April 19, 2008

WACO, Texas - In front of a packed house at the Baylor Tennis Center, the Texas Tech men's tennis team fell short of its first ever regular season conference title losing 5-2 to the eight-time Big 12 Champion Baylor Bears. The Red Raiders land tied for second with Oklahoma State at the end of conference play, with the next stop being the 2008 Big 12 Tournament.

Tech was unable to get the early advantage dropping the doubles point at No. 2 and 3. The duo of Ilya Babinciuc and Lenoir Ramos were unable to hold their undefeated streak at No. 3, suffering their only conference loss to Dominik Mueller and Jordan Rux. The Bears No. 2 team of Attila Bucko and Lars Poerschke sealed the doubles point as they edged the Raiders No. 50 Michael Breler and Sinisa Markovic, 8-3. Tech's No. 10-ranked duo of Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanski stalled the near sweep by Baylor as they notched in their fourth conference win by defeating David Galic and Denes Lukacs in the tiebreaker.

Rolling right into singles the Bears dominated four consecutive singles matches. On senior day in Waco, No. 8 Poerschke finished his career with a win over Tech's No. 28 Szumanski, 6-3, 6-3. The Red Raiders' No. 85 Markovic suffered his only Big 12 loss of the season at No. 2, falling in straight sets to the Bears' No. 12 Denes Lukacs. The match was decided on the No. 4 court as another ranked Baylor singles player, No. 96 Dominik Mueller, moved past Tech's Babinciuc despite a close first set, winning 7-6, 6-1, and securing the regular season conference title for the Bears.

Senior Ramos finally put the Red Raiders on the scoreboard in a very close match-up with No. 113 Galic on the No. 3 court. Ramos managed to find a break in the third set super-tiebreaker, winning 6-7, 7-6, 10-8. Junior Breler capped off his impressive run at No. 6 singles with a win over BU's Bucko, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, remaining the only Tech player to hold a flawless record this year in the Big 12 of 6-0.

"Baylor played too well in both doubles and singles, and I have to hand it to them as they definitely played a strong match today," commented Head Coach Tim Siegel. "We were right in there in most of the singles matches, but I am proud of our team and the way they fought today as Baylor is a very good program. Now we will have a good week of practice as we get ready for the Big 12 Tournament."

Next up the Red Raiders will prepare for the post-season Big 12 Championships hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. For more information on the tournament, log on to www.big12sports.com.

#16 Texas Tech - 2
#13 Baylor - 5
Baylor Tennis Center

Doubles: 3, 2*, 1
1. #10 Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU) def. Galic/Lukacs (BU); 8-7
2. Bucko/Poerschke (BU) def. #50 Breler/Markovic (TTU); 8-3
3. Mueller/Rux (BU) def. Babinciuc/Ramos (TTU); 8-2

Singles: 2, 1, 4*, 5, 3, 6
1. #8 Lars Poerschke (BU) def. #28 Bojan Szumanski (TTU); 6-3, 6-3
2. #12 Denes Lukacs (BU) def. #85 Sinisa Markovic (TTU); 6-2, 6-3
3. Lenoir Ramos (TTU) def. #113 David Galic (BU); 6-7, 7-6, 10-8
4. #96 Dominik Mueller (BU) def. Ilya Babinciuc (TTU); 7-6, 6-1
5. Jordan Rux (BU) def. Christian Rojmar (TTU); 7-5, 6-4
6. Michael Breler (TTU) def. Attila Bucko (BU); 6-4, 3-6, 6-4