By Blake Vines | Reporter
Over the past five days, Baylor men’s tennis competed in the ITA Texas Regional Championships in College Station. Senior Zsombor Velcz and junior Connor Van Schalkwyk offered outstanding performances.
Velcz and Van Schalkwyk headlined and won the doubles title to secure an automatic berth to the 2025 NCAA Individual Championships, joining junior teammate Devin Badenhorst in Baylor’s additions to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship, hosted Nov. 18-23 in Orlando, Fla.
The pair defeated UIW, Rice and Texas and clinched the championship Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Texas Tech.
Badenhorst and senior Luc Koenig also pulled together an impressive run, as the No. 5-ranked duo advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 8-4.
On the singles side, No. 60-ranked Van Schalkwyk reached the semifinals before losing to SMU’s No. 22 Trevor Svajda 6-4, 6-2, falling one win shy of qualifying for NCAA nationals. No. 101 Alexandru Chirita, a senior, advanced to the quarterfinals while junior Louis Bowden knocked off players from Texas Tech, SMU and Texas A&M. Freshman Drew Hedgecoe pulled out multiple wins in the main draw, including a three-set win against TCU’s Julian Alonso.
The Bears pulled together an overall record of 19-7 and a doubles record of 8-3 while in College Station.
