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Baylor
No. 9 Men’s Tennis preview: at No. 2 Baylor
02.06.2022 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns head to Waco for a non-conference match against the Bears on Monday at 6 p.m. CT.
No. 9 Men's Tennis preview: at No. 2 Baylor
When: Mon., Feb. 7, 2022
Where: Hawkins Tennis Center, Waco, Texas
Team Records: Texas (4-2, 0-0 Big 12), Baylor (8-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/MTN-Watch
Note: This match is scheduled as non-conference, the teams will meet again in conference play on April 1 in Austin.
Notes
-Baylor Series: Texas leads, 84-27-1
Texas leads the all-time series, 84-27-1, and has won five of the last nine meeting against the Bears, including a 5-2 win in Waco last year, 4-2 in the 2018 Big 12 Tournament championship, and 4-1 in the 2017 NCAA Tournament Round of 16. However, Baylor has won the last four of the last five meetings, including three last year – 4-0 in the Big 12 Championship in Waco, 4-0 in the ITA National Indoors Quarterfinals, and 4-1 in a non-conference match in Austin, along with 4-1 the 2019 Big 12 Championship final in Lawrence, Kansas. The teams did not meet in 2020 due to the remainder of the season being canceled prior to conference play.
-Last Nine Meetings
2021: No. 3 Baylor 4, No. 2 Texas 0 – Waco, Texas (Big 12 Championship Final)
2021: No. 7 Texas 5, No. 2 Baylor 2 – Waco, Texas
2021: No. 4 Baylor 4, No. 5 Texas 0 – Champaign, Ill. (ITA National Indoors Quarterfinals)
2021: No. 6 Baylor 4, No. 4 Texas 1 – Austin, Texas (non-conference)
2019: No. 8 Baylor 4, No. 2 Texas 1 – Lawrence, Kansas (Big 12 Championship Final)
2019: No. 4 Texas 4, No. 6 Baylor 3 – Austin, Texas
2018: No. 15 Texas 4, No. 27 Baylor 2 – Austin, Texas (Big 12 Championship Final)
2018: No. 15 Texas 4, No. 23 Baylor 0 – Waco, Texas
2017: No. 10 Texas 4, No. 7 Baylor 1 – Athens, Ga. (NCAA Round of 16)
2021 Meetings
No. 3 Baylor 4, No. 2 Texas 0
Mon., April 26, 2021 • Waco, Texas • Hurd Tennis Center (Big 12 Championship Final)
Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,1)
1. #41 Adrian Boitan (BU) def. #21 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 6-4, 6-4
2. #8 Matias Soto (BU) def. #39 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-1, 6-3
3. Nick Stachowiak (BU) vs. #85 Siem Woldeab (UT) 4-6, 6-3, 0-1, unf.
4. Sven Lah (BU) vs. #109 Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 3-6, 0-0, unf.
5. Charlie Broom (BU) def. Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-3, 6-2
6. Spencer Furman (BU) vs. Nevin Arimilli (UT) 7-5, 2-1, unf.
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,3)
1. #12 Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah (BU) def. #8 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-2
2. #67 Matias Soto/Nick Stachowiak (BU) vs. #78 Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 4-4, unf.
3. Finn Bass/Charlie Broom (BU) def. Micah Braswell/Payton Holden (UT) 6-4
No. 7 Texas 5, No. 2 Baylor 2
Thurs., April 15, 2021 • Waco, Texas • Hawkins Tennis Center
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)
No. 4 Baylor 4, No. 5 Texas 0
Sat., Feb. 12, 2021 • Champaign, Ill. (ITA National Indoors Quarterfinals)
Singles – Order of Finish (6,5,1)
1. #46 Adrian Boitan (BU) def. #57 Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-3, 7-5
2. #56 Matias Soto (BU) vs. #120 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 7-6 (3), 2-5, unf.
3. #43 Sven Lah (BU) vs. #78 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-2, 2-6, 2-3, unf.
4. #74 Nick Stachowiak (BU) vs. Cleeve Harper (UT) 7-6 (6), 1-2, unf.
5. #103 Charlie Broom (BU) def. Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-3, 6-4
6. Spencer Furman (BU) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,2,3)
1. Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. #10 Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen (BU) 6-4
2. Matias Soto/Charlie Broom (BU) def. Payton Holden/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-4
3. Nick Stachowiak/Spencer Furman (BU) def. Micah Braswell/Cleeve Harper (UT) 7-6 (7)
No. 6 Baylor 4, No. 4 Texas 1
Sat., Jan. 30, 2021 • Austin, Texas • Texas Tennis Center
Singles – Order of Finish (2,4,6,5)
1. #57 Siem Woldeab (UT) vs. #46 Adrian Boitan (BU) 6-4, 5-7, 2-2, unf.
2. #56 Matias Soto (BU) def. #120 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 6-4, 6-2
3. #78 Micah Braswell (UT) vs. #43 Sven Lah (BU) 6-4, 5-7, 2-1, unf.
