Tulane Beats Baylor in Men's Tennis Regionals
5/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 12, 2001
FORT WORTH, Texas (May 12, 2001) -- The 40th-ranked Tulane men's tennis team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament by virtue of a tightly contested, 4-2 victory over No. 29 Baylor at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center on the TCU campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The Conference USA champion Green Wave improved their record to 16-8 with the win, while Baylor ended their season at an even 12-12.
Tulane claimed the doubles point to take the early 1-0 lead. Their first win came at the one slot where the 12-ranked pair of Michael Kogan and Mikko Viljanen defeated No. 24 Reiner Neurohr and Mark Williams, 8-2. Baylor responded with an 8-6 at three doubles thanks to Zoltan Papp and Csongor Bibza. The point was decided at two doubles, as the Green Wave's Mattias Westerberg and Goran Vasiljevic won a 7-4 tiebreaker over Nathan McGregor and Cory Ross.
The singles was no less as close as the doubles action. Tulane took a commanding 3-0 lead with straight set wins at one and two singles, but the Bears refused to go down without a fight, claiming the five and six slots to close the gap.
As the Bears' Zoltan Papp prepared to serve out his match against Jorge Lievano at four singles to even the match at 3-3, play was suspended with Mikko Viljanen's win over Baylor's all-time wins leader Mark Williams at the three spot. Viljanen was 0-3 lifetime heading in to the match against Williams.
Viljanen said of his match against Williams, "I hit to his backhand a lot in our previous three matches, so I switched things up a bit today and concentrated on hitting to his forehand. I knew the third set would be tough because he's a senior and knows what he's doing."
Williams ended his career with 101 wins, seven ahead of former Bear Johann Jooste.
Baylor head coach Matt Knoll expressed his discontent with the Bears' finish this season saying, "I was totally disappointed with this season. I didn't come to Baylor to be ranked 29th in the country and get knocked out of the tournament in the first round. This won't happen next year."
Tulane will now face fifth-seeded TCU in the finals of the regionals tomorrow, May 13 at noon. The Horned Frogs squeeked out a 4-3 victory over the Green Wave earlier this year in an indoor match at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center on March 1.
No. 29 Baylor (12-12) vs. No. 40 Tulane (16-8) at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center
Singles
No. 1 #34 Michael Kogan (TU) def. Csongor Bibza (BU) 6-3, 6-0 No. 2 #94 Victor Romero (TU) def. Reiner Neurohr (BU) 6-2, 6-3 No. 3 Mikko Viljanen (TU) def. Mark Williams (BU) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 No. 4 Jorge Lievano (TU) vs. Zoltan Papp (BU) 6-3, 2-6, 3-5, susp. No. 5 Matias Marin (BU) def. Mattias Westerberg (TU) 6-2, 6-4 No. 6 Cory Ross (BU) def. Goran Vasiljevic (TU) 6-1, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1?? #12 Viljanen/Kogan (TU) def. #24 Neurohr/Williams (BU) 8-2 No. 2?? Westerberg/Vasiljevic (TU) def. McGregor/Ross (BU) 9-8(4) No. 3?? Papp/Bibza (BU) def. Romero/Lievano (TU) 8-6
Final Score: Tulane 4, Baylor 2
