Wednesday, 03/13/2013

WACO, Texas - In its first match at home since Feb. 17, the 36th-ranked Baylor women's tennis team recorded a 4-3 victory over No. 47 Virginia on Tuesday at the Hurd Tennis Center.

"That was a hard fought win," head coach Joey Scrivano said. "It was good to be back home and to get back on track. This was a big victory for us."

BU improves to 5-10 on the season and 5-1 at home, after earning its first win since that last home match when the Lady Bears beat Pepperdine, 6-1. In the span between wins, Baylor had lost five matches on the road, all to top-25 opponents.

To open the match, Baylor got its fourth doubles point win of the season and first since Feb. 17.

The 25th-ranked duo of Ema Burgic and Victoria Kisialeva coasted to an 8-2 win vs. Jana Tomljanovic and Li Xi in the No. 1 position.

When that match wrapped up, Baylor trailed 7-4 and 5-4 at the No. 2 and 3 spots, respectively.

Virginia went on to capture the match on court 2 as Stephanie Nauta and Erin Vierra bested Alex Clay and Alex Leatu, 8-4.

With the doubles point tied at one match apiece, the focus shifted to court 3 where Kiah Generette and Megan Horter had just tied Julia Elbaba and Maria Fuccillo at five games each.

The BU tandem would win the next three games to post an 8-5 victory that gave the doubles point to the Lady Bears.

"Our No. 1 team has been the backbone of our doubles," Scrivano said. "They played really well today, but I was really pleased with our No. 2 and 3 teams today as well. Megan and Kiah really fought hard. The momentum shifted a couple of times in that match and they were able to get it back."

In singles action, the 124th-ranked Horter was quick to extend the Baylor lead with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Vierra at the No. 3 position.

"For Megan to go out there and win in straight sets shows just how much she has improved," Scrivano said. "She is such a competitor and did a good job for us today."

The Cavaliers then responded as Tomljanovic got past Jordaan Sanford, 6-4, 6-0 at the fifth spot in the lineup to cut the Baylor lead to 2-1.

The 12th-ranked Burgic put Baylor's next team point on the board by taking down the 13th-ranked Elbaba, 6-0, 6-3 at the top of the lineup.

"Ema is maturing," Scrivano said. "She is more coachable. I am really proud of the way she is developing."

Virginia continued to hang around with No. 71 Nauta downing the 121st-ranked Kisialeva, 6-3, 6-4, to trim the BU lead to 3-2.

Alex Leatu finally wrapped up the match for the Lady Bears with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Caryssa Peretz at the No. 6 position.

"Alex is doing a great job of buying in," Scrivano said. "She is developing a foundation for her game. She has a lot of fire and heart and we need that right now."

With the overall team match won, Generette retired from her match against Xi, trailing 3-6, 6-3, 1-0.

Virginia drops to 3-5 on the year with the loss, while Baylor ups its record to 3-1 vs. UVA all-time.

The Lady Bears will now open Big 12 play at Iowa State on Friday.

Follow @BaylorWTennis on Twitter for updates on the team all season.