Men's Tennis | 2/25/2016 10:12:00 AM
Baylor – Video | Live Results ABILENE – Abilene Christian men's tennis made its way into the Oracle/ITA DI collegiate rankings earlier this week for the first time in program history and will immediately be put to the test as the 66th-ranked Wildcats will face No. 34 Baylor and the 6-2 Eastern Washington Eagles during a day/night doubeleheader Sunday.
The Wildcats begin their day in Waco vs. the Bears at 1 p.m. and will then head north to the Dallas-based courts of SMU to play Eastern Washington of the Big Sky Conference at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles have won their last three duals and will play Texas-Permian Basin, SMU, George Washington and the Wildcats during their weekend stay in the Lone Star State.
Baylor begins its week at 6-4 having lost four of its last five decisions after a 5-0 start. The Bears' skid started with home losses to Texas A&M (4-2) and Ole Miss (4-3) and continued the following week where they lost two of three duals at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. Baylor lost to Ohio State, 4-0, and Texas Tech, 4-3, in Charlottesville, Va., before rebounding on the final day to beat Columbia, 4-3.
Baylor has three singles players ranked among the top-125 led by No. 26 Julian Lenz. Maxime Tchoutakian is No. 62 and Felipe Rios is ranked 122nd.
Lenz also is part of nation's No. 11 doubles team with Will Little.
ACU previously was in action Feb. 12 when it swept all six singles matches en route to a 6-1 win over UM Kansas City at the Eager Tennis Pavilion, and the weekend prior to that the Wildcats posted a 1-2 weekend with losses coming against top-ranked JUCO squad Tyler and No. 6 Texas Tech.
Despite getting shutout by the Red Raiders in Lubbock, Wildcat freshman
Josh Sheehy, junior
Nico Agritelley and sophomore
Hunter Holman all made an impression by pushing their opposition to a third set. Sheehy had his 10-match winning streak snapped at No. 1 by Hugo Dojas, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, and at No. 2, Agritelley won the first set from 33rd-ranked Alex Sendegeya, 6-4, but lost the next two sets, 6-3 and 6-0.
At the No. 5 spot, former Red Raider Holman lost in a third-set tiebreak to Augusto Stodart, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3).
The Wildcats have played very well all spring in singles competition, winning 63 percent of their matches (51-30), but they're currently on a five-match slide in doubles. ACU's last win in doubles took place nearly a month ago on Jan. 30 during its 4-3 win over No. 53 UC Davis. The 9-3 Aggies haven't lost since falling to the Wildcats and are in the midst of a six-match winning streak complete with a No. 49 national ranking.
Of ACU's four losses this season, three have come against teams ranked among the top 30: No. 26 Texas, No. 30 Rice and No. 6 Texas Tech.
