Feb. 18, 2007

Consolation

No. 7 Baylor 4, No. 6 Illinois 0

 

CHICAGO - Baylor topped Illinois 4-0 in Sunday's consolation round at the USTA/ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships at the Midtown Tennis Club.

 

"Baylor and UCLA are two good teams," head coach Brad Dancer said. "We fell to two good teams this weekend and had a good win over Oklahoma State. Overall, I think this is a good indication of where we are early in the season. We played some good tennis but it shows that we have some steps to take before we can compete against the upper echelon of collegiate tennis."

 

Baylor (8-2) finishes the Team Indoors with a 2-1 record and tied for 5^th place. Illinois (7-3) finishes with a 1-2 record and tied for 7 ^th place.

 

The Illini had their chances in doubles, winning at the top spot behind the efforts of defending national champions Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe, 8-3. At No. 2 and 3 doubles, the Illini could not hold onto leads before Baylor stole the doubles points in come-from-behind victories.

 

"College tennis is a team and individual sport," Dancer said. "We need to improve individually at some spots, and just do a better job of preparing for these types of challenges. All the credit goes to the other teams, they played some great tennis."

 

Baylor held the lead heading into singles, and never looked back. The loss gave Illinios its second straight loss of the season.

 

"We had some tough losses this weekend, but will bounce back and prepare for the rest of the season," Dancer said. "It was tough to lose in front of our home crowd, but I want to give a special thanks for all of the Illini fans that came out to support us this weekend."

 

Baylor got wins in singles from Lars Poerschke, Matt Brown and Denes Lukacs. Poerschke clinched the win at No. 2 singles over Rowe, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

 

Baylor improves to 14-5 in six Team Indoor appearances. Illinois falls to 27-12 in 11 appearances.

 

#7 Baylor 4, #6 Illinois 0
2/18/2007 at Chicago