Texas jumped out to early break leads at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles while Baylor earned the first break at No. 3. Texas’s George Goldhoff and Julian Zlobinsky opened up a 3-0 lead on Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck at No. 2 and ended up breaking Rios to close out a 6-2 win.

Texas’s No. 1 team of Adrian Ortiz and Michael Riechmann jumped out to a 3-1 lead on Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski but the BU duo broke Ortiz to even it at 3-3 and then Tchoutakian came back from 30-40 down to hold for 4-3. After Riechmann and Podvinski held, Baylor would break the Ortiz serve again, this time on a double-fault, to win it 6-4.

Baylor’s No. 3 team of Tyler Stayer and Julian Lenz broke Harrison Scott and John Mee to go up 3-2 and then Lenz held to make it 4-2. Texas held and then broke Stayer to even it at 4-4 but Baylor broke back on a double fault to go up 5-4. Lenz would serve out from 40-30, after falling behind 0-30, to take it 6-4 and give the Bears the early 1-0 lead.

Baylor got off to quick start in singles, on senior night, and took four opening sets and had chances to take all six.

BU senior Felipe Rios was the first off the court at No. 3 after defeating Texas sophomore Adrian Ortiz. Rios broke Ortiz to go up 3-1 in the first set and then held for 4-1. Ortiz held and broke to pull within 3-4 but Rios would break back on the deciding point then serve it out to take the opening set 6-3. Rios went ahead 3-2 in the second after Ortiz double faulted the break but Ortiz broke back on the next game to even it at 3-3. Rios broke back on the deciding point to go up 4-3 and then came back from 15-40 down to hold for 5-3. After an Ortiz hold, Rios would come back from 30-40 down to close it out 6-3, 6-4.

Texas senior Michael Riechmann would put the Longhorns on the board with a win at No. 5 over Baylor freshman Tommy Podvinski. Riechmann broke Podvinski to go up 4-3 in the first but Podvinski broke back and held for 5-4. Riechmann fought off a set point by holding on the deciding point for 5-5 and then after an exchange of holds they go to a tiebreak. Riechmann jumped out to a 3-0 lead and won it easily 7-1. There was only one break of serve in the second set and it came when Riechmann broke Podvinski go up 4-2. A few holds later and Riechmann had a 7-6(1), 6-3 win.

Texas sophomore John Mee leveled the match at 2-2 with a win over Baylor junior Tyler Stayer at No. 6. Stayer served for the first set up 5-4 and 6-5 but Mee broke from 15-40 and 30-40 respectively. Stayer led 3-1 in the tiebreak but Mee took six of the next seven points to win it 7-4. Mee broke Stayer to start the second set and cruised from there to close it out 7-6(4), 6-1.

Baylor senior Julian Lenz would put the Bears back ahead with a tough three-set win at No. 1 over Texas junior George Goldhoff. Lenz broke Goldhoff to go up 3-1 in the first set and he’d break him again to take the set 6-2. Goldhoff broke Lenz to start the second set and then consolidated the break for 2-0. Goldhoff would lead 4-2 before Lenz held and broke to even it at 4-4. Goldhoff broke back for 5-4 and then held to take the set 6-4. Lenz got off the quick start in the third set by breaking Goldhoff to go up 2-0 and then holding for 3-0. Lenz would lead 4-1 but Goldhoff would hold, break, and hold to even it at 4-4. Lenz held for 5-4 and then went up 0-40 on the Goldhoff serve. Goldhoff fought off one break point but Lenz would break from 15-40 to win it 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The focus quickly turned to No. 2 where Baylor junior Max Tchoutakian had match points on the Harrison Scott serve. Before we continue let’s backtrack to see how it got to this point. Scott led 3-1 in the first set but Tchoutakian held, broke, and held to go up 4-3. After a pair of holds, Tchoutakian broke Scott to take the opening set 6-4. Scott broke Tchoutakian to go up 2-1 in the second but Tchoutakian broke back and held at love to go up 3-2. Scott served for the set up 5-4 but Tchoutakian broke to even it at 5-5. Scott would break back and then hold to take the second set 7-5. Scott broke Tchoutakian to start the third and then held for 2-0 but it’d be all Tchoutakian down the stretch as he’d take six straight games to close it out 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. The video highlights below show the clinch.

The match at No. 4 was abandoned with Texas freshman Rodrigo Banzer up a break in the third on Baylor freshman Jimmy Bendeck. I also wanted to mention that Baylor was playing without Will Little, #1 doubles/#4 singles, who is still out with an apparent leg injury.

I also wanted to give a big shoutout to Kim Gorum for doing an excellent job on the Baylor in-match blog – he and Tennessee’s Amanda Pruitt are the best in the business. Keeping track of multiple courts at once isn’t an easy task but both due it so seamlessly and I especially like the added color that Kim provides.

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Usually we don’t see a ton of mid-week action but today there are three matches between top 25 teams and another two between top 75 teams.

The last time Ohio State and Kentucky met in Lexington the Buckeyes were the No. 1 team in the country but Big Blue stunned them 4-1. Ohio State got some revenge last year and won easily at home and overall the Buckeyes have won 10 of the last 11 in the series. The weather forecast calls for rain plus the wind is projected to be close to 25 miles per hour so this match will most likely be played indoors at Kentucky’s four-court indoor facility. Kentucky’s best chance was to have this match outdoors but with it going indoors I look for Ohio State to clinch it before the guys at No. 5 and No. 6 singles get a set under their belts.

The current No. 2 team in the ACC meets the current No. 2 team in the SEC as Virginia ventures down to the Swamp to play Florida. The Gators have won five straight and eight of nine while the Hoos have won nine of their last ten. The weather forecast is cloudy skies with temps in the mid-70s with a small chance of rain. I think Florida is going to be right there with Virginia but the defending champs will get wins from Kwiatkowski and the bottom three spots. If Virginia takes the doubles point I’ll say they win 5-2; if they lose the doubles point then I’ll go with 4-3.

TCU and SMU will meet in Fort Worth in the Battle for the Iron Skillet. SMU head coach Carl Neufeld has done a tremendous job this year with the Mustangs boasting a 19-5 record and coming off road wins over South Florida and Oklahoma State. SMU has won six straight and 14 of its last 15 while TCU has won 12 straight with its last loss coming almost two months ago. TCU is more talented top to bottom but they better not be looking ahead to Friday’s showdown with Oklahoma because SMU is good enough to take them down to the wire. I’m guessing they’ll stop on the clinch so I’ll go with TCU 4-1 – if played out 5-2.

#5 Ohio State at #20 Kentucky – 2pm ET – Live Scoring
#74 Middle Tennessee State at #52 East Tennessee State – 2pm ET – ETSU Twitter
#70 William & Mary at VCU – 3pm ET – Live Scoring
#36 Oregon at #66 Pacific – 4pm ET/1pm PT – Live Scoring
Xavier at #20 Kentucky – 5pm ET – Live Scoring
#3 Virginia at #14 Florida – 5pm ET – Live Scoring/Video
#25 SMU at #2 TCU – 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT – Live Scoring