Tech falls to No. 4 Baylor despite late match surge

Saturday, April 16

Lubbock, Texas

5 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

Baylor

Tech falls to No. 4 Baylor despite late match surge

April 16, 2022 | Men's Tennis

Box Score

The Red Raiders fell to No. 4 Baylor, 4-3

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas -- The Texas Tech men's tennis program fell to No. 4 Baylor on Senior Day Saturday afternoon at the McLeod Tennis Center by a score of 4-3. Before the match, Tech honored seniors Francisco Vittar and Ilgiz Valiev for their outstanding careers.

In his final home match, Vittar appeared in both doubles and singles action, while Valiev was forced to miss the contest due to injury.

No. 33 Texas Tech (14-10, 2-3 Big 12) battled all afternoon against the formidable Baylor (22-3, 4-1 Big 12) squad that finished second overall in the final Big 12 standings.

The Red Raiders lost the doubles point on Saturday to Baylor, as Vittar and sophomore Olle Wallin fell 6-2. Reed Collier and Dimitrios Azoidis also dropped a 6-2 decision to Baylor's nationally-ranked duo of Soto and Mazzuchi (No. 18).

Tech's duo of Isaac Arevalo and Piotr Pawlak were on-serve (4-4) when the doubles point was decided against No. 5 Lah and Bass.

Down 1-0, Baylor quickly recorded a pair of wins on court six and three to take a 3-0 lead. No. 3 Adrian Boitan took a hotly contested 7-5 set over Collier, before rebounding for a 6-3 victory in set two. With the victory on court one, Baylor sealed the overall victory.

Despite the result being decided, Tech continued to fight, winning the final three matches.

Isaac Arevalo put Tech on the board when he knocked off No. 39 Matias Soto of Baylor in a 6-1, 7-5 decision. Arevalo's court two victory was his first ranked win in singles this season.

After dropping the first set in a tiebreaker (3-7), junior Dimitrios Azoidis answered by winning the second set 6-3. Azoidis continued to ride the momentum from the set two victory, bringing down No. 123 Finn Bass, in a 10-point tiebreaker (10-5).

Junior Franco Ribero added another ranked victory for Tech when he defeated No. 78 Tadeas Paroulek of Baylor in dramatic fashion. After also dropping an opening set breaker (5-7), Ribero rebounded to take the second set 6-4.

In the third set tiebreaker, the junior found himself down 8-4. Ribero fought back however, winning the next six points of the tiebreaker to surge to a 10-8 victory.

HEAD COACH DANNY WHITEHEAD:
"Starting slow tonight hurt us, but Baylor is a really strong team. Top-to-bottom in both singles and doubles they are very talented. Credit to them for starting fast, but I thought as the match wore on, we got our feet under us and played better. We put some points on the board, but we needed to start better and be more aggressive to take down a top-five team."

On the seniors:
"Both Fran and Ilgiz have made a phenomenal impact on our program. Ilgiz has won so many matches and put a lot of points on the board for us. For his sake, I wish he could have played today, but it doesn't take away from what he has done in his five years here both on and off the court. He's won a lot of matches for us in big moments. And then, Fran has provided such great leadership and his work ethic is a great example for our team. He does everything right and I was so happy that he was able to play both singles and doubles for us today. He's done really well for us this year in doubles and has given us energy when we've needed it. It didn't go his way today, but I'm happy he's finishing on a strong note, and he's playing well."

On the Big 12 Championships Friday against OU:
"Whenever you're playing a team for the second time in such a short timeframe, you have a gameplan of what you need to do. Friday will come down to managing our emotions and executing the gameplan. If you're healthy physically and know your game plan, it really comes down to those two things. OU will be a great test for us to see if we can continue to push forward and improve heading into NCAAs."

UP NEXT:
Tech will head to Fort Worth, Texas for the Big 12 Championships. Their first match will be on Friday, Apr. 22 against Oklahoma.