No. 12 Men's Tennis Drops Contest to No. 6 Wake Forest
MADISON, Wis. – No. 12 and eighth-seeded Baylor men's tennis (7-2) dropped four singles matches in a 4-1 defeat to No. 6 and ninth-seeded Wake Forest (8-1) in Friday’s opener at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wis.
Baylor fell behind early in doubles action after sophomore Finn Bass and freshman Sebastian Nothhaft dropped a 6-2 loss at the No. 3 spot. Then, 17th-ranked Constantin Frantzen and Sven Lah added to their umblemished spring record with a 6-4 victory at the top of the lineup to even up the match.
After being pushed to a winner-take-all tiebreaker, 23rd-ranked Ryan Dickerson and Matias Soto claimed a 7-6(2) victory at the No. 2 spot for the doubles point and 1-0 Baylor lead.
The Bears are now 20-2 in doubles matches this season.
Wake Forest responded quickly and took four opening sets from the Bears in singles action. Freshman Alex Garcia dropped a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Melios Efstathiou at the No. 4 spot, followed by No. 102 Adrian Boitan’s 6-4, 6-0 setback to Taha Baadi at the No. 3 spot.
Dickerson dropped a 6-2, 6-2 decision to Eduardo Nava at the No. 5 spot, and then the Demon Deacon’s clinched the match when No. 44 Bar Botzer defeated No. 67 Matias Soto, 6-1, 7-5, at the top of the lineup.
NOTABLES
• Baylor is 9-0 in the doubles point and 7-2 when winning the doubles point this season.
• Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen improved to 9-0 in spring doubles play.
• Soto and Ryan Dickerson improved to 6-0 in spring doubles action.
• Baylor is now 24-26 all-time at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
• Baylor is now 2-2 all-time against Wake Forest and 1-1 against the Demon Deacons in 2020.
STAT OF THE MATCH
9 – the number of spring doubles wins for Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen.
TOP QUOTE
Head coach Brian Boland
On the match…
“Congratulations to Wake (Forest) as they deserved to win tonight. We are looking forward to the opportunity to get back out and compete tomorrow night. I believe in this team, and we are going to get a lot better with each match.”
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will face tournament host and 16th-seeded Wisconsin on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.