No. 2 Men's Tennis Shuts Out No. 21 Arizona State
WACO, Texas – No. 2 Baylor men’s tennis (16-2) is off to its best start since 2007 after a 4-0 win over No. 21 Arizona State on Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The Bears swept the Sun Devils (11-2) for their 11th shutout of the season. BU has now won five matches in a row and 10 of its last 11 contests.
Baylor snagged the doubles point with gritty performances by Charlie Broom/Matias Soto, who won 6-4 on court two over Tim Ruehl/Makey Rakotomalala, and No. 10 Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen, who earned a 7-6(2) win at the top spot against Nathan Ponwith/George Stoupe.
Frantzen and Lah continued their climb up Baylor’s leaderboards with their 99th and 79th career doubles victories, respectively. Frantzen moved into a tie for fourth place, now just five wins shy of Benjamin Becker’s school record (104), while Lah entered the top-10.
In singles, No. 103 Broom was first off the court with a straight-set win, 6-3, 6-4 over Stoupe on court five, marking his team-leading 11th dual singles win of the year. No. 46 Adrian Boitan followed suit with a 6-3, 6-1 win on the top court versus Ponwith to increase the BU lead to 3-0.
At the sixth position, Ryan Dickerson was the clincher for the Bears with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Christian Lerby. Dickerson has now collected wins on every singles court from No. 2 to No. 6 this season.
All three unfinished matches looked to be in Baylor’s favor, as No. 56 Soto led 6-4, 5-5, No. 43 Lah was up 3-0 in a third set, and No. 74 Stachowiak had fought back to force a decisive third after dropping his opening set.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor collected its 11th sweep victory of the 2020-21 dual season.
• At 16-2, BU is off to its best start since 2007, when the program reached 18-2 to begin the year.
• The Bears improved to 5-1 all-time against Arizona State, now having won each of the last four meetings.
• BU now owns a five-match winning streak and has won 10 of its last 11 outings.
• The Bears are now 14-4 in the doubles point this season.
• BU is 13-1 in matches when winning the doubles point.
• The Bears are now a combined 75-11 in singles play and 37-13 in doubles action during the dual season.
• With his 99th-career doubles win, Constantin Frantzen inches closer to Benjamin Becker’s school record of 104, while moving into a tie for fourth place on BU’s all-time leaderboard.
• With his 79th-career doubles win, Sven Lah enters the top-10 on BU’s all-time leaderboard.
• No. 103 Charlie Broom gathered his team-leading 11th singles win of the spring.
• Ryan Dickerson’s win at No. 6 singles is his fifth different position that he has won at this season (No. 2-No. 6 singles)
STAT OF THE MATCH
11 – Baylor earned its 11th sweep of the season, and Charlie Broom collected his 11th singles win of the year.
TOP QUOTES
Interim head coach Michael Woodson
On today’s performance…
“I think we did a great job today under difficult conditions, having to start on the back courts and not really sure when we could begin. I thought the level of doubles was really high on all three courts, from all six teams. I was really impressed that we hung toe-to-toe with them and played our best tennis right when we needed to at the end. This [Arizona State] team has won 10 matches in a row and they have a lot of super-seniors, and they compete really hard and they’re very talented. I think for us to come through clean in singles was really impressive. Hats off to Ryan [Dickerson] for stepping in there and giving a great effort. [He] never wavered really, was mentally tough, and wore the guy down. It was impressive”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Bears (16-2) get set for a rematch with No. 11 Texas A&M in College Station at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 11. BU won this season’s previous matchup 4-1 as part of ITA Kick-Off Weekend.