Eagle Staff Writer
WACO -- The Texas A&M men's tennis team may catching up with Baylor, but for now that is the only solace it has.
The tenth-ranked Bears were the ones who extended their season, ending Aggies' year and winning the Waco Regional with a 4-2 victory on Sunday.
Last year on the same courts, the Bears knocked A&M out 4-0 in the same round of the NCAA Tournament. A little over a month ago, the Aggies were 6-1 losers to the Bears in a Big 12 regular-season match in College Station. A&M's only point came in doubles.
"We've closed the gap on this Baylor team considerably and we're just going to get better from here because we are a little shorthanded [now]," A&M head coach Steve Denton said. "I was really proud of the way we fought, and that we got a lot better as the season went on."
The No. 25 Aggies, who are down to seven players, found themselves fighting an uphill battle from the onset. They dropped the doubles point to a team that has only lost three matches all season after winning the opening point.
"I was a little disappointed in our doubles," said Denton, who finished his second season at A&M with a 13-12 record. "[Baylor] is too good for us at this point to win four singles matches against them."
The Aggies rallied in singles, though, winning at No. 1 and No. 3 to tie the Bears (24-8) at 2-2, before No. 9 Denes Lukacs closed out Austin Krajicek 6-1, 6-3 and Attila Bucko stopped senior Matt Bain 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 to clinch the match for Baylor.
"We won and that is what we were hoping for," Baylor coach Matt Knoll said. "It looked like we were going to knock them off and they battled back. We have to give credit to their program and their coaches; their guys really battled and made it tough on us, but thankfully we were able to re-gather and absorb their run."
Conor Pollock led the run, defeating eighth-ranked Lars Poerschke 6-1, 7-6 (5) at No. 1. Pollock won the first five games of the match, then had a 6-0 lead in the second-set tiebreak before winning on a Poerschke service point.
"He came out a little bit flat and I was able to jump on him and take advantage of it," said Pollock, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament individually in singles and doubles. "I was actually pretty surprised and just went with it and tried not to have a letdown in the second set."
A&M's Wil Spencer closed out his match on David Galic's serve after coming back from love-40 to hold his own serve the game before. Spencer was the first player off the courts with a 6-3, 6-2 victory at No. 3.
"I'm proud of his effort, especially as a freshman in this environment, he showed a lot of character and fight," Denton said.
The match came down to whether A&M's Bain and Chris Chirico, at No. 4, could force a third set. Chirico was on the verge of doing so, up 6-5 in the second and serving, but Bain was unable to hold his serve, fighting off one match point before double-faulting to Bucko.
Bain was up 3-1, 40-15 on his serve before Bucko rallied to win the next six games.
"Matt's Achilles heel all along has been finishing games when he gets ahead on his serve," Denton said of Bain, who finished 87-44 in singles matches during his career at A&M. "He just doesn't have a weapon to finish it and get the game over with, so you let guys hang in and get more opportunities."
• Richard Croome's e-mail address is richard.croome@theeagle.com.
Baylor 4, Texas A&M 2
Singles
No. 1 -- Conor Pollock (A&M) def. No. 8 Lars Poerschke, 6-1, 7-6 (5)
No. 2 -- No. 9 Denes Lukacs (BU) def. Austin Krajicek, 6-1, 6-3
No. 3 -- Wil Spencer (A&M def. David Galic 6-3, 6-2
No. 4 -- Dominik Mueller vs. Chris Chirico (A&M), 6-2, 5-6 DNF
No. 5 -- Attila Bucko (BU) def. Matt Bain, 6-3, 6-4
No. 6 -- Jordan Rux (BU) def. Mike Beatty 6-3, 6-4
Doubles
No. 1 -- Pollock/Krajicek vs. Galic/Lukacs
No. 2 -- Poerschkel/Bucko (BU) def. Spencer/Beatty, 8-4
No. 3 -- Mueller/Rux (BU) def. Bain/Chirico, 8-5
Order of Finish: Doubles, (2, 3). Singles (3, 1, 6, 2, 5)
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