WACO, Texas – Sun Devil men's tennis took the doubles point over No. 6 Baylor and notched a singles win, but ultimately fell to the Bears, 5-2, on Friday evening at the Hurd Tennis Center.
"We had a really good start tonight with getting the doubles point heading into singles," coach Matt Hill said. "We were feeling really good in the beginning, and we started singles really strong as well. I was happy with our start."
ASU got off to a hot start in doubles play with all three courts working 1-1 ties early on. The No. 18-ranked Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky pulled out to a 3-1 lead over No. 1 Sven Lah/Jimmy Bendeck and never looked back. The pair transferred that lead into a 6-3 victory to give the Sun Devils the advantage for the first point.
"Dom and Nate played extremely well in doubles because they played aggressive and took charge of what was happening on the court and that's how you beat these kinds of teams," Hill said. "Our guys have the talent to be able to collect points off guys at Baylor's level, and I thought they did a great job of that in this match."
The Bears took a win on court three at which point the tandem of No. 56 Andrea Bolla/Tim Ruehl sat tied 4-4 on court two. The sophomore pair went back-and-forth with the Bears duo, eventually taking the match 7-5 off a slam at the net by Ruehl to clinch the doubles point for ASU.
"Andrea and Tim were really good under pressure, and they've been playing great doubles all year so this was no different," Hill said. "I thought they really played well on the back end of their match, and it was impressive and really big for us."
Securing their 10th doubles point of the season in 16 matches so far, the Sun Devils headed into singles play with a 1-0 lead. Showcasing the improvement in doubles play between this year and last, ASU did not win 10 doubles points until 21 games into 2018.
"Every point against these teams is difficult to acquire," Hill said. "Every point is an absolute war, so it's a great feeling leading 1-0 knowing how difficult every point will be. However, at the end of the day it doesn't have any bearing on singles as once those matches get going, they're their own matches in their own space."
No. 6 Baylor tied the score up at 1-1 with a win on court six and then extended that lead to 3-1 with wins on courts four and two.
"I felt like when we got into the meat of the first set, we got away from our game," Hill said. "We got a little too emotionally and mentally off track, and you can't do that against a team like this that's a really good competitor and playing every point tough. It doesn't work like that."
Down but not out, Justin Roberts put up a straight-set 7-5, 6-1 victory over No. 82 Will Little to cut the Bears' lead to 3-2. The win is the fourth-straight for the graduate student and his third over a ranked opponent in 2019.
"Justin played fantastic in the singles tonight because his opponent is one of the best competitors in college tennis by far," Hill said. "We have a lot of respect for Will, and I thought Justin had his best performance tonight from a focus standpoint. He was relentless with not giving anything away deep and free."
With two courts still left to play, Nathan Ponwith sat at 6-7, 3-4 at the time of Roberts' win. The Scottsdale-native played from a one-point deficit for most of the second set against No. 40 Johannes Schretter, ultimately dropping his match 6-7, 3-6.
"We've got to do a better job in singles of competing on all courts if we want to win these matches," Hill said. "We're still learning that. All these top teams are teaching us that time and time again that we have to be much more mentally resilient and our focus has to be so much better on every single point."
The Sun Devils and Bears decided to play out the remaining match consisting of Ruehl. The German dropped his first set 6-3 but battled back to force a split after taking set two, 6-4. However, the Bears took the third set to secure the final score of 5-2.
The Sun Devils are back in action against yet another top-10 opponent in No. 10 TCU on Sunday. First serve is set for 11 a.m. MST, and fans can keep up with the action using the links above or by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.
"We had a really good start tonight with getting the doubles point heading into singles," coach Matt Hill said. "We were feeling really good in the beginning, and we started singles really strong as well. I was happy with our start."
ASU got off to a hot start in doubles play with all three courts working 1-1 ties early on. The No. 18-ranked Nathan Ponwith/Dominik Kellovsky pulled out to a 3-1 lead over No. 1 Sven Lah/Jimmy Bendeck and never looked back. The pair transferred that lead into a 6-3 victory to give the Sun Devils the advantage for the first point.
"Dom and Nate played extremely well in doubles because they played aggressive and took charge of what was happening on the court and that's how you beat these kinds of teams," Hill said. "Our guys have the talent to be able to collect points off guys at Baylor's level, and I thought they did a great job of that in this match."
The Bears took a win on court three at which point the tandem of No. 56 Andrea Bolla/Tim Ruehl sat tied 4-4 on court two. The sophomore pair went back-and-forth with the Bears duo, eventually taking the match 7-5 off a slam at the net by Ruehl to clinch the doubles point for ASU.
"Andrea and Tim were really good under pressure, and they've been playing great doubles all year so this was no different," Hill said. "I thought they really played well on the back end of their match, and it was impressive and really big for us."
Securing their 10th doubles point of the season in 16 matches so far, the Sun Devils headed into singles play with a 1-0 lead. Showcasing the improvement in doubles play between this year and last, ASU did not win 10 doubles points until 21 games into 2018.
"Every point against these teams is difficult to acquire," Hill said. "Every point is an absolute war, so it's a great feeling leading 1-0 knowing how difficult every point will be. However, at the end of the day it doesn't have any bearing on singles as once those matches get going, they're their own matches in their own space."
No. 6 Baylor tied the score up at 1-1 with a win on court six and then extended that lead to 3-1 with wins on courts four and two.
"I felt like when we got into the meat of the first set, we got away from our game," Hill said. "We got a little too emotionally and mentally off track, and you can't do that against a team like this that's a really good competitor and playing every point tough. It doesn't work like that."
Down but not out, Justin Roberts put up a straight-set 7-5, 6-1 victory over No. 82 Will Little to cut the Bears' lead to 3-2. The win is the fourth-straight for the graduate student and his third over a ranked opponent in 2019.
"Justin played fantastic in the singles tonight because his opponent is one of the best competitors in college tennis by far," Hill said. "We have a lot of respect for Will, and I thought Justin had his best performance tonight from a focus standpoint. He was relentless with not giving anything away deep and free."
With two courts still left to play, Nathan Ponwith sat at 6-7, 3-4 at the time of Roberts' win. The Scottsdale-native played from a one-point deficit for most of the second set against No. 40 Johannes Schretter, ultimately dropping his match 6-7, 3-6.
"We've got to do a better job in singles of competing on all courts if we want to win these matches," Hill said. "We're still learning that. All these top teams are teaching us that time and time again that we have to be much more mentally resilient and our focus has to be so much better on every single point."
The Sun Devils and Bears decided to play out the remaining match consisting of Ruehl. The German dropped his first set 6-3 but battled back to force a split after taking set two, 6-4. However, the Bears took the third set to secure the final score of 5-2.
The Sun Devils are back in action against yet another top-10 opponent in No. 10 TCU on Sunday. First serve is set for 11 a.m. MST, and fans can keep up with the action using the links above or by following @SunDevilMTennis on Twitter.