No. 12 Baylor men’s tennis looks to shake off its first loss of the season with two home matches against Purdue at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday and South Florida at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
As part of the five-shirt series with the Baylor Bold Rewards Programs, free t-shirts will be given out to the first 200 fans at Sunday’s match against South Florida. Fans can log onto the Baylor Bold Rewards App and check in during each t-shirt match for a premium giveaway item at the end of the season.
Baylor (4-1) looks to start 6-0 at home for the second consecutive season as the team currently holds a 4-0 mark with wins over then-No. 21 Florida State, UNLV and UMKC.
On Saturday, BU faces Purdue for the eighth time in nine seasons and holds a perfect 6-0 all-time record against the Boilermakers. Baylor captured a 4-0 victory over Purdue last season.
On the other side of the net, the Bears will recognize a familiar face in Purdue head coach Pawel Gajdzik. A former Baylor player and assistant coach under Matt Knoll, Gajdzik still holds the single-season record for singles conference wins (8-0) set in 1998. At Baylor, Gajdzik won the 1998 Big 12 singles and doubles titles and was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year while helping Baylor secure the team’s first NCAA tournament appearance.
Purdue (3-4) looks for its first win in Waco this season after the Boilermakers went 0-2 at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend on Jan. 27-28. The Boilermakers recently captured a 7-0 victory over Toledo at home last Saturday. The Boilermakers have the 34th-ranked doubles team in the country in Gergely Madarasz and Athell Bennett.
On Sunday, BU hosts South Florida and looks to move to 5-0 all-time against the Bulls. Baylor last met USF in the 2015 NCAA Round of 16 where the Bears won 4-0 to advance to the Elite Eight in Waco.
South Florida (2-4) is continuing its nine-match road trip and travels to Waco with wins over Boston College and Pepperdine. The Bulls will have a match against Big 12 opponent TCU before making the trip south for Sunday’s match. USF has one ranked singles player in No. 68 Alberto Barroso-Campos and one ranked doubles tandem in No. 57 Peter Bertran and Jacob Wojcik.
For the first time this season, BU has ranked singles players in No. 24 Johannes Schretter, No. 64 Bjoern Petersen, No. 89 Sven Lah and No. 104 Will Little while Little and Schretter combine to be the 12th-ranked doubles tandem in the country. Also, Petersen and Jimmy Bendeck are No. 45 in the doubles rankings.
Little, Lah and Roy Smith are currently 4-0 in singles play through five matches and are a combined 4-0 against ranked opponents at the No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 spots.
Lah and Smith remain 2-0 in doubles play together while Petersen and Bendeck are 2-1 at the No. 2 spot. Little and Schretter are 1-2 at the No. 1 spot.
FOLLOW ALONG
Live scoring and live video for both matches can be found at www.BaylorBears.com. An in-match blog with instant updates will be available for Sunday’s match as well.
Following this weekend’s matchups, Baylor will compete at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Seattle, Wash. from Feb. 16-19.