4. #74 Nick Stachowiak (BU) def. Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 6-3
5. #103 Charlie Broom (BU) def. Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
6. Spencer Furman (BU) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,2,1)
1. Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. #10 Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen (BU) 6-4
2. Chih Chi Huang/Payton Holden (UT) def. Adrian Boitan/Nick Stachowiak (BU) 6-3
3. Charlie Broom/Matias Soto (BU) def. Cleeve Harper/Micah Braswell (UT) 6-2
-Texas vs Baylor in 2021 tournament play
ITA Texas Regionals (Oct. 14-19)
Micah Braswell (UT) def. Jacob Brumm (BU), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
-ITA Rankings
Texas is ranked No. 9 in the latest 2022 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Top 25 Coaches Poll announced Feb. 2. It marks the 43rd-straight week the team has been rated in the top 10 dating back to the beginning of the 2019 season. Baylor is No. 2 in the poll, which is voted on by the ITA National Ranking Committee.
-Final Fall ITA Individual National Rankings
Texas had five listings in the final fall ITA individual rankings that were released Dec. 8 with three in singles and two doubles pairs, however Eliot Spizzirri did not play singles in the fall and did not appear in the rankings.
Texas
Singles
No. 20 Micah Braswell
No. 73 Cleeve Harper
No. 105 Siem Woldeab
Doubles
No. 13 Richard Ciamarra/Cleeve Harper
No. 23 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab
Baylor
Singles
No. 48 Sven Lah
No. 81 Tadeas Paroulek
Doubles
No. 18 Finn Bass/Sven Lah
-Braswell Makes It Back-to-Back Big 12 Players of the Week for Texas
Micah Braswell was named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending January 30, the conference. It marks Braswell's first conference weekly honor of the season and the second of his career. It was also the second-straight week a Longhorn earned the award after senior Richard Ciamarra did so the week before.
-Sweeping the ITA Kickoff Weekend
Texas hosted the ITA Kickoff Weekend for the eighth-straight year going back to the 2014 season when the Longhorns traveled to Nashville. The Longhorns produced 4-0 sweeps in both of their matches against Columbia and Oregon and have advanced in the ITA Indoor Nationals in each of the last four seasons, and seven out of the last nine, only missing in 2016 and 2018 in that stretch.
-Ciamarra Earns First Big 12 Player of the Week Honor
Richard Ciamarra picked up his first Big 12 Player of the Week honor since joining the Longhorns this season as a graduate transfer. Ciamarra went 4-0 with two ranked singles wins against No. 14 Arizona and RV Arizona State after having to move up in the lineup due to injuries. That also included two doubles victories with partner Cleeve Harper. It was also the first weekly honor for the Longhorns this season after two weeks of play.
-Arizona Swing
The Longhorns dropped their first match of their Arizona road trip to No. t-14 Arizona, 4-3, in Tucson on Jan. 21. It was the first road dual match of the season for Texas, which rallied for three singles victories following the Wildcats' clinch. The wins came from sophomore No. 73 Cleeve Harper at No. 5, senior Richard Ciamarra at No. 4 and freshman Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 3. However, they rebounded for a 6-1 win over Arizona State two days later, sweeping all six singles matches from Micah Braswell at No. 2, Harper at No. 4, Nevin Arimilli at No. 5, Evin McDonald at No. 6, Ciamarra at No. 3, and Bailly at No 1.
-So Close Against No. 1
Texas posted singles wins at Nos. 1, 2 and 4 against No. 1 Florida, but were edged, 4-3, by the defending champion Gators on Jan. 16 at the Texas Tennis Center. The singles victories included Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, Micah Braswell at No. 2 and Richard Ciamarra at No. 4 after Florida had won the doubles point in a tiebreaker of the deciding third match in which they led by three points.
-25th-Straight Season-Opening Win
The Longhorns took their season opener over UTSA, 6-1, on Jan. 14 at the Texas Tennis Center. It marked the 25th-straight season-opening victory for the Longhorns dating back to 1998. Texas used the doubles point and five singles wins from Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 2, Richard Ciamarra at No. 3, No. 105 Siem Woldeab at No. 4, No. 73 Cleeve Harper at No. 5, and Chih Chi Huang at No. 6. Eliot Spizzirri did not play singles, but did partner with Woldeab at No. 1 doubles for a win to help secure that point.
-Miami Spring Invite
The Longhorns began the spring season with individual play against opponents from No. 9 Georgia, No. 11 UCF and Miami. The tournament had been designed for round robin competition against each of the three teams, however only two members of the Hurricanes were available to play. Additionally, weather cancelled a majority of the singles matches on the second day. For Texas, Eliot Spizzirri did not play, but the results were highlighted by freshman Pierre-Yves Bailly picking up a win over No. 16 Trey Hilderbrand of UCF in his first singles match as a Longhorn, along with the No. 13 pair of Richard Ciamarra and Cleeve Harper topping the No. 22 duo of Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel of UCF.
