 "Photo: Eliot Meyer")
The No. 6 Longhorns hit the road today for a conference matchup against 15th-ranked Baylor at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco at 6 p.m.
Texas enters Wednesday's competition having lost their previous contest against Baylor 4-1 in the final round of the 2007 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Mo. The Longhorns hold a 39-12 series lead over Baylor, while the Bears have won 11 of the last 13 contests between the two schools.
Baylor has enjoyed much success over recent years. The Bears are the most successful men's college tennis team over the past five seasons and have not been ranked lower than No. 4 in the final ITA poll during that time. Baylor has also been the only men's tennis team to advance to the NCAA semifinals each of the past four years.
But the Longhorns (17-3, 3-0 Big 12) enter Wednesday's contest with a four-match win streak.
Texas also has five ranked players on its roster: No. 16 Dimitar Kutrovsky, No. 22 Kellen Damico, No. 48 Ed Corrie and No. 109 Luis Diaz Barriga. The Longhorns boast three ranked doubles teams as well: No. 6 Diaz Barriga/Damico, No. 7 Damico/Corrie and No. 41 Diaz Barriga/Miguel Reyes Varela.
Baylor's squad is headlined by 4 ranked players: No. 10 Denes Lukacs, No. 20 Lars Poerschke, No. 101 Dominik Mueller and No. 104 David Galic, and the 44th-ranked doubles tandem of Galic/Lukacs.
Texas sophomore Dimitar Kutrovsky was recently named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week after leading Texas to victories over No. 12 Tulsa and Nebraska last week.
On April 3rd, Kutrovsky defeated 24th-ranked Arnau Brugues of Tulsa 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the Longhorns' 6-1 win over the Golden Hurricane. Kutrovsky then defeated Nebraska's David Bendheim 6-2, 6-2 two days later in Texas's 7-0 sweep of Nebraska.
Kutrovsky has won his last seven doubles matches with fellow sophomore Josh Zavala and his last three singles matches, two of which came against top-35 opponents. This is the second time Kutrovsky has been named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week and joins teammate Kellen Damico as the only other Longhorn to receive the honor twice.
Baylor, who has won the last six Big 12 regular season titles and five Big 12 Tournament titles, will prove stiff competition for a Texas team with an unblemished conference record as the teams approach the Big 12 Championships.
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