Ducks Push No. 4 Baylor to Brink

Sunday, January 24

Waco, Texas

TBA

University of Oregon

No. 4 Baylor

Photo by: GoDucks.com

01/24/16 | Men's Tennis

WACO, Texas – The 49^th-ranked Oregon men's tennis team gave No. 4 Baylor everything it could handle on Sunday, but eventually fell, 4-2, in the nearly four and a half hour match for their first loss of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED: After dropping the doubles point yesterday, the Ducks (4-1) were determined not to fall into an early deficit again.

At No. 3, Cormac Clissold and Bart Sawicki traded games with Baylor duo Jimmy Bendeck and Tommy Podvinski until the match was tied at 3-all. From there, the Bears won the next three games and claimed the match at 6-3.

At the No. 2 spot, Daan Maasland and Simon Stevens jumped out all over Max Tchoutakian and Felipe Rios to hold a 4-0 lead. The Bears would take the next two games, but Stevens stopped the run by holding serve to make it 5-2 in the Ducks' favor. After the Bears held serve to go to 5-3, Maasland secured the victory with a slicing backhand winner, bringing the opening point down to the No. 1 pairs.

There, Jayson Amos and Armando Soemarno were down 3-1 to Julian Lenz and Will Little before they rattled off three straight games to take the 4-3 lead. Each team then held serve to have ties at 4 and 5-all. Soemarno served to give Oregon the 6-5 lead and two double-faults by Little helped the Ducks clinch the match 7-5 and take a 1-0 lead in the overall score.

In singles, it quickly went to 2-0 in Oregon's favor as Ethan Young-Smith dominated Tommy Podvinski at No. 6, winning 6-1, 6-1. Baylor then secured the next three points with wins at No. 5, 1 and 4 to take the 3-2 match lead.

The final two matches put an exciting finish to the day as both went to third set tiebreaks. At No. 2, freshman Thomas Laurent came back from a 6-2 first set loss to his fellow Frenchman, Max Tchoutakian, to win the second set 6-3. In the third set, the two traded games and ultimately went to a tiebreak. There, the 59^th-ranked Bear handed Laurent his first loss of his short college career, winning the breaker 7-4 and giving Baylor the win.

On court 3, Simon Stevens and Felipe Rios were locked in a battle and tied at 3-all in the third set tiebreak before the match was called. Stevens had won the first set 6-2 before Rios came back to win the second 6-3.

UP NEXT: The Ducks will remain on the road as they travel to Lincoln, Neb. for two matches next weekend. Up first is No. 52 Denver on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT (3 p.m. CT) followed by a Sunday match-up with Nebraska at 10:30 a.m. PT (12:30 p.m. CT).