Horned Frogs Fall at No. 6 Baylor

Friday, March 29

Waco, Texas

6:00 PM

TCU

#6 Baylor

Horned Frogs Fall at No. 6 Baylor

3/29/2019 10:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Baylor 5, TCU 2 (PDF)

TCU dropped its Big 12 opener and snapped a 10-match winning streak.

WACO, Texas – The Big 12 Conference opener for the No. 9 TCU men's tennis team did not go as planned as No. 6 Baylor was able to get the 5-2 victory on Friday night at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco to snap a 10-match winning streak by the Horned Frogs.

Doubles was a tight battle from the first serve with two of the courts between TCU (15-4, 0-1 Big 12) and Baylor (18-2, 1-0 Big 12) going to tiebreakers. It was a battle of top 10 doubles pairs at the top position as the No. 1 duo of Sven Lah and Jimmy Bendeck used a late break to top the No. 6 duo of Reese Stalder and Bertus Kruger, 6-4. The other courts battled to tiebreakers as court three once again used a break to take the lead and capture the tiebreaker, 7-5, to give Baylor the doubles point.

TCU did not back down from the challenge and was able to get the first set on three of the courts and force third sets on two other courts. Baylor went up 2-0 after a straight-set win on court five but No. 7 Alex Rybakov got TCU on the board with the senior downing No. 45 Matias Soto, 7-5, 6-3, to improve to 19-1 this season and 11-1 against ranked opponents. While the Frogs continued to battle, the Bears were able to finish out courts four and six in three sets to clinch the overall match victory. After the match was over, Reese Stalder was able to get a win of his own as the senior came back to take down Adrian Boitan, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(9).

Quotes from the Match
Head Coach David Roditi
"I like the way we came back in some spots. I thought our upperclassmen did a good job of competing. We must use this as an opportunity to grow and grow fast. Baylor was more physical than we were. They played better than us and we let many opportunities go in doubles and they didn't. We will learn and bounce back for Texas Tech on Sunday. Thanks to all our fans and alumni for coming down to support us. We will do better next time."

Match Results
TCU vs Baylor
03/29/2019 at Waco, Texas
(Hurd Tennis Center)
#6 Baylor 5, #9 TCU 2

Singles competition
1. #7 Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. #45 Matias Soto (BAY) 7-5, 6-3
2. #40 Johannes Schretter (BAY) def. #25 Alastair Gray (TCU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
3. Reese Stalder (TCU) def. Adrian Boitan (BAY) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11-9)
4. #82 Will Little (BAY) def. #115 Bertus Kruger (TCU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
5. Sven Lah (BAY) def. Luc Fomba (TCU) 6-3, 6-3
6. Jimmy Bendeck (BAY) def. Sander Jong (TCU) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. #1 Sven Lah/Jimmy Bendeck (BAY) def. #6 Reese Stalder/Bertus Kruger (TCU) 6-4
2. Matias Soto/Will Little (BAY) vs. Alastair Gray/Alex Rybakov (TCU) 6-6 (3-4), unfinished
3. Johannes Schretter/Constantin Frantzen (BAY) def. Luc Fomba/Sander Jong (TCU) 7-6 (7-5)

Match Notes:
TCU 15-4, 0-1 Big 12; National ranking #9
Baylor 18-2, 1-0 Big 12; National ranking #6
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (5,1,4,6,2,3)
A-441

Up Next
TCU will continue its opening weekend of Big 12 action by returning to the friendly confines of the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center and welcoming No. 29 Texas Tech on Sunday, March 31 at 1 p.m.