No. 17 Baylor MT Rolls Past No. 16 Illinois in Doubleheader Sweep

[Ingram, Brent]

BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS – March 1, 2025

No. 17 Baylor MT Rolls Past No. 16 Illinois in Doubleheader Sweep
Bears take down No. 16 Illinois and UTRGV over the doubleheader

For more information contact: Brent Ingram; 210-845-8651, brent_ingram at baylor.edu<mailto:brent_ingram at baylor.edu>  or Max Calderone; 254-265-1639, max_calderone at baylor.edu<mailto:max_calderone at baylor.edu> or Josie Hutton; 254-709-7720,  josie_hutton at baylor.edu<mailto:josie_hutton at baylor.edu>



WACO, Texas -- No. 17 Baylor men’s tennis completed a doubleheader sweep with wins over UTRGV and a nightcap thriller over No. 16 Illinois, on Saturday at the Mark and Paula Hurd Tennis Center.



The Bears opened the doubleheader with an efficient 4-0 win over UTRGV (2-9), claiming the doubles point via courts 1 and 2 and then clinching the win with points on court 3, 2 and 6.



Baylor (10-6) kept the day going with a top-20 win over No. 16 Illinois (5-3), 4-1, getting past the Illini with points in doubles, court 3, 4, and 6.



The sweep extended Baylor’s win streak to three consecutive matches and the Bears have wins in four of their last five, which also featured a win over No. 7 Duke.



THE UTRGV RUNDOWN

In the opener of the twinbill, the Bears started the day with the doubles point, getting wins on court 1 from No. 86 Oskar Brostrom-Poulsen and Marko Miladinovic, 6-2. On court 2, Imran Daniel Hazli and Luc Koenig posted a 7-5 win.



Koenig gave BU a 2-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-0 win on court 3 and Zsombor Velcz posted a 6-2, 6-3 win on court 2 to push the lead to 3-0. Luis Jose Nakamine won on court 6, 6-0, 6-1, clinching the 4-0 win.



THE ILLINOIS RUNDOWN

The day of tennis continued with a Baylor women’s 4-0 win over West Virginia in a 3 p.m. match and the men’s tennis Bears opened up the nightcap with a strong showing in doubles. No. 12 Brostrom-Poulsen and Miladinovic set the stage with a court 1 win, and Devin Badenhorst and Koenig clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 winner on court 2, their 10th win as a pair on the year.



In singles, the Bears fell in the first set on courts 1 and 2, but got things rolling with a 6-2 win from Alexandru Chirita on court 4. Velcz also claimed the first set on court 3, 6-2.



Miladinovic kept up his momentum from the doubles point with a win in a first-set tiebreak, taking the first set on court 6, 7-5.



Kenta Miyoshi, ranked No. 12 and owning a 6-1 mark in the spring, posted a two-set win over No. 35 Badenhorst to get the Illini on the board and even the match at 1-1, with a 6-3, 6-4 win.



Chirita put the Bears back on top with a 6-2, 6-3 win on court 4 over No. 119 Tyler Bowers.



Right after Chirita posted the two-set winner on court 4, Brostrom-Poulsen forced a third set on court 2 with a 6-3 second-set win over No. 45 William Mroz.



Velcz finished off his third-set win with a 6-2, 6-3 win over the Australian Jeremy Zhang, putting the bears up 3-1.



The match then turned towards the remaining three courts in progress, featuring Louis Bowden on court 5, with Bowden falling 7-6 in the first set, Miladinovic owning a 7-5 lead in court 6 and Brostrom-Poulsen pushing his match into a third set.



Miladinovic did the honors, winning a second-set tie break to push the Bears to the 4-1 win, with a 7-5, 7-6 win. He had a pair of match point opportunities in the second set but rallied back to claim the tiebreak.



WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

“(Illinois) is a very well-coached, gritty team. They’ve had a lot of adversity and they are really impressive. They are able to play a little bit looser then we did early on. They fought. Especially as the singles went on. I was really impressed with how they competed against us.



“We just really did our jobs. When things didn’t go our way, we didn’t hang our heads. We had good intensity - good physicality. The intensity on the court was really good in tough situations. We played to win. Marko had a couple of opportunities to close it out, and I think everyone was on pens and needles, but he and I on the court were completely fine. It was just right back to work. It was impressive.



“Marko’s win was so hard fought. The guy is just turning into a real animal. We’ve always known he is a high-level player and he’s put in so much work. Obviously he’s had some accolades in doubles and now he is starting to be our strongest point in singles. It is really, really impressive what he was able to do. There were a few things that happened in the match that were outside of his control and didn’t go his way. I would almost say that nothing went his way in that match other than he just really played great tennis. No one could take it from him. He earned it at the end and I’m super proud of him.”

- Baylor Head Coach Michael Woodson



WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears return to action on March 9, playing host to Cornel and Lehigh at the Hurd Tennis Center.



- BaylorBears.com -

--
Brent Ingram | Associate AD for Communications
Baseball Sport Program Administrator
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 210-845-8651

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