By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
No. 10 Baylor men’s tennis looked to take down one of the best teams in the nation on Wednesday night in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center, but No. 3 Texas Christian University came in strong and took down the Bears 4-1.
Coming off of a hard home loss against No. 4 University of Michigan, Baylor (5-3) fell short in a big match against its rival, TCU (8-0).
The Bears opened the night with doubles play and looked to jump out on top early. Head coach Michael Woodson and his team are undefeated this year when they have won the doubles point.
However, quickly after doubles play had started, sophomore Ethan Muza and freshman Luc Koeing were no match for their Horned Frogs opponents, as they fell on court three 6-1. Baylor now looked to both courts one and two in hopes of coming away with the doubles point.
On court two junior Tadeas Paroulek and freshman Zsomber Velcz stayed close and took down the No. 11 doubles duo in the country by a score of 7-5. Paroulek utililzed a strong serving ability along with several kills by Velcz to help propel the past the tough foes.
With the doubles point lying on the shoulders of No. 9 doubles tandem fifth-year senior Finn Bass and senior Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi, the Bears were in good position as they took a quick 4-1 lead. The Frogs were able to battle back and the separate pairings found themselves knotted up at 5-5. With opportunities to win the game at both 5-5 and 6-5 respectively, the Bears were unable to finish the job and lost 7-5, giving the doubles point to TCU.
Kenneth Prabhakar | Photo Editor
Moving into singles play, Baylor went down 2-0 after No. 44 singles player Bass was swiftly taken down by the Horned Frogs’ No. 17 junior Jake Fearnley 6-3, 6-1. Then, court two wrapped up with what wound up being the lone bright spot of the day in No. 117 Paroulek, who won two straight sets 6-3, 6-4.
Everything else went downhill for the Bears as No. 125 Mazzuchi lost a hard fought contest on court five in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Sophomore Marko Miladinović then lost in consecutive sets 7-6(4), 6-3 on court three.
“You have to give credit to TCU,” Woodson said. “They came in strong after a long road trip to Tennessee and North Carolina, but we pushed them by winning the first four sets. We had a lot of opportunities today, but it ends up as a learning experience for us.”
Baylor will look to bounce back, but the schedule doesn’t get any easier as No. 18 University of Arizona will come to Waco on Friday night at 6 p.m. for a battle in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
