Baylor men’s tennis (3-0) got off to a hot start as the Bears rolled to a 4-0 victory over UNLV (0-1) in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend opening match Saturday afternoon at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
With the win, head coach Matt Knoll reached 500 career wins in his 23rd season. He improves to 500-156 and becomes the third active Baylor coach (Glenn Moore, Kim Mulkey) to reach the milestone.
The Bears also kept the perfect 15-0 mark in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend with Saturday’s victory.
Baylor came out fast in doubles play, jumping out to an early lead on court two. Jimmy Bendeck and Bjoern Petersen triumphed over UNLV’s Ruben Alberts and Jordan Sauer, 6-2, for the early Baylor advantage. Roy Smith and Constantin Frantzen secured the doubles point with a 6-2 win on court three over Eric Samuelsson and Clayton Alenik.
BU kept the momentum going into singles play as the Bears secured five of six opening sets, the lone loss in a tiebreaker on court two, 7-6(7). Smith gave BU the 2-0 lead after he breezed past Jordan Sauer at the No. 6 spot, 6-1, 6-0.
Will Little collected another singles point as he moved past Richard Solberg on court four, 6-2, 6-1. Sven Lah followed quickly after him with the clinching point on court three over Courtney Lock, 6-2, 6-0.
NOTABLES
• Matt Knoll collected his 500th career victory in his 23rd season as a head coach, becoming just the third active Baylor coach to reach the milestone.
• Baylor moves to 15-0 in ITA Kick-Off matches in its seventh year participating in the national event.
• The Bears are 3-0 in the doubles point this season.
• BU won five of six opening sets in singles play.
• Redshirt junior Will Little along with freshmen Roy Smith and Sven Lah picked up singles wins against the Rebels.
• In the second ITA Kick-Off match, No. 21 Florida State swept Purdue, 4-0.
STAT OF THE MATCH
500 – the career win count for head coach Matt Knoll in his 23rd season.
TOP QUOTE #1
“It’s all the players, and longevity, and certainly the support of everyone here. Anytime you have a milestone you have to thank all the people that were involved, the guys that hired me, Tom Stanton and Robert Sloan. All the support I’ve had from the administrative people over the years - it really is a team effort. I think that’s something that maybe people from the outside don’t appreciate. If you don’t have great help up and down, then you can’t be successful at any level. We’ve had great help over the years and a lot of great players. It really is gratifying to see some good things happen based on the support they’ve given us.” –head coach Matt Knoll on his 500th career victory
TOP QUOTE #2
“It was a good match. No match is easy. I think we had some spots that were pretty good and some other spots that were tough. It’s not easy. Every match is tough. I thought doubles was very good, and there’s some things we can improve, but a good first day.” –head coach Matt Knoll
WHAT’S NEXT
In the ITA Kick-Off Weekend championship match, the Bears face 21st-ranked Florida State for a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships Sunday, Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. (CT) at the Hurd Tennis Center. The first 200 fans in attendance will receive a free t-shirt.
