ACU vs. Baylor Live Stats
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's men's tennis team returns to action for the first time in 18 days Sunday as the Wildcats head east to Waco, Texas for a pair of challenging matches against No. 6 Baylor and Temple, which has the nation's 14th-ranked junior college program.
ACU is scheduled to play Temple at 8 a.m. at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center followed by the Bears at 1 p.m.
Baylor (14-4) likely will be the deepest and toughest opponent the Wildcats face this spring as they claim four nationally-ranked singles players in the latest ITA poll: No. 7 Julian Lenz, No. 15 Patrick Pradella, No. 27 Diego Galeano and No. 104 Tony Lupieri.
Lenz - a sophomore - is 14-1 this spring and 10-1 at the No. 1 position, while Pradella, who reached the singles final of the consolation draw at the 2013 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, has an overall record of 14-8.
Galeano, crowned last fall as the USTA/ITA Texas Regional singles champion, is 21-8 this season and has dominated the No. 3 spot with an 8-1 record. And anchoring the back half of the Bears' lineup is Lupieri, who is 12-1 in dual competition with six wins at No. 5 and three each at No. 4 and 6.
The Wildcats (7-7), meanwhile, haven't seen live competition since their Spring Break week when they won back-to-back Southland Conference duals at Incarnate Word (4-3) and New Orleans (5-2).
In the win over UIW, ACU was forced to rally from a 3-1 deficit to upset the 73rd-ranked Cardinals. The Wildcats lost three of their first four singles matches after winning an extremely close doubles point, but junior
Guilherme Gesser kept ACU alive after outlasting Tucker Brown in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3Â at the No. 4 position.
No. 6
Marco Bensley then tied the score at 3-3 with a 6-0, 6-1 decision over Johan Haerens, and freshman
Nico Agritelley clinched the team victory after holding off Brandon Davis at No. 5, 6-4, 6-4.
Three days later at UNO, it was the top half of the Wildcats' lineup which carried them to victory. Junior Borja Cortés improved to 8-5 with his win at No. 1 over Rui Silva, 6-3, 7-5, and sophomore
Nicklas Wingord later snapped a five-match losing streak at No. 2 with his 6-2, 7-6 decision over Gonzalo Garcia.
Bensley again did well at No. 6, defeating Daniel Populus, 6-2, 6-3, for his fourth-straight win, and at No. 3,
Jason Proctor rallied from a set down to beat Luis Albuquerque, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Proctor and Bensley also were part of two winning doubles teams against the Privateers. Bensley and
Michael Morris clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats at No. 3 with their 8-7 win over Garcia and Populus, and earlier, Proctor and Agritelley doubled up Silva and Chris Appelgren, 8-4.
