The match between #1 Oklahoma and #2 Baylor had a ton of hype coming in and boy did those 2 teams deliver a classic. A huge crowd of just under 1500 was on hand in Waco along with many more following along at home via the Baylor blog and live scoreboard.
The first surprise of the day came when the doubles lineups were announced. According to Kim Gorum, who was running Baylor’s terrific blog, Baylor’s doubles lineups were challenged earlier in the week by the opposing coaches in the Big 12. The coaches didn’t like the fact that Baylor’s #1 team had a record of 5-4 while it’s #2 and #3 teams were a combined 26-3. The challenge was upheld so Baylor had to move its #2 to #1, its #3 to #2, and while they could have kept the Zsiga/Lupieri duo together at #3 they decided to switch it up and pair Max Tchoutakian with Mate Zsiga at #3.
Despite the shuffle, Baylor still came out strong and took the doubles point with wins at 1 and 3. The clinching win at #1 was a little harder than it could have been because Diego Galeano got broke at love when he was serving for it up 5-3 but Baylor would come back and take it in a tiebreak.
Once singles got underway, the Sooner Schooner made a lap around the complex and deposited 4 first sets in OU’s bank and then it gave Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb a little extra gas to get those 2 back in their respective matches.
While 4 of the singles matches were tightly contested there were 2 that were never in doubt. Andrew Harris would be the first to finish at #2 singles as he nearly led wire to wire in his 6-2, 7-5 win over Tony Lupieri. Alex Ghilea would be off next as he cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win at #4 over Diego Galeano. The wins by Harris and Ghilea put Oklahoma ahead 2-1.
It looked like Baylor would tie it back up at 2 when Max Tchoutakian opened up a 5-2 lead in the 3rd set over Dane Webb at #3 singles. Webb would hold at love to make it 5-3 then Tchoutakian went up 40-30 on his serve to give himself 2 match points. On the first match point Tchoutakian was overruled by the chair on a baseline call and then on the second match point Tchoutakian would get overruled again this time on a shot on the opposite side of the court (per the BU blog). I figured after getting broke under those circumstances that Tchoutakian would pack it in but he kept himself in the match and got it to a tiebreak. Webb would fall behind 1-0 in the tiebreak but he wouldn’t trail again and would take it 7-4. The Webb victory put Oklahoma up 3-1 meaning they just needed 1 of the remaining 3 courts.
This result reminded me of Dane’s come from behind win over Virginia’s Thai-Son Kwiatkowski when Dane trailed 6-3, 5-3 and faced a match point on TSK’s serve yet came back to win in 3.
Baylor’s Felipe Rios would pull Baylor to within 3-2 when he avenged his loss to Florin Bragui by winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-4. After Bragusi took the opening set, he would have a break lead in the second set 4 times but Rios kept breaking back before finally holding for a 5-4 lead. Bragusi would end up going 1 for 6 on his service game in the second set because Rios would break him one more time to take the set 7-5. Rios jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the 3rd set before Bragusi tied it up at 4 but Rios would hold and break 1 more time to take the match 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.
The matchup at #1 singles between the ITA #1 Julian Lenz and ITA #2 Axel Alvarez was everything it was built up to be. Lenz jumped out to a double break lead in the 1st set and was serving up 4-1 but Alvarez charged back to force a tiebreak. Alvarez would go up 4-1 in the tiebreak before Lenz himself made a comeback to win 6 straight points to take the tiebreak 7-4. Alvarez jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the 2nd but Lenz would break back and knot it at 3. Alvarez would break again, hold, and break yet again to take the final 3 games of the 2nd set and take it 6-3. After Alvarez held to go up 1-0 in the 3rd, Lenz called a medical timeout to have his knee looked at before the 30-40 point. Lenz would get broke following the timeout and then Alvarez held for 3-0. After 3 straight holds, Lenz would break Alvarez to get the match back on serve but Alvarez would then break back to go up 5-3. Lenz would then break Alvarez, who was serving for the match, but Axel finally said enough is enough and broke back to win the match 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 and with that Oklahoma had the win.