-Challenging Non-Conference Schedule
The Longhorns have 12 non-conference dual matches scheduled this season against teams that appear in the ITA national rankings, including home matches with No. 1 Florida (L, 4-3, Jan. 16), RV Columbia (W, 4-0, Jan. 29), No. 25 UCF (Feb. 13), No. 5 Ohio State (Mar. 12), and No. 22 Oklahoma (Mar. 27), and road contests at No. t-14 Arizona (L, 4-3, Jan. 21), RV Arizona State (W, 6-1, Jan. 23), No. 2 Baylor (Feb. 4), No. 7 Georgia (Mar. 1), No. 14 Texas A&M (Mar. 9), No. 8 USC (Mar. 15), No. 18 Pepperdine (Mar. 18). The matches against Baylor and Oklahoma are both prior to Big 12 play and are non-conference with those teams meeting again later in conference play.
-Back from the Final Four
Heading into the fourth season under head coach Bruce Berque, Texas returns almost all of its regular singles and doubles lineups from a team that reached the Final Four of last year's NCAA Championships. Of the retuning players, Eliot Spizzirri earned All-America honors in both singles and doubles last season, while Siem Woldeab did so in doubles and was a second-team All-Big 12 selection in singles. Micah Braswell was also second-team all-conference in singles and named the unanimous Big 12 Freshman of the Year, while Cleeve Harper shared the Big 12 Individual Championship at No. 4 singles. Chih Chi Huang and Evin McDonald return after playing majority of the matches at No. 5 and No. 6 singles, respectively, as do Nevin Arimilli and Eshan Talluri.
-Two New Faces
The Longhorns add two new faces in graduate transfer Richard Ciamarra from Notre Dame, who arrived in the fall, and true freshman Pierre-Yves Bailly, who joins the team for the spring. Ciamarra was a 2020 ITA All-American in singles and a three-time All-ACC selection and was ranked as high as No. 6 in singles and No. 28 in doubles in 2021. Bailly has been the top junior player in Belgium and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Juniors, along with the second round of the Roland Garros Juniors, in 2021.
-Berque at the Helm
Bruce Berque is in his fourth season as the head coach at Texas having taken over midway through the 2019 season. From there, he has led the Longhorns to a 56-13 overall record (.812) that includes 24-6 last season with an appearance in the Final Four and a share of the Big 12 regular season title, 13-3 in a season shortened by the pandemic in 2020, and 15-2 in 2019 en route to the guiding Texas to its first team National Championship. The Longhorns also earned the Big 12 regular season championship that year. Texas finished ranked in the top four in all three of the previous seasons at No. 3 in 2021, No. 4 in 2020 and No. 1 in 2019.
-Summer/Fall Wrap-up
Eliot Spizzirri and Chih Chi Huang both missed all of fall singles play due to injury with Huang also missing doubles, but Spizzirri played in limited doubles at the ITA Fall Nationals. Richard Ciamarra and Siem Woldeab were also working through injuries in the fall. However, over the summer, Spizzirri won the singles title of the ITF Futures in Decatur, Ill. for his first pro singles title, along with winning the doubles title at the ITF Futures in Champaign, Ill., the week before. He then earned a singles qualifying wild card to the U.S. Open and advanced to the second round with a win over ATP No. 163 Alejandro Tabilo. After that, he received a doubles main draw wild card at the U.S. Open. Later in the fall, Spizzirri and Woldeab reached the quarterfinals of the ITA Fall Nationals, and Spizzirri later paired with former Longhorn Colin Markes to make the semifinals of the DropshotLLC Pro Tennis Open in Austin.
Micah Braswell posted eight singles wins in the fall, including reaching the semifinals of the ITA Texas Regionals where he came up just short in three sets to No. 18 Juan Carlos Aguilar. Cleeve Harper picked up his first pro title, taking the M15 Cancun with partner Liam Draxl. Prior to that, Harper and Ciamarra reached the finals of the ITA Texas Regionals shortly after advancing to the round of 16 at the ITA All-American Championships. January enrollee Pierre-Yves Bailly also captured his first pro singles title at the Monastir 15K in Tunisia and additionally reached the doubles final there in November 2021.
-Year Five at the Texas Tennis Center
Texas opened its fifth year of play at the Texas Tennis Center this year and is 3-1 so far to give the Longhorns a 51-6 (.895) overall record in its history. Texas posted a 14-2 mark in 2021, which included wins over No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 9 Florida and No. 15 Arizona. In a shortened season in 2020, UT recorded a 9-0 record that featured wins against No. 8 Stanford, No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Florida State. The Longhorns finished 2019 with a 15-1 mark, including wins over No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Baylor and No. 12 Columbia, along with three NCAA Tournament victories. The lone loss that year came to No. 15 USC. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.
Players Mentioned
