TCU
Baylor
Frogs Fall to No. 6 Baylor
2/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 1, 2010
WACO, Texas—The 38th-ranked TCU men's tennis team fell to No. 6 Baylor on the road Monday, 7-0, in the championship match of the ITA Indoor Regional held at the Bears' Baylor Tennis Center. BU earned the right to compete at ITA Indoor Nationals Feb. 12-15 in Charlottesville, Va.
The loss, the first of the spring season for the Horned Frogs, dropped the squad's record to 3-1. Baylor improved to 4-0.
The match began with a highly-competitive fight in doubles. The Frogs had three match points to clinch the doubles point, but Julian Bley and Jordan Rux were able to hold off TCU's No. 2 duo of sophomore Slah Mbarek and freshman Sören Goitzka before rallying for a tiebreaker win, 9-8(7). The victory clinched the doubles point for the Bears.
The squads split the two previous doubles matches that finished. The Frogs' top tandem of juniors Emanuel Brighiu and Christopher Price held on for a 9-8(4) victory over Denes Lukacs and Maros Horny to keep the squad alive for the point after BU's Attila Bucko and Sergio Ramirez opened the competition with an 8-6 win over junior Zach Nichols and sophomore Paul Chappell at the No. 3 position.
"I think the key to the match was the doubles point," head coach Dave Borelli said. "We thought winning that was going to be key in grabbing the momentum early and putting some pressure on them, but we didn't quite get it. I am really happy with how we played, though. (Doubles) seems to be one of the strengths of our program over the last few years, and we looked pretty good today. I thought we played a little better in that area than I thought we would this time of year."
Singles saw a few more wasted TCU opportunities, as three of the six matches saw Baylor kill off Frog set points. The Bears eventually took all six matches in straight sets.
The first sets for matches of both freshman Marius Cirstea and junior Zach Nichols reached tiebreakers after the players were unable to hold back their respective Baylor opponents, Denes Lukacs at No. 1 singles and Dominik Mueller in the No. 5 slot. Lukacs clinched the Bears' team victory with a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory over Cirstea before Mueller took his match by the exact same score over Nichols.
Price had the best showing for a Frog in singles and nearly forced a third set at the No. 6 position against Roberto Maytin, but Maytin was able to fight off a set point of his own before rallying for a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Brighiu was forced to retire from his match at No. 2 singles against Jordan Rux, the nation's 11th-ranked player, after aggravating an injury, while Mbarek dropped a 6-2, 6-2 decision to Atilla Bucko at No. 3 singles. Goritzka fell to Sergio Ramirez at the No. 4 spot, 6-4, 6-3.
"My hat is off to Baylor," Borelli said. "That's a tough team. We just need to learn to take advantage of those opportunities to close out sets. We weren't quite able to do it today, but it was a great experience. I think we will be a little bit better the next time we play them (March 17 in Waco), so that should be an interesting matchup."
TCU takes the next two weeks off from competition before returning to the courts for their home opener Feb. 19 against Texas Tech at 2 p.m. The match will be played at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
Results
No. 6 Baylor 7, No. 38 TCU 0
Feb. 1, 2010
Baylor, Texas (Baylor Tennis Center)
Doubles
1. E. Brighiu/C. Price (TCU) vs. D. Lukacs/M. Horny (Baylor), 9-8 (4)
2. J. Bley/J. Rux (Baylor) def. S. Goritzka/S. Mbarek (TCU), 9-8 (7)
3. A. Bucko/S. Ramirez (Baylor) def. Z. Nichols/P. Chappell (TCU), 8-6
Singles
1. Denes Lukacs (Baylor) def. Marius Cirstea (TCU), 7-6(2), 6-3*-clinched team win
2. #11 Jordan Rux (Baylor) def. Emanuel Brighiu (TCU), ret
3. Attila Bucko (Baylor) def. Slah Mbarek (TCU), 6-2, 6-2
4. Sergio Ramirez (Baylor) def. Sören Goritzka (TCU), 6-4, 6-3
5. Dominik Mueller (Baylor) def. Zach Nichols (TCU), 7-6(2), 6-3
6. Roberto Maytin (Baylor) def. Christopher Price (TCU), 6-4, 7-5
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (2,3,1,5,4,6)
Players Mentioned
