The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Baylor
No. 7 Men’s Tennis tops No. 2 Baylor, 5-2
04.15.2021 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns earned their fourth victory over a top-10 team this season with a road win in Waco on Thursday.
Austin – No. 7 Men's Tennis topped No. 2 Baylor, 5-2, in Waco on Thursday at the Hawkins Tennis Center to earn their fourth win over a top-10 team this season. It was the third time the teams had met this season with the Bears winning non-conference matches in Austin and at the ITA National Indoors earlier this year. The match had been scheduled to be played outdoors and moved indoors due to weather.
The Longhorns used the doubles point and singles wins from sophomore No. 20 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, sophomore No. 81 Siem Woldeab at No. 3, the clincher from junior Chih Chi Huang at No. 5, and an additional victory from sophomore No. 124 Cleeve Harper at No. 4 for the final.
After a doubles point that saw the teams split a pair of tiebreakers at Nos. 2 and 3, along with a 6-3 win from the No. 10 duo of Spizzirri and Woldeab, Baylor evened the score with a 6-0, 6-3 win by Spencer Furman over sophomore Evin McDonald. However shortly later, Spizzirri and Woldeab quickly boosted Texas to a 3-1 overall lead with match points that ended simultaneously.
Spizzirri was put first in the order of finish with his 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 53 Adrian Boitan. It was Spizzirri's third straight victory over a ranked opponent and his seventh overall this season with only one of those coming outside of the top 60. Boitan picked up an early break in the first game, however Spizzirri answered with one in the next to put the set back on serve before getting his second break on a deuce point to go up 4-2. Boitan broke back in the following game, but Spizzirri closed the set with another break and a hold. The first four games of the second set were on serve until Spizzirri broke for a 3-2 lead to give him the margin he would need with the rest of the set staying on serve. The players had exchanged deuce point holds immediately after that before Spizzirri eventually finished the match on another deuce point win.
Just as the ball fell out of bounds on the final point of Spizzirri's court, the ball on Woldeab's court found the net to end his 6-4, 6-4 win over Nick Stachowiak. In the first set, the initial four game stayed on serve starting with Stachowiak, however that's when it flipped and the next five games were all breaks, capped by a deuce point win for Woldeab that put him up, 5-4. That would be the first of four straight games for Woldeab to close the set and put him up 2-0 in the second. Stachowiak responded with a 3-0 run on strength of back-to-back deuce point wins in the first two of those, but the match continued to feature back and forth runs with Woldeab claiming the next three games for a 5-3 lead. Stachowiak grabbed one more game on serve, but Woldeab finished the match on his own serve in the next game.
Not long after that, Harper posted a match point as part of his second set tiebreaker, but Baylor was able to get past that and then moved back within one overall via a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win for No. 16 Matias Soto over freshman No. 26 Micah Braswell at No. 2. Soto used a 5-0 run to complete the first set, which he won on a deuce point, but Braswell recovered to win four of the first five games of the second on his way to the win in that frame. In the third, Soto broke for a 3-1 lead, and despite Braswell rallying to even it at 3-3 and then 4-4, Soto held and then broke for the win.
Huang had also been involved in a three-setter against Charlie Broom who entered with an 18-2 singles record in dual match play. Huang opened with the first two games, but Broom responded with the next two to put the set back on serve where Huang kept it with deuce point wins in his next two service games. It stayed that way to a 5-4 lead for Huang when he gathered one more break for the set. In the second, Broom used a 3-0 run on the strength of the set's only break to take a 4-2 lead that he then maintained to send it to a third. There, it was a 3-0 run by Huang that would supply him with a 5-2 lead before Broom got one back on serve. The next game went the distance to a deuce point, but Huang delivered an ace that sent his teammates flooding onto his court.
At that point, Harper had gone to a third set against Sven Lah and the match was played out to a 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-3 win for Harper. It had appeared as if Harper would take it quickly as he won nine of the first 10 games for a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Lah came back with a 4-0 run that put the set back on serve where it stayed to a tiebreaker. In that frame, Lah took leads of 4-1 and 6-2, but Harper came storming back with a 5-0 run for a 7-6 lead that provided a match point that would have clinched the overall match for Texas. However, Lah was able to hold off that point as part of a 3-0 run of his own to take the set. In the third, it seemed to be Lah taking the advantage with a deuce point break and a hold that gave him a 3-1 lead, but it was all Harper from there as he closed on a 5-0 run that included three deuce point wins, including for the match.
Earlier in doubles, the Longhorns used wins at Nos. 1 and 3 to take the point and a 1-0 lead. At No. 1, the No. 10 duo of Spizzirri and Woldeab defeated No. 19 Lah and Constantin Frantzen for the third time in dual match play this season, this time by a 6-3 score after doing so by a 6-4 margin in the previous two meetings. With the match on serve and Baylor holding a 3-2 lead, the Longhorns held to even it and start a 4-0 run to the win that included a deuce point hold at 5-3. It was the seventh win in the last eight matches for Spizzirri and Woldeab, who now have six top-20 wins this season and seven in the top 30.
The remaining two courts both went to tiebreakers with the match at No. 2 pitting No. 76 Harper and Huang against No. 67 Soto and Stachowiak staying on serve all the way to the breaker. There, the Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and the Longhorns responded to even it, but Baylor went on to win four of the final five points for the 7-6 (4) final.
That left it to No. 3 where Braswell and senior Payton Holden faced Broom and Finn Bass. Leading 3-2, the Longhorns picked up a break to extend to 4-2, but the Bears answered it to put the match back on serve where it stayed until the tiebreaker. Along the way, Baylor won two deuce points at 4-4 and to stave off a match point for the Longhorns that made it 5-5. However in the breaker, it was all Texas as Braswell and Holden pitched a 7-0 shutout for the win and to clinch the point.
The Longhorns (18-4, 3-1 Big 12) will close the regular season at No. 21 Texas Tech in Lubbock on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT.
#7 Texas 5, #2 Baylor 2
Singles – Order of Finish (6,1,3,2,5,4)
1. #20 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #53 Adrian Boitan (BU) 6-3, 6-4
2. #16 Matias Soto (BU) def. #26 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
3. #81 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Nick Stachowiak (BU) 6-4, 6-4
4. #124 Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Sven Lah (BU) 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-3
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Charlie Broom (BU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
6. Spencer Furman (BU) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-0, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2,3)
1. #10 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. #19 Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah (BU) 6-3
2. #67 Nick Stachowiak/Matias Soto (BU) def. #76 Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 7-6 (4)
3. Micah Braswell/Payton Holden (UT) def. Charlie Broom/Finn Bass (BU) 7-6 (0)
Players Mentioned
