Baylor MT Falls to No. 35 Oklahoma in 4-3 Thriller

[Pirtle, Colin]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – April 21, 2023

Baylor MT Falls to No. 35 Oklahoma in 4-3 Thriller
Koenig, Grassi Mazzuchi Earn Singles Wins
For more information contact: Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu<mailto:colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu>



LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Luc Koenig and Juan Pablo Mazzuchi earned singles points, and No. 42 Baylor men’s tennis earned the doubles point but No. 35 Oklahoma rallied from behind to claim a 4-3 win in the first round of the 2023 Big 12 Conference Championships, hosted by Kansas on Friday at the Lawrence Sports Pavilion.



Baylor (17-15) used a strong start to claim the first two points in the match, courtesy of a dominating performance in doubles and an efficient win on Court Six from Koenig.



The Sooners (14-10) rallied back to claim singles points on the first four courts to post the win and advance to face No. 1 Texas on Saturday.



THE RUNDOWN

The Bears opened the double portion of the match with a dominating win, getting wins on court 1 and court 3 to clinch the point, with court 2 tied at 4-4 at the time of the clinch.



The nation’s No. 16 doubles team of Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz won on court 1, 6-4. The win pushed them to a sixth-straight doubles win and moved their record to 24-5 on the year and 20-3 in the spring season, including a 13-2 mark on Court One.



On Court Three, Koenig and Christopher Frantzen posted an efficient 6-1 win. The duo improved to 14-7 with the win and 9-6 in the spring season in 2022-23.



Finn Bass and Grassi Mazzuchi – the nation’s No. 30 doubles team – were locked in a 4-4 tie at the time of the clinched doubles point.



The singles point opened with an efficient win from Koenig, who dispatched of Luis Alvarez, 6-2, 6-2.



On Court One, Alex Martinez, the nation’s No. 94 ranked singles player, posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over Baylor’s Tadeas Paroulek, ranked No. 62, to get the Sooners on the board.



Justin Schlageter came back to win the final two sets vs. Marko Miladinović, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1, to get the Sooners even.



Grassi Mazzuchi earned a two-set win over Nathan Han to put the Bears up 3-2, going 6-4, 7-6 on court 5.



The match came down to Court Two, featuring freshman sensation Velcz vs. Jordan Hasson, and 82nd ranked Bass vs. No. 111 Siphos Montsi. Velcz won an epic tiebreaker to claim the first set, 7-6 (16-14) but Hasson was able to outlast Velcz in the final two sets, 6-0, 6-2.



Bass, who recently returned after a multiple-month hiatus while recovering from injury, won the first set, 7-5 but Montsi fought back to even it with a 7-5 win. The match came down to the third set, with Montsi winning the final four games for a 6-2 win.



HIGHLIGHTS

A native of Mar del Plata, Argentina, Grassi Mazzuchi won his team-leading 16th singles match of the spring season, improving his mark on the year to 23-10 and 50-13 in his Baylor career.



Koenig – a product of Durban, South Africa – stretched his win streak to four straight and claimed his ninth singles win of the year.



QUOTABLE

Head coach Michael Woodson

On today’s match…

“I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better start. We were able to do everything we wanted to do in doubles and corrected some things that got us off to a wrong start against OU last time. Chris [Frantzen] and Luc [Koenig] did a great job. They got the momentum swinging our way. The guys also did a great job of taking the doubles point into singles. Taking five of the first six sets was impressive against a team like OU. It was a tough one, but a good learning experience by our young guys and highlighted by some really strong play from Luc and some of our young guys. It will be exciting to see where we get to go to NCAAs and we’ll look forward to that now.”



WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears now await the potential for selection to the NCAA Tournament, with the selection show set for Monday, May 1 at 5:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. The first round will begin on campus sites on May 5.



- BaylorBears.com -

_________________________________________
Colin Pirtle | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (T&F, XC, MTEN)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 940-564-0351

[signature_2230589939]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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