No. 1 Baylor Men's Tennis Moves On After Downing No. 14 Ole Miss

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 17, 2021

No. 1 MT Moves On After Downing No. 14 Ole Miss
Bears advance to NCAA Quarterfinals, will face TCU on Thursday
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

THE RUNDOWN
ORLANDO, Fla. – No. 1-ranked and second-seeded Baylor men’s tennis defeated No. 14-ranked and No. 15 seed Ole Miss 4-1 Monday afternoon at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals.

The Bears (32-4) dominated the doubles point, then battled to scratch out three more points in singles with three matches going to decisive third sets.

BU took it to the Rebels (13-11) in doubles, as No. 75 Matias Soto/Nick Stachowiak grabbed a fast 6-1 win over Brady Draheim/Simon Junk on court two. Finn Bass/Charlie Broom sealed the opening tally for the Bears with a 6-3 defeat of Jakob Cadonau/Lukas Engelhardt on court three.

No. 9 Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah were up 5-2 on the No. 1 doubles team in the nation, Finn Reynolds/Tim Sandkaulen, when play was stopped to move on to singles.

On the individual courts, Stachowiak took care of business with a blistering 6-4, 6-0 victory on court four against John Hallquist Lithen to double BU’s advantage. However, the Rebels got one back on court two as No. 16 Finn Reynolds upset No. 11 Matias Soto 6-1, 6-4 to move the scoreline to 2-1.

Baylor held first-set leads on two of the remaining four courts, but Broom and Lah fought back to flip their matches and force decisive third sets. Meanwhile, No. 21 Adrian Boitan found himself in a battle on court one, splitting his first two sets.

On court six, Spencer Furman wrapped up a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Engelhardt with a pair of set-winning breaks to push BU one point closer at 3-1.

With Boitan leading 4-3 in the third and Lah tied at 2-2 in the final frame, it was Broom who clinched it by coming back from down 0-3 in the third to win 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and put Baylor through to the next round.

HIGHLIGHTS
• With the win, Baylor advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the second-consecutive postseason and 14th time in program history.
• Baylor’s 32 wins are its most in a single-season since 2005 (33).
• BU improved to 62-21 all-time in NCAA Championship play and 1-1 in postseason matches held in Orlando, Fla., at the USTA National Campus.
• The Bears are 16-6 all-time in 4-1 postseason matches.
• BU is now 10-2 all-time as the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Championship.
• The Bears are now 28-8 in the doubles point this season and are 27-1 in matches when winning the opening tally.
• Baylor boasts a combined 151-31 (.830) mark in singles action this spring and a collective 70-23 (.753) record in doubles.
• Spencer Furman extended his singles win streak to 12 matches, tied for the team lead.
• Charlie Broom is now on a five-match singles win streak.
• Matias Soto and Nick Stachowiak lead the Bears with a seven-match doubles win streak.

STAT OF THE MATCH
45 – Total number of wins by Nick Stachowiak on the 2020-21 season after he collected a pair of victories in the Bears’ defeat of Ole Miss.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Michael Woodson
On today’s match…
“Really pleased to get through today. Our guys did a phenomenal job of starting very quickly in doubles. I thought the energy was really good. They executed and did exactly what we talked about, which was try to punch them in the mouth. Credit to our guys for finding ways to flip a lot of those [singles] matches and just hang in there and take sets at the end. It’s one of those matches that you’re just happy to get through it and move on. There’s a lot to learn from it that will make us better for Thursday.”

On looking ahead to Thursday against TCU…
“We’re really excited for it. At this point in the season, everybody’s really good. There were some national championship caliber teams that lost today already, so to be through and play a team like TCU who we know, we know it’s going to be an absolute battle. If we bring our best tennis and are super competitive and leave it all out there, we’re going to be able to live with the result. We’re going to be really excited and fired up. All you have to do is say ‘TCU’ and our guys will be ready to go.”

Graduate senior Charlie Broom
On advancing to the next round…
“We know how important it is to try and finish teams off when we have the chance. I think my match, in singles, it wasn’t looking great for awhile, but I was able to turn it around thankfully. Stachs cleaned up really well in his match and just crushed the guy, so when you’ve got someone like that playing next to you and you can feel his momentum, it just helps tremendously. I think everyone’s pretty happy to be going through to the next round. I definitely think we’ve got some things to learn and take away from that match, but all in all we’re just really happy to go through with a fairly convincing win.”

Graduate senior Nick Stachowiak
On playing a tighter match than the first two rounds…
“It was a bit closer of a match, for sure, but the first two matches were also close. The score may not have shown that, but every team in the NCAA tournament is a great team and they’re here for a reason. It was important for us to step on their throats and win this one convincingly, even though a lot of matches went three sets. It was just to get off the court with a 4-1 victory.”

WHAT’S NEXT
No. 1-ranked and No. 2 seed Baylor (32-4) advances to face No. 7 TCU (19-7) in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Thursday, May 20, at a time still to be announced at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

For the latest news on the Baylor men’s tennis team all season long, follow their official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorMTennis.

-BaylorBears.com-


__________________________________

Max Calderone | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (VB, MTEN, EQ)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
O: 254-710-3073 | C: 254-265-1639

[signature_621684548]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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