No. 14 Baylor MT Clinches Ninth-Straight Doubles Point in 4-1 Loss to No. 1 Ohio State

Wed Feb 28 21:40:50 CST 2024

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Feb. 28, 2024

No. 14 Baylor MT Clinches Ninth-Straight Doubles Point in 4-1 Loss to No. 1 Ohio State
Bear fans set a new Hawkins attendance record of 472
For more information contact: Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu<mailto:colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas – No. 14 Baylor men’s tennis fell to No. 1 Ohio State, 4-1, on Wednesday evening in front of a record-breaking crowd of 472 at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. In the sixth match against the national No. 1 team in the Michael Woodson era, the Bears took the doubles point for an early 1-0 lead, but dropped singles matches at Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5 to decide the match.

THE RUNDOWN

Taking the fifth doubles point away from Ohio State (15-0) in its last seven matches, the Bears (12-2) found success at the second and third doubles courts.

Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Christopher Frantzen dominated to a quick 6-1 victory at the No. 3 spot over Andrew Lutschaunig and Cannon Kingsley. The No. 3 doubles pair, Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, responded quickly in a 6-1 win of their own over Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz at Court One.

Clinching the point, Court Two’s Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig held off the Justin Boulais and Alexander Bernard paring, 6-3, for BU’s ninth-consecutive doubles point.

In singles, Ohio State got out to quick starts on all six courts, taking first sets across the court.

Tracy, the No. 3 singles player in the nation, closed his court first over Brostrom Poulsen, 6-2, 6-2. The 111th-ranked Cash was next moments after with an identical, 6-2, 6-2, match on Court Four over Koenig. On Court One, No. 27 Boulais gave the Buckeyes their third point of the match after defeating No. 83 Velcz, 6-4, 6-2.

Court Four was the clincher on Wednesday, as No. 12 Jack Anthrop took unranked freshman, Louis Bowden, 6-2, 6-2, to close out play.

Left unfinished, 75th-ranked Badenhorst battled against 26th-ranked Kingsley. After dropping the first set, the freshman forced another game for 5-5. Kingsley had the 6-5 advantage in Set Two when the match was abandoned.

Marko Miladinović was also stopped in his second set. After dropping Set One, 6-4, he fought back against the No. 100 player in the nation to be up 5-4 as the match was clinched.

HIGHLIGHTS

  *   Baylor won its ninth-consecutive and 12th overall doubles point of the season.
  *   BU upped its attendance record at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center to 472.
  *   Christopher Frantzen and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen tabbed their third sixth-straight doubles win in as many tries.
  *   With their doubles win, Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig tie Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz for the team lead in doubles wins at seven.

QUOTABLE

Head coach Michael Woodson

On today’s match…

“First of all, what an amazing crowd. Really incredible showing from the Baylor Family tonight. I mean, it was awesome. So I think it got us going really quickly. There was a lot of excitement in the building well before the start of the match. In doubles, I thought we got off to just a bit of an unlucky start at One, but we were as fast to start on Three, and I thought we were doing a great job of calling discipline plays at Two. The Buckeyes have struggled a little bit in the doubles this year, but they have some of the best doubles players in the country year after year. They're always maybe the best doubles point (team). So great for us to see. In singles, I thought we got off to a slow start on a few courts. We were firing on a couple courts, but we allowed them back in the match too fast, and then they were able to stretch some leads. I think their experience really showed in that I didn't see them playing a lot better than us, but I saw them playing the big points a little bit more poised than we did. And they were able to get excited from that and kind of run away with it.”

On benefits of playing the No. 1 team in the country…

“We needed this really bad. We've had a ton of success so far this year, and we've shown that we can be a top-10 team. But to play the best team is exactly what these young guys need. Looking around, we're not losing this match based on skill. We're losing this match based on experience, and you can't skip steps. We need this type of experience. Sure, it would be really nice to go out and win this match, but as a coach, you want to see our guys learn, grow and develop, and there will be a ton of learning from this match. Frankly, over the next three weeks, I think we're going to play top-three teams four times, so it’s really good for us.”

Fifth-year senior Christopher Frantzen

On his dominating 6-1 win in doubles…

“Me and Oskar [Brostrom Poulsen] played really well. To win on our court, and then Luc [Koenig] and Devin [Badenhorst] got to clinch it in front of the packed house, it's not much better than that. It's a great atmosphere. It's loud, you feel great and it helps going into singles with a lot of confidence. We are pretty big guys, so we're comfortable in our service games. We know there's really no chance that anybody will break us and we're just hitting our shots. We're ready for that, and just making the guys play a lot.”

On the crowd…

“[Fan support] is something special at Baylor. Me, as a senior, I don't want to say I expected it, but at some point you do. We had Charlie Broom here, a Baylor alumni, and one of my teammates in 2020-2021. He said he couldn't do it because of COVID and there was a 40-max limit in here. He really focused on how to enjoy the moment. We enjoyed it and we left a fight out there, which I'm proud of. Everybody fought to the end. It's unbelievable, what we have at Baylor, especially for tennis culture.”

UP NEXT

The Bears hit the road for a quick turnaround to face No. 19 Illinois in Urbana-Champaign on Friday at 6 p.m.

- BaylorBears.com -

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

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

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