By Ben Everett | Sports Writer
Baylor men’s tennis went 1-2 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoor Championships this weekend at the Seattle Tennis Club in Seattle.
Seeded at No. 12, the Bears lost their opening match to No. 5 seed Stanford 4-2 on Friday afternoon.
Sophomore Bjoern Petersen and junior Jimmy Bendeck fell to Tom Fawcett and Axel Gellar 6-3 and freshman duo Roy Smith and Matias Soto dropped a 7-6(6) match to Timothy Sah and David Wilczynski as Stanford took a 1-0 lead after doubles.
To start singles play, Petersen was defeated by Fawcett, 6-2, 6-1 to give the Cardinal a 2-0 lead.
Smith put Baylor on the board with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Wilczynski at the No. 5 spot to make it 2-1.
At the No. 2 spot, junior Johannes Schretter lost 6-4, 6-3 to Gellar as Stanford took a commanding 3-1 lead in the match.
Soto fought back to defeat Sameer Kumar at the No. 3 spot, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 to pull Baylor within a point, but junior Will Little fell to Eric Fomba 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to give Stanford the win.
On Saturday, the Bears went up against No. 13 seed Columbia, but once again faltered in a 4-2 decision.
Schretter and Little combined to take down Columbia’s Victor Pham and Jackie Tang, 6-1, on court one, and freshman Sven Lah teamed up with Soto to down Jack Mingjie Lin and William Matheson, 6-3, to give Baylor the doubles point.
Columbia took the lead with back-to-back singles wins as Petersen fell to Pham, 6-2, 6-1, and Smith lost 6-1, 6-2 to Tim Wang.
Soto tied the match with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Adam Ambrozy, but Lah lost a 6-4, 6-1 decision to Lin as Columbia took a 3-2 lead.
The Lions clinched the match when Austen Huang took down Little, 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot.
Having dropped two straight, the Bears rebounded on Sunday with a 4-1 win over host Washington.
Bendeck and Soto dropped the first doubles match, 6-3, to Piers Foley and Mitch Stewart, but the Bears took the next two doubles matches to clinch the point.
Schretter and sophomore Constantin Frantzen teamed up to take down Enzo Sommer and Kawika Lam, 6-4, before Lah and Smith defeated Jake Douglas and Alexis Alvarez 7-6(5) to give Baylor a 1-0 lead.
Smith put the Bears up 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Amit Batta at the No. 4 spot, but Schretter fell to Stewat 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 2 spot to make it 2-1.
Bendeck picked up a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Sea Hawkin and Soto clinched the match with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 victory against Sommer to break Baylor’s losing streak.
The Bears return home for a doubleheader against Abliene Christian at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
