylor advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the 14th-straight season and the 16th-time overall.
• Baylor remains perfect at 16-0 in the second round of the NCAA Championships.
• It was Baylor's 14th shutout of the season.
• Baylor has won 29 matches by 4-0 scores in the NCAA Championships.
• Baylor is 50-16 all-time in NCAA play.
• Baylor is 13-2 at home this season, and improved to 24-0 in NCAA Championship play when hosting.
• Baylor improved to 25-2 in the doubles point this season.
• Baylor now trails the all-time series to LSU, 3-1.
• Baylor has now swept the opening two rounds of NCAA play seven times, last accomplishing the feat in 2010.
TOP QUOTE
"I don't think that you try to evaluate your play as much during the NCAA tournament, because you just try to make it to the next day. You look to advance, and we advanced. It's a little less than a week before we play again, and we certainly hope that we play better. If we advance we will be thrilled that we advanced." - head coach Matt Knoll on the match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will face 18th-ranked South Florida (23-6) Thursday at 7 p.m. CT in the round of 16 of the NCAA Championships. All matches will be played in Waco at the Hurd Tennis Center.
