By Jarrod Leicher | Reporter
No. 4 Baylor men’s tennis defeated Oklahoma 4-1 and UT-Tyler 7-0 in a double header on Friday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. These victories come after a loss against No. 3 TCU last weekend and put the Bears at 8-1 so far this season.
Oklahoma took the doubles point as No. 10 Constantin Franzen and Sven Lah fell 2-6 on court one against Nathan Han and Alex Martinez. Charlie Broom and Matias Soto then gave the point away with a 3-6 loss to Jake Van Emburgh and Matt Rodriguez on court three.
“I thought we had poor presence in the doubles. We allowed our body language and demeanor affect us on the court and didn’t make it about the tennis,” interim head coach Michael Woodson said. “They made us play on all three courts and executed their game plan and we didn’t.”
In singles play, gaining the first point for Baylor, No. 74-ranked Nick Stachowiak won 6-4, 6-0 against Mark Mandlik in straight-sets win on court four. No. 46-ranked Adrian Boitan won 6-2, 6-2 against Mason Beiler on court two to give the Bears the lead. Lah earned his third singles win of the season with a 6-4, 6-3 victory on court three against Martinez. Broom clinched the win for Baylor 7-5, 6-4 on court five against Justin Schlageter. Woodson said he was proud of the way the team bounced back from dropping the doubles point.
“I think the guys did a fantastic job of responding”, Woodson said, “As we got to the end of some of those close sets we were able to out tough them and play our best tennis in those moments”
Woodson noted Stachowiak and Boitan as stand outs for their quick and consistent play in their singles matches against Mandlik and Beiler.
“I think credit goes to Nick, he’s just really owning his game. He’s going out on the practice court every day and putting in the specific work that he needs and we’re seeing it on the match court,” Woodson said. “I’m also proud of Adrian for really steamrolling the guy that he played. That’s a good player and I think he made quick work of him and so that was really good to see”.
In the match against UT Tyler, Baylor brought even better competition in the doubles sets beginning with Frantzen and Spencer Furman taking a 6-0 win on court one over Jan Lucca Marquardt and Gonzalo Fernandez Gil. Clinching the point for Baylor with another 6-0 shut out were Finn Bass and Alex Garcia on court two over Egor Shestakov and Moritz Mayer.
Garcia won the Bears the second point of the match with straight sets 6-0, 6-1 victory against Jorge Sala Frigeri on court five. Sebastian Nothhaft grabbed the third point with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Jonas Dixon on court six. Christopher Frantzen followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Mayer on court four to clinch the match.
Constantin Frantzen increased the lead with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Fernandez Gil on court three. Ryan Dickerson then won 6-1, 6-1 against Shestakov on court two. To end the match, Bass finished off Marquardt 6-4, 6-1 on the top court.
Baylor will hit the road next and face off against No. 9 Texas A&M for the continuation of the ITA Kick-off Weekend at 3 p.m. Sunday in Dallas.
