Aggies Win in Waco & MTSU Mashes The ‘Ville

In a battle of top 5 teams (according to the ITA rankings) it was #3 Texas A&M rolling over #4 Baylor on Wednesday night in Waco. Baylor was 20-1 inside the Hawkins Indoor Center coming into this one but now drops to 20-2 after Texas A&M pulled away and won 4-2.

Baylor’s Julian Lenz and Will Little cruised to a 6-2 win at #1 doubles but Texas A&M took the point with a 6-1 win at #2 and a 6-4 win at #3. Texas A&M’s Max Lunkin and Jordi Arconada had a 4-2 lead at #3 but Baylor’s Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck held and then broke on the deciding point to even it at 4-4. Bendeck went up 40-30 on his serve but Lunkin hit a volley winner and then Rios watch a screamer go past him that landed well inside the line to make it 5-4 A&M. Lunkin then held from 40-15 to seal the doubles point for Texas A&M.

The teams split first sets with Lenz, Rios, and Little taking them for BU while Shane Vinsant, AJ Catanzariti, and Jackson Withrow took sets for A&M.

All five matches that finished were straight setters and the first three finished within about 45 seconds of each other.

Shane Vinsant extended Texas A&M’s lead to 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Max Tchoutakian at #2 singles. Vinsant broke Tchoutakian at love to go up 5-4 in the first then served it out from 40-30 to take the opening set 6-4. Vinsant broke Tchoutakian to open the second set and then held for a 2-0 lead. Tchoutakian held and then broke to even it at 2-2 but Vinsant broke back to go up 3-2. Vinsant held serve three more times and closed out the 6-4, 6-4 win.

Jackson Withrow made it 3-0 Aggies when he finished off Tommy Podvinski 6-2, 6-4 at #6 singles. Withrow broke Podvinski to go up 3-2 and then broke him again to go up 5-2 before serving out the set. There was only one break of serve in the second set and it came when Withrow hammered an overhead to break from 30-40 to go up 5-4. Podvinski took a 5-minute injury timeout (looked like he was getting hamstring stretched) but once play resumed Withrow held easily to close out the 6-2, 6-4 win.

Just second later, Julian Lenz put Baylor on the board when he beat #5 Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 6-1 at #1 singles. Lenz earned the only break of serve in the first set when he broke Rinderknech on the deciding point to go up 5-4 and then held to take the set. Lenz broke Rinderknech three times in the second set and cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win.

Roughly 7 minutes later, Felipe Rios would give Baylor its second point with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Jordi Arconada at #3 singles. Rios broke Arconada to go up 6-5 in the first then held on the deciding point to take it 7-5. The second set was filled with breaks with Rios breaking to go up 2-1 but Arconada broke back and held for 3-2. Rios then held and broke to go up 4-3 but Arconada broke back to even it at 4-4. Rios would break again to go up 5-4 and then he held from 40-15 to take it 7-5, 6-4.

Texas A&M’s AJ Catanzariti would provide the clincher 10 minutes later when he beat Jimmy Bendeck 6-3, 7-6(3) at #5 singles. Catanzariti broke Bendeck to go up 3-1 in the first and then held to make it 4-1. Bendeck then held and broke to put it back on serve only to see Catanzariti break back and then hold from love to take the set 6-3. Catanzariti broke to go up 2-1 in the second but Bendeck broke back to even it at 3-3. It stayed on serve until Catanzariti broke to go up 6-5 but Bendeck broke back to force a tiebreak. Catanzariti raced out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak and ended up taking it 7-3.

The match between Harrison Adams and Will Little was abandoned with Adams serving for the match up 5-2 in the third.

1. Julian Lenz (BU 14.72) def. #5 Arthur Rinderknech (aTm 14.53) 6-4, 6-1
2. #29 Shane Vinsant (aTm 14.08) def. #59 Max Tchoutakian (BU 13.90) 6-4, 6-4
3. Felipe Rios (BU 14.26) def. Jordi Arconada (aTm 13.81) 7-5, 6-4
4. Harrison Adams (aTm 12.98) vs. Will Little (BU 13.67) 2-6, 6-3, *5-2 unf
5. AJ Catanzariti (aTm 13.43) vs. Jimmy Bendeck (BU 13.49) 6-3, 7-6(3)
6. Jackson Withrow (aTm 14.13/30%) def. Tommy Podvinski (BU 11.75) 6-2, 6-4

Order of finish: Doubles (2, 1, 3); Singles (2, 6, 1, 3, 5)

“We want to keep fighting like little dogs out there, and playing matches like this will help us do that. We scheduled these kind of teams because you want to be pushed and exposed and shown where we need to be better. This match did that. We’re disappointed to lose, but there’s a match coming up on Saturday against a good Ole Miss team, and we want to bounce back and try to play a little better.” –head coach Matt Knoll on learning from the matchup