Baylor Tennis Goes 0-2 on the Day

The Baylor Men’s (8-10) and Women’s Tennis (8-9) teams dropped matches against No. 19 Illinois (12-6), 4-2 at Hurd Tennis Center and No. 19 Kansas (11-2), 4-3 at Jayhawks Tennis Center, respectively.

MT vs. No. 19 Illinois

Illinois took the doubles point with wins on Courts 1 and 2 as Hunter Heck and Carlis Ozolins defeated Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz, 6-3 and 52nd-ranked Oliver Okonkwo and Mathis Debru toppled Luc Koenig and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi, 6-4.

Velcz bested Heck, 6-2, 7-6(7-1) at the No. 3 position for the Bears’ first point.

On Court 5, Okonkwo beat Koenig, 6-4, 6-4, and Mroz added a 7-6(9-7), 6-2 finish against Grassi Mazzuchi at the No. 4 spot.

The Bears fought back on Court 1 with 98th-ranked Paroulek’s 6-4, 6-3 upset over Alex Petrov—ranked 96th nationally.

Illinois clinched the match at the No. 2 spot on 42nd-ranked Carlis Ozolins’ beating of Marko Miladinovic, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

The Bears will remain in Waco on March 19 to face Wake Forest at 1 p.m. (CT) and Prairie View A&M at 6 p.m.

WT vs. No. 19 Kansas

Kansas’ Carmen Roxana Manu and Jocelyn Massey snagged the 6-3 doubles win over Liubov Kostenko and Alina Shcherbinina on Court 3. Isabella Harvison and Anita Sahdiieva earned a 6-2 win against Maria Titova and Tamari Gagoshidze at the No. 2 position to even up doubles.

The Jayhawks secured the doubles point on Malkia Ngounoue and Heike Janse Van Vuure’s 6-3 finish over Daniella Dimitrov and Paula Barañano, 7-6 on Court 1.

Court 3’s Manu bested Sahdiieva, 6-3, 7-5 for the first singles point.

The Bears added their first point of the match on Court 6 with Barañano’s three-set 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 toppling of Silvia Maria Costache.

At the No. 1 position, 45th-ranked Ngounoue defeated Harvison—ranked 92nd in the country—7-6, 6-2 for the Jayhawks’ third point.

Shcherbinina took down Titova, 6-3, 7-6 on Court 2, and Kostenko tied the match at 3-3 by excelling past Van Vuuren in three-sets, 7-6, 0-6, 6-2.

Kansas clinched the match on Court 5 on Gagoshidze’s three-set 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Dimitrov.

The Bears will travel to Manhattan, Kan. to face Kansas State on March 19 at 12 p.m. (CT).