By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Hot off a four-game winning streak, Baylor men’s tennis took down the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 4-0, and Texas Tech University, 5-2, to start Big 12 play on Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
“It’s not easy to win in the Big 12,” head coach Michael Woodson said. “Throw the rankings out and throw previous matches out [of] the window. It’s just a dogfight every single match. No one likes each other. No one wants to lose in the Big 12, no one wants to give those bragging rights away and I was impressed that our guys understood the task and accomplished it.”
The Bears (14-11, 1-0 Big 12) opened up the doubleheader with an afternoon match against UTRGV (5-13). Baylor came out of the gates strong in doubles play and never let up.
Senior Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi and sophomore Luc Koenig blew away their competition on court two, 6-1. Shortly after, sophomore Justin Braverman and junior Christopher Frantzen also rallied together a 6-1 win on court three to clinch the doubles point for the green and gold.
A tight battle took place on court one, as No. 11 duo junior Tadeas Paroulek and freshman Zsomber Velcz were tied with the Vaqueros, 4-4, when double play concluded.
When singles play began, Frantzen breezed to a quick 6-2, 6-2 win to extend the Bears’ lead to 2-0. In the meantime, No. 94 Paroulek also came out strong and courtesy of several strong serves, he took the point on court one, 6-3, 6-2.
With a 3-0 lead, Baylor didn’t need to wait long before securing the win. Braverman got ahead early on court six and put the clamps on, snagging back to back sets, 6-2, 6-4. Sophomore Marko Miladinović’s match on court two was left unfinished after he took the first set and resisted the Vaqueros’ comeback, 7-5, 2-2.
On court three, Mazzuchi was ahead, 6-2, 5-5, and sophomore Ethan Muza was also on top 6-2, 5-1 on court four when play came to a close.
Now riding a five-game winning streak, the Bears took a quick breather and then opened up conference play against Texas Tech (12-7, 0-1 Big 12) in the nightcap of the doubleheader.
The long-awaited return of senior captain Finn Bass was finally here. Bass struggled with injuries and was questionable to play again this season, but he returned to the court three weeks ahead of schedule. His last appearance came on Feb. 19 against then-No. 16 University Florida in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
Bass’ injury wasn’t specified, but Woodson said the injury caused nerve pain.
The No. 12 doubles tandem in the country, Bass and Mazzuchi, took to court two and picked up where they left off. The Red Raiders and the Bears were in a dogfight on courts one through three. Baylor dished out the first punch, as No. 11 Paroulek and Velcz took their set 6-4 on court one.
Both courts two and three finished not even a minute later. Braverman and Frantzen fell, 3-6, on court three, and then Bass and Mazzuchi dropped their set 4-6, giving Texas Tech the doubles point and the 1-0 lead.
Needing to claw itself out of a hole, Baylor dug deep and swiped the first set on five of six courts to begin singles play. The first to finish their match was Muza on court five, 6-3, 6-4. Muza’s fist pumps and high energy hyped up home crowd in a big way.
Miladinović grabbed his second set a little over a minute later, giving him the 6-3, 6-1 success. With two singles wins under their belt, the Bears now led 2-1 and looked to extend on a potential rally after tailing by one early.
The green and gold’s dominance continued in singles play. Less than five minutes after Miladinović gave the Bears the lead, Mazzuchi pulled out a tight battle on court four, 7-5, 6-3. The senior controlled the match the entire way, and he reached the century mark in career singles wins.
The Bears were one point away from victory and all eyes turned to court one. Paroulek took the first set 6-1 and fought back to force a tiebreaker in the second set. He started the tiebreaker behind 3-0 before flashing forehand and backhand returns to win the set 7-6(5).
While the road to a winning streak has been long, Woodson said he’s continued to push his players to the point where taking the first conference game was a reality rather than an afterthought.
“They’ve used the tough experiences that they’ve had in the tough matches against the top programs as fuel as a learning experience,” Woodson said. “They take the information from the matches and they go work on it in practice and it’s just starting to pay off.”
After securing the victory, the Bears played on. Courts two and six were in tough competition all night long. Nearly an hour after Paroulek’s win, Koenig dropped his match, 6(1)-7, 5-7 on court six. Baylor then tacked on the final point of the game to win 5-2, when Velcz won the only third set of the day on court two, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
With the win, the Bears extended their winning streak and started off Big 12 play strong. Baylor won the match without winning the doubles point for the first time since May 13, 2022, against then-No. 18 Stanford University.
“We found some good rhythm, players are confident and we will just build on it,” Paroulek said. “We will bring [the momentum] to Fort Worth next week against TCU.”
The green and gold will be back in action at 6 p.m. Thursday against No. 3 Texas Christian University at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center in Fort Worth.
