Baylor Men's Tennis Opens NCAA Team Championship in College Station

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – After securing a bid to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship for the 26th straight time, the Baylor men's tennis team opens its tournament against San Diego (22-3) at 10 a.m. CT on Friday at Texas A&M’s Mitchell Tennis Center.

The Bears (18-11) are 5-4 in College Station during the NCAA Championship and the team enters with a 22-3 record in the first round.

Baylor exited the Big 12 Championship after dropping its first match, 4-1, to No. 3 TCU. No. 18 San Diego is coming off a WCC Tournament Championship after a 4-1 victory against No. 39 Pepperdine. 

Despite the Toreros making a visit to Waco for the 2023 ITA Kickoff Weekend and the Bears visiting San Diego for the Hagedorn Hidden Dual in November, the two programs will face off against one another for the first time in dual-match play.

Ranked at No. 40, BU has four entries in the individual lists. Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz sit at No. 36 in doubles. In singles, Paroulek is No. 72, Velcz is No. 84 and Devin Badenhorst is No. 123.

San Diego has one doubles ranked pair in Sacchitt Sharrma and Stian Klaassen at No. 60. In singles, Oliver Tarvet leads at 6th and Iiro Vasa at 85th, just one spot under Baylor’s Velcz.

A win on Friday would lead the Bears to face the winner between hosting No. 18 Texas A&M (18-10) and No. 49 Rice Owls (17-8) at 4 p.m. on May 4, where BU holds a 20-2 record in the second round of play.

The Aggies tied for fourth in the SEC after the regular season but are on a five-match skid in the month of April with matches dropped to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama and LSU.

Out of Houston, the Owls put up a 3-2 record in the month of April, defeating Creighton and UTSA to end the regular season and Tulsa in the conference tournament before finishing fourth in the AAC.