WT – Baylor in Big 12 Finals for Seventh Straight Time
Lady Bears drop doubles point but rally in singles to claim victory.
WACO, Texas -- With its 4-2 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, the Baylor women’s tennis team advanced to the Big 12 Conference Championship title match for the seventh consecutive year.
The top-seeded Lady Bears will take on the second-seeded Texas Longhorns in the championship match which is slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco. The Longhorns advanced to the title match they posted a 4-2 victory over third-seeded Oklahoma. Baylor has won five straight Big 12 Championship postseason titles, all coming against Texas, beginning with the 2006 tournament.
"Texas is going to be a tough matchup. They are a good team and every time we play them it is a tough match. We are going to have to make adjustments from the last time we played them," said Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano.
With the win over the Aggies, Baylor raised its season record to 24-3 while Texas A&M is now 15-8.
"I was very pleased to see that we are competing hard and finding a way to win. The Big 12 is a much improved conference. Texas A&M is a great team, it is good to get pushed and I am not concerned about what is left in the tank. I am more concerned about us doing the right things. I thought we played a better match today than we did the last time we played A&M on the road. I am proud of the way we competed," said Scrivano.
For the second straight match, Baylor lost the doubles point but rallied to take enough singles wins to claim the team victory. BU’s lone doubles win came at the No. 2 spot where Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk posted an 8-4 victory over the Aggies’ Stephanie Davidson and Morgan Frank. Texas A&M’s Christi Liles and Christi Potgeiter upset Baylor’s 59th-ranked tandem of Nina Secerbegovic and Karolina Filipiak, 8-6, on court one, while Nazari Urbina and Janelle Cuthbertson downed Baylor’s Diana Nakic and Sona Novakova on court three, 8-3, to earn the Aggies the doubles point.
Secerbegovic , ranked No. 47 and playing on court three, earned Baylor’s first point with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Liles, but No. 32 Urbina would give the Aggies the lead again when she upset 11th-ranked Novakova, 6-2, 6-1, at the top court. Baylor then went on to sweep matches at No. 6, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively to seal the victory. On court six, Taylor Ormond posted a 7-5 first-set win and went on to blank Davidson in the second set, 6-0, while Stanivuk, ranked No. 116, posted a 6-3, 6-3 win over Potgeiter on court four. No. 46 Diana Nakic clinched the match for Baylor with a 6-2, 7-6(5) win over No. 98 Frank on court two.
"The main thing is that we are competing hard and finding a way to win. The Big 12 is a much improved conference. Texas A&M is a great team, they could be a top 25, top 15 team. They have that kind of talent. They played like a top 15 team today. It is good to get pushed and I am not concerned about what is left in the tank. I am more concerned about us doing the right things. I thought we played a better match today than we did the last time we played A&M on the road. I am proud of the way we competed."
