By Jarrod Leicher | Reporter
The No. 2 Bears defeated UT Arlington in a 7-0 sweep pushing the team to a 14-2 record. Baylor is now 17-5 all time against UTA and has won the last 15, with the last 11 being 7-0 sweeps.
No. 33-ranked Matias Soto and Nick Stachowiak set the pace in doubles with a 6-1 win over UTA’s Nick Beamish and Angel Diaz on court two. Duo Charlie Broom and Sven Lah fell short 6-4 on court one to Alejandro Hayen and Alan Sau Franco. Earning the point for Baylor in the doubles, Constantin Frantzen and Spencer Furman won 6-3 against Solano Caffarena and Eduard Simo on court three.
In unattached competition, No. 66 ranked Christopher Frantzen and Sebastian Nothhaft secured a 6-1 win over Daichi Akiyoshi and Miguel Cabrera.
Interim Head Coach Michael Woodson said playing UTA is always a great competition.
“They fight hard,” Woodson said. “They compete great, they’re well coached, they never give up and they make it extremely difficult on our team, which is why I love playing against them. Our guys just got so much out of that by just keeping their hands in the fire.”
In singles play, Constantin Frantzen secured the second point and set the pace for Baylor with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Simo on court six. Earning the next point for Baylor on court three, Furman defeated Hayen 6-1, 6-4.
Second-year grad transfer Ryan Dickerson secured the win for Baylor with a 6-3, 6-0 win on court five over Caffarena. Coming in with another win, No. 74-ranked Stachowiak collected the point 6-3, 6-2 against Alan Sau Franco in court two.
With Baylor holding a 5-0 lead in the match, there were still two very close battles on courts one and four. Third-year sophomore Finn Bass dealt with two tiebreakers on court four against Miguel Cabrera winning 7-6(6), 7-6(5).
After missing the first set, No. 46-ranked Adrian Boitan, battling No. 84 Diaz, had a 6-4 loss in the first set. In the second set, coming back from being down 5-2, Boitan narrowly won in a tiebreaker 7-6(3), taking him into the third set breaker, where he came out on top 13-11 to give him the final point.
“It’s easy for guys when they don’t have the best preparation and things are a little uncomfortable to just say it’s not my day,” Woodson said. “So I was extremely impressed with Finn and Adrian in particular, who haven’t had the preparation that some of the other guys had, that got down and didn’t take their hands out of the fire.”
On the riverside court, Nothhaft overcame Beamish for a 6-2, 6-7(3), 1-0(9) win, Christopher Frantzen defeated Daichi Akiyoshi 6-2, 6-4 and second-year freshman Joseph Chen got the win 6-4, 6-1 against Ricardo Alban.
The Bears will next head to North Carolina to face off against a pair of ranked opponents, No. 16 NC State on March 2 in Raleigh and then on on to Winston-Salem to face No. 13 Wake Forest on March 4.
