The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 6 Baylor outlasts No. 4 Men's Tennis, 4-3
04.19.2006 | Men's Tennis
WACO, Texas -- No. 4 Texas (18-3, 5-1) held a 3-2 lead late in its match with No. 6 Baylor (17-5, 4-1) Wednesday evening, but the Bears collected victories at the fifth and sixth positions to claim a 4-3 victory at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Texas opened the match by taking the doubles point.The 40th-ranked tandem of sophomore Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) and freshman Michael Venus (Orlando, Fla.) defeated Will Ward and David Galic by an 8-5 margin at the third position. UT's 46th-ranked tandem of senior Callum Beale (Adelaide, Australia) and freshman Miguel Reyes Varela (Cuernavaca, Mexico) tallied a 9-8 (1) win over the 28th-ranked pair of Lars Poerschke and Michal Kokta at the first position to clinch the doubles point.
Baylor evened the match at one all as Ward defeated UT sophomore Milan Mihailovic (Nis, Serbia), 6-3, 6-1 at the fourth slot. The Bears took a 2-1 lead when the ninth-ranked Poerschke set aside Texas' 11th-ranked Helgeson by a 6-3, 7-5 count at the first position.
UT senior Roger Gubser (Laredo, Texas) pulled the Longhorns even with a 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 2 over 50th-ranked Matija Zgaga. Beale put the Horns on top with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win at the third position over 41st-ranked Michal Kokta. However, in a pair of three-set matches, Baylor's Matt Brown defeated UT's Reyes Varela at the fifth slot, and the Bears' Vladimir Portnov outlasted Texas' Venus in a third-set tiebreaker to win the match for Baylor.
At 5-1 in conference play, Texas still has the opportunity to win the Big 12 Conference title outright. Texas must win Sunday against Texas A&M and get losses from Baylor and Colorado this weekend to claim the title outright. The Longhorns can clinch a share of the title with a win Sunday against the 17th-ranked Aggies. The time of the match set for Sunday, April 23 at UT's Penick-Allison Tennis Center has been pushed back to 5:30 p.m. CDT due to traffic concerns in the vicinity of the facility. Admission is free for all UT regular season home matches.
No. 6 Baylor 4, No. 4 Texas 3
Doubles - Order of Finish: 3, 1
1. No. 46 Beale/Reyes Varela (UT) def. No. 28 Poerschke/Kokta (BU) - 9-8 (1)
2. Chodkiewicz/Gubser (UT) vs. Zgaga/Brown (BU) - DNF
3. No. 40 Helgeson/Venus (UT) def. Ward/Galic (BU) - 8-5
Singles - Order of Finish: 4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
1.No. 9 Lars Poerschke (BU) def. No. 11 Travis Helgeson (UT) - 6-3, 7-5
2. No. 54 Roger Gubser (UT) def. No. 50 Matija Zgaga (BU) - 7-5, 6-3
3. No. 44 Callum Beale (UT) def. No. 41 Michal Kokta (BU) - 6-3, 7-6 (3)
4. Will Ward (BU) def. Milan Mihailovic (UT) - 6-3, 6-1
5. No. 115 Matt Brown (BU) def. Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) - 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
6. Vladimir Portnov (BU) def. Michael Venus (UT) - 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
