By Aidan O’Connor | Sports Writer
No. 19 Baylor men’s tennis had its season come to a close as it lost 4-3 to No. 18 Texas A&M Sunday evening at the Mitchell D. Case Tennis Center in College Station.
“In these situations, you have to come out ready to go in doubles, and I thought we were just not brave enough,” head coach Michael Woodson said. “Doubles is not a strength of theirs, and it is of ours. It’s disappointing to kind of get down on [Court] One and [Court] Two like we did, and that hurt us. At the end of the day, when two great teams like this play against each other, a lot of times that doubles point could make the difference and we saw that.”
Things got off to a rough start as the Bears (23-11) were swept in doubles play. Seniors Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen were the first to fall, losing their match 6-1. The Aggies (18-10) then secured the doubles point as sophomore Devin Badenhorst and junior Luc Koenig lost 6-3. Graduate student Alexandru Chirita and junior Zsombor Velcz’s match was left unfinished at 5-4.
“We split two, three-set singles matches, and it comes down to the doubles,” Woodson said. “Credit to them, they played a heck of a lot better than they did yesterday, and I thought they used the conditions and the crowd to their advantage. They caught the breaks in big moments, and we didn’t.”
The Bears’ woes continued into singles play as Miladinovic lost his match, 6-2, 6-4. Up 2-0, Texas A&M was rolling, but the green and gold fought back. Koenig secured the Bears’ first point, winning his match 6-4, 6-2. Chirita then added on after a highly contested match, winning 7-6(9), 6-4.
The match then turned into a back-and-forth affair with the season on the line, as the Aggies regained the lead when Velcz lost 7-5, 7-5. Brostrom Poulsen then responded with an electric 3-6, 6-0, 7-5 win that saw him completely shift the momentum after the first set. With five courts divided, Badenhorst remained the lone man trying to clinch the match.
“[Badenhorst] has never been in that position, actually,” Woodson said. “That’s hard, and I know he feels the pressure. … Credit to the other guy — different style of player — that guy’s hoping you beat yourself, [compared to] Devin, who’s an aggressive player. I think Dev was pretty fatigued by the end, from what it looked like, and probably emotionally and mentally … with everything that he’s going through. It takes a big toll on you, and he gave himself a chance — battled all the way through — but it just wasn’t enough at the end.”
Tied at 3-3, Badenhorst was under pressure to give the Bears the win. He fought hard and clawed back after losing the first set, but it wasn’t enough, as he lost 3-6, 6-4, 1-6. With the loss, the Aggies secured the win 4-3, and the Bears’ season, after many achievements and accolades, came to an end.
“I was proud of the guys and thought they fought hard and left everything out there,” Woodson said. “I wouldn’t want to be working with anybody else.”
