Last year felt like a season of destiny for Baylor with the Bears hosting the NCAA Championships for the first time in school history but unfortunately it wasn’t to be as their season came to an end in the NCAA semifinals against a team they had already beaten twice earlier in the season.
Baylor head coach Matt Knoll is back for his 20th season but this one may be a little challenging after losing Mate Zsiga, Diego Galeano, and Tony Lupieri with the trio accounting for 37% of Baylor’s dual-match wins last season. Knoll brought in two new recruits in the fall, Tommy Podvinski and Jimmy Bendeck, and one in January, Tomas Charlos, to help fill the void plus he’ll have the services of Will Little after he took a redshirt season last year.
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| Julian Lenz (Pic via Baylor Lariat) |
Knoll will lean on Julian Lenz (Sr) and Max Tchoutakian (Jr) this season with those two expected to fill the top two spots in the singles lineup. Lenz went 15-5 last season at #1 while Tchoutakian joined the team in January and went 15-10 in dual-match play splitting time between #2 and #3. Neither guy played a bunch in the fall but Lenz just won the Sherwood Cup in California this past weekend so it looks like he’ll be dialed in for the start of the dual-match season.
Vince Schneider (Jr) didn’t play any in the fall but if he’s healthy I’d expect to see him play at #3 or #4. Schneider went 10-4 in dual-match play last season spending most of the time at #4 but once Diego Galeano returned from an injury in late March Schneider disappeared from the lineup.
Felipe Rios (Sr) had a tremendous year last season going 21-4 in dual-match play with 18 of those wins coming at #6. I look for the senior from Chile to make a move up to #3 or #4 this year though it’d be tough to see him winning another 21 matches due to the increase in level he’ll be facing.
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| Felipe Rios (Pic via Baylor Lariat) |
The #5 and #6 spots in the lineup will be up for grabs with Will Little (RFr) and Jimmy Bendeck (Fr) probably having the inside track. Both had good fall sessions while Tommy Podvinski (Fr) didn’t see his first collegiate action until last weekend at the Sherwood Cup and Tomas Charlos just joined the team last week. Charlos played in 10 Futures events last year picking up two main draws which give him a current ATP ranking of #1603.
Baylor was a beast in doubles last year going 28-2 (.933) but they only return 1 of their 3 doubles teams after the departures of Galeano, Zsiga, and Lupieri. Felipe Rios and Vince Schneider went 19-5 last year with most of those matches coming at #3 so you have to think they’ll at least slide up to #2 this year. Julian Lenz and Will Little played together at the Waco Futures so there’s a good chance they’ll team up this year during dual-match play as well.
Below are each players summer/fall college records (singles/doubles) along with a list of accomplishments. The ranking listed in front of a player is their ITA rankings as of 1/6.
Max Tchoutakian (4-3/1-3) – beat #13 Ronnie Schneider (UNC) at the Oracle/ITA Masters, went 3-1 at the Sherwood Cup; earned ATP points in singles at the Waco USA F34 and Mansfield USA F29 Futures
Felipe Rios (3-3/1-1) – beat #84 Mitch Stewart (Washington) in a consolation match at the ITA All-Americans, beat #83 Jake DeVine (USC) at the Sherwood Cup
Vince Schneider (didn’t play any college events) – played in the Mansfield USA F29 and Waco USA F34 Futures winning a qualifying match in Mansfield
Will Little (7-4/4-4) – went 3-0 in singles at the Porsche Napa Valley Classic, made it to the quarterfinals at the USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational, made it to the doubles final at the Sherwood Cup (w Bendeck); made the doubles final at the Waco USA F34 Futures (w Lenz)
Jimmy Bendeck (7-5/4-4) – made it to the doubles final at the Sherwood Cup (w Little), made it to the quarterfinals at the USTA Collegiate Clay Court Invitational and the 3rd round at the USTA/ITA Texas Regional
Tommy Podvinski (1-3/0-1) – didn’t play in any fall events but did see action last weekend at the Sherwood Cup where he picked up his first collegiate victory over USC’s Tanner Smith
Tomas Charlos (joined team in January) – came through qualies and won a main draw match at both the Germany F9 and F10 Futures in August, had a 12-7 record in qualifying matches at 10 different Futures events and also went 2-3 in main draw matches earning 2 ATP points.
Projected Depth Chart:
1. Julian Lenz
2. Max Tchoutakian
3. Vince Schneider
4. Felipe Rios
5. Will Little
6. Jimmy Bendeck
7. Tomas Charlos
8. Tommy Podvinski
Players With A Current ATP Singles Ranking as of 1/11/16 – high in ( )
#756 – Max Tchoutakian (666)
#1271 – Julian Lenz (640)
#1603 – Tomas Charlos (1518)
Universal Tennis Rating as of 1/19/16:
14.61 – Julian Lenz
14.29 – Felipe Rios
13.82 – Max Tchoutakian
13.78 – Vince Schneider
13.65 – Will Little
13.32 – Jimmy Bendeck
13.15 – Tomas Charlos
13.03 – Tommy Podvinski (40%)
Universal Tennis Rating as of 6/3/15
14.98 – Julian Lenz
14.35 – Max Tchoutakian
14.22 – Felipe Rios
13.49 – Vince Schneider
13.43 – Will Little
12.99 – Jimmy Bendeck
*didn’t make note of Podvinski’s or Charlos’s UTR in June
Pre-College Ratings/Rankings:
Peak ITF Junior Ranking:
#29 – Julian Lenz
#104 – Tommy Podvinski
#170 – Felipe Rios
#264 – Max Tchoutakian
#264 – Vince Schneider
#663 – Jimmy Bendeck
#1384 – Will Little
TennisRecruiting.Net Star Rating/High Ranking (Americans Only)
Blue Chip #8 – Will Little
5-star #28 – Jimmy Bendeck
TRN Yearly Recruiting Rankings:
Not ranked in any of the previous 4 years largely to players being added late
2016-17 Recruiting Class:
None at the moment
Departing singles starters: Tony Lupieri (2), Diego Galeano (4), Mate Zsiga (5)
Departing doubles starters: Galeano (1), Lupieri/Zsiga (2)
Departing depth: Juan Benitez, Johannes Schretter
Baylor came into the NCAA semifinals fairly confident that they could beat Virginia, after having already beaten the Cavaliers twice earlier in the season, but despite winning the doubles point they weren’t able to get it done in singles and went down 4-2. Baylor won 3 opening sets but they weren’t able to sustain the momentum and dropped the second set in each of those matches. Diego Galeano was able to rally and win his match in a third set but Max Tchoutakian was unable to do the same and Mate Zsiga was serving to stay in the match when Virginia clinched it. If you want to relive the match you can check out my recap which had a slew of video clips – recap
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