Seconds after the clinch, Baylor’s Mate Zsiga would close out his tiebreak at #5 but it was too little too late for BU.
Sometimes my predictions may not be the best but I came about as close as possible to nailing this one on the head. The only singles match I missed was Webb/Tchoutakain with my prediction of Tchoutakian in 3 coming up short thanks to Dane’s tremendous comeback.
If this were a boxing match, somebody would be asking for a rematch. I think we’ll probably get at least 1 more from these 2 in the coming weeks.
I thought this was a cool pic that Tom Perrotta posted on twitter:
Friday night lights in Texas–for college tennis. Oklahoma at Baylor, 1 versus 2 in Waco. pic.twitter.com/0nd4JBDAwv
Tom Perrotta (@TomPerrotta) April 10, 2015
Short video clip below from Baylor:
Oklahoma recap
“It was an exciting match in a tough environment,” head coach John Roddick said. “I am just glad we got out of there with a win. It was an unbelievable effort by our guys. All-in-all our mentality and our competitiveness was fantastic.”
Where's the coach when Schneider is being such a jerk? Pretty nice sized crowd, but not as many as we had at UGA today. Go Dawgs. I am shocked that not all Baylor fans in Waco are nicely behaved Baptists.
This comment brought a smile to my face, because I remember Schneider last year at the Baylor-USC match in LA. It was a tight and long match, which USC won 5-2, but it was marred by Schneider's theatrics, yelling at the top of his lungs non-stop after every point in every court. Pretty soon people in the stands were getting very annoyed, and I was just thinking, "Just shut up, please!" I tried, but I couldn't move away far enough if I still wanted to see the matches. Three of Baylor's starting six were Germans, as is Schneider, so he was yelling "Auf geht's" a lot, but also other things in German, as well as in English. So you can imagine how this came across, a guy yelling intimidating things in German and in German-accented English. He even topped it off at one point by shouting at one of his compatriots, "Show them our German power!" I'm not kidding. This was even more odd because was sitting in front of court #2, where Baylor's Pradella was playing USC's own German player, Yannick Hanfmann. The only other time I saw something like this kind of boorishness was when a Stanford scrub came to the USC match last year, and his relentless yelling triggered an actual fistfight in the stands. I noticed that this same kid this year was better behaved.<br /><br />I'm all for boisterous, vocal crowds. This is what makes college tennis matches so great, just as the atmosphere in the Davis Cup and Ryder Cup matches is so distinctive, better than even the grand slams. And it seems the OK-Baylor match was fantastic for this reason. But there's a pretty clear line that you shouldn't cross as a spectator, even if you're on the team.
I was at the match. The point penalty was on Schneider when he was in the stands for taunting Webb. This OU team is incredibly resilient. Their schedule has been by far the toughest in the nation and it will help them come NCAAs. The way that OU handled the garbage that was being said last night was nothing but impressive.
Hoping that these "new fan rules" by the Big 12 will not be in play during the NCAA team tournament on May 14 through May 19.
Exactly, I think one can assume they won't be an easy out but they are not unstoppable. They have players that just won't go without a fight and it keeps working for them. Give Roddick a lot of credit. His players show tremendous toughness. <br /><br />I'm not sure if their aggressive scheduling helps or hurts. I guess when you keep winning, it doesn't matter. His players never get a rest.
Yeah when you look at them you think they're a good team but beatable but yet they still keep finding ways to pull match after match out. It's amazing that they keep beating very good teams despite losing the doubles point.
At one point the blog thought the crowd caused Baylor to get a point penalty but then it was determined the penalty came from the language used by a Baylor player. I'm all for the noise but it needs to be respectful.
I was at the match and the crowd behavior was the worst I have ever seen. The Baylor fans were taunting the Oklahoma players during points and making fools of themselves. If this is what the Big 12 wants with their new fan rules then they get what they deserve.
Oklahoma's lead is impressive. I'm not convinced they are as superior as the number shows. I know it is the computer and the formula but I still think they are beatable. They aren't Virginia from a couple of years ago.