By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
After a rainy morning forced No. 11 Baylor men’s tennis indoors, tension only grew inside Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center as Baylor saw its five-match home winning streak snapped in dramatic fashion, falling 4-1 to conference foe No. 4 TCU on Sunday.
After spending weeks tied atop the conference standings, No. 11 Baylor (20-8, 6-2 Big 12) dropped its first match in Waco since March 10. Despite an impressive doubles showing from the Bears and an afternoon featuring six of the country’s top 70 players, Baylor couldn’t carry the momentum into singles, dropping the first four completed courts to the Horned Frogs (19-5, 7-1 Big 12).
“TCU is a great team and they deserve their top-four ranking, but I think we tried to play too well at times and expected it to sometimes come easy,” head coach Michael Woodson said. “When it became hard, we tried too much, and I think that got us too far behind to be able to come back.”
Evenly matched from courts one through six, the rivalry showdown stretched past the three-hour mark, with nearly every court featuring momentum swings and tiebreak drama.
Junior Connor Van Schalkwyk and senior Luc Koenig got things started for the Bears in doubles play, pushing past TCU 6-3 on Court 2 to give Baylor early momentum. On Court 1, graduate athlete Alexandru Chirita and senior Zsombor Velcz were locked in a tight battle, erasing a 5-4 TCU lead to tie the match at 5-5 before Chirita delivered an ace to put the Bears ahead 6-5. The Horned Frogs responded to force a tiebreak and slipped past Baylor 7-4 in the 13th game.
That left the doubles point to be decided on Court 3, where the freshman-junior duo of Calvin Baierl and Devin Badenhorst answered the call. After a review overturned the initial result of the previous point, Badenhorst ripped a winner down the line to take the tiebreak 7-5 and give Baylor a 1-0 lead.
But the momentum shifted once singles began.
“I thought we played one of the best doubles points we played all year, and I was extremely pleased with that because TCU always plays a great doubles point,” Woodson said. “But we carried too much stress into the singles.”
Despite Baylor’s strong start, the Horned Frogs claimed the opening set on all six singles courts. Aside from TCU freshman Oliver Bonding — a former top-three recruit in the 2025 class — overpowering Chirita in straight sets, the Bears stayed within striking distance until TCU took control. The Horned Frogs won two crucial tiebreaks and finishing with only a plus-16 margin across the six courts.
The headliner came on Court 1, where the No. 7-ranked Badenhorst and No. 6-ranked Duncan Chan delivered another back-and-forth battle. After Chan claimed the first set, 6-4, Badenhorst appeared to wear him down as the second set unfolded, applying pressure on his serve receive and using his 6-foot-7 frame to hammer his way to a 6-5 edge.
Chan answered by forcing a tiebreak, but Badenhorst overpowered him, ripping four aces to take the breaker and the set, 7-6. Still, in a day defined by tight margins across the courts, it was TCU that came out on top.
Luc Koenig mounted one final push to keep Baylor alive. Trailing 5-4 in the second set, the senior erupted in celebration after ripping a cross-court winner into the back corner, using the point to spark a rally and even the set at 5-5. But the momentum proved short-lived, as TCU steadied and closed out the match 7-5 to extend the Horned Frogs’ lead.
TCU Sunday afternoon at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. Alyssa Meyers | Photographer
“I think many of them fought back and gave themselves a chance there, ” Woodson said. “And in the second and then going into the third. And so there was opportunity there, never felt like we were getting blown off the courts. But yeah, I think we have to be able to go in there and be a little bit more calm.”
With Baylor trailing 3-1, the final decision came down to Court 3, where No. 46 Van Schalkwyk tried to follow the same comeback path as his Court 5 neighbor after dropping the first set in a tiebreak. But the second set ended the same way as the first, as national No. 61 Cooper Woestendick edged Van Schalkwyk in another 7-6 tiebreak to clinch the match for TCU and cap a day that slipped through Baylor’s fingertips.
“They outplayed us today,” Woodson said. “But there’s always the next time, and hopefully in a few days, we’ll get to play them again.”
Up next, Baylor hits the road for its final stretch of its 2026 campaign where the No. 3 seeded Bears will open the Big 12 Championships facing off against No. 6 seeded Utah at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
