Preview: Big 12 Championship
4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
AUSTIN, Texas - Riding a 12-match winning streak and a third straight Big 12 regular season title, the No. 7 TCU men's tennis team will head to Austin, Texas, for the 2018 Big 12 Tournament that will run from April 28-29 at the Texas Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs (18-3) earned a first-round bye and will face No. 27 Baylor (19-8) on Saturday at Noon, in the semifinals that will air live on Big12Sports.com. This will mark the third time in program history that TCU has faced the Bears in the Big 12 Championship with Baylor winning the last two meetings in 2013 (4-1) and 2015 (4-3).
TCU Notables
TCU is currently riding a 12-match winning streak that started on March 8 with a 6-1 victory over Penn. Ten of the victories were over ranked opponents with the Frogs clinching their third straight Big 12 regular season title with a 4-1 victory over Baylor before downing Texas Tech, 4-2, to go undefeated in the league regular season for the second straight season. TCU became the fourth program to capture three straight regular season titles in the conference.
Alex Rybakov is leading the way in singles and doubles with the junior holding down a No. 19 ranking with a 18-5 mark on the year and wins in 10 of the last 12 matches. Rybakov is also sitting at No. 4 in doubles with Guillermo Nuñez with the duo 12-2 on the year with seven wins over ranked opponents. Alastair Gray has a No. 55 ranking in the singles poll while Trevor Johnson (No. 59) and Nuñez (No. 107) round out the rest of the singles rankings. Gray and Johnson pair up in doubles for a 10-1 mark on the year in wins in the last eight straight matches.
Scouting the Bears
Baylor scored a 4-0 victory over Oklahoma State on Friday to move into the semifinals and face TCU on Saturday. The Bears, ranked No. 27 nationally, wrapped-up the regular season with losses in four of its last five matches. Johannes Schretter has a doubles and singles ranking to lead Baylor sitting at No. 68 in the singles poll with a team-best 23 wins on the season while also being ranked No. 11 with Will Little with 13 victories. Bjoern Petersen also pulls in a ranking at No. 88, while Akos Kotorman and Constantin Frantzen round out the rankings with a No. 90 doubles ranking.
Frogs in Postseason
For the fifth time in the last six years, TCU will be making an appearance in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship. The Frogs have made an appearance in a conference tournament final 19 times in program history with TCU taking the crown on 15 of those occasions. Should TCU win on Saturday, it will mark the third straight appearance in a conference finals with Roditi at the helm of the program.
Live Video & Results
Live video of the semifinal match will be available on Big12Sports.com, while live scoring of the match can be found at TexasSports.com. Final results and a recap will be available at GoFrogs.com following the completion of the competitions. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
