Weekend Preview: Women's Tennis at OSU, Oklahoma
4/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 13, 2001
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#17 Baylor (17-4, 7-1) at #16 Oklahoma State (15-3, 5-1)
Saturday, April 14, 2001, 11 a.m., Stillwater, Okla.
#17 Baylor (17-4, 7-1) at Oklahoma (4-10, 0-8)
Monday, April 16, 2001, 1 p.m., Norman, Okla.
Fresh off a big win over No. 12 Texas A&M Thursday night in College Station, the 17th-ranked Baylor women's tennis team travels up I-35 to tackle No. 16 Oklahoma State and unranked Oklahoma in a pair of Big 12 Conference matches.
The Cowgirls are 15-3 overall, 5-1 in conference and just a game behind the Bears. OSU is led by 65th-ranked senior Maria Phillips in singles. The Cowgirls' doubles team of Phillips and Ashleigh Dolman is ranked 17th in the nation. Last season, Baylor won 7-2 over OSU in Waco. The Bears are 4-0 against the Cowgirls since the creation of the Big 12.
The Sooners enter the weekend at 4-10, 0-8 in Big 12 play. Oklahoma hosts Kansas State Saturday before facing Baylor on Monday. The Bears beat the Sooners 7-2 in Waco in 2000 and are 3-2 against Oklahoma since 1997.
Double(s) Trouble
Baylor is 15-1 this season when winning the doubles point, including a 5-0 record when sweeping doubles. The Bears are 2-3 in matches when the opponent takes the first point.
Kovac Takes Top Spot
Junior Katja Kovac won twice on March 30 to tie Rachel Forney's school record for career singles wins, then won at Colorado on April 7 to set a new school record for career victories. Each win for Kovac now sets a new school mark, she currently has 93 career wins. Forney won 92 matches for the Bears from 1989-1993.
Climbing the Ladder
Several other current Baylor players are making their way up the career leader charts:
* Karin Andersson ranks third in school history in career singles wins (88), four wins behind second-place Rachel Forney. Andersson ranks second in career doubles wins (72), five behind record holder Sophie Goldschmidt.
* Katja Kovac's 29 wins this season are the fifth-highest total in school history, 10 behind Jahnavi Parekh's record of 39 set in 1999-2000.
* Jahnavi Parekh ranks fourth in career singles wins (84), four wins behind teammate Karin Andersson in third place.
Racking Up the Wins
Katja Kovac became the first Bear to reach 20 wins this season (2/19). Jahnavi Parekh and Vida Mulec followed suit nearly a month later, as each won her 20th on the same day (3/17). Frida Borjesson was the fourth Bear to win 20 (4/1).
No Bears reached the 20 win mark in 1999-2000, but five Bears won at least that many in 1998-1999 (Karin Andersson 34, Kovac 33, Claudia Aguilar 24, Hortensia Hernandez 22 and Parekh 20).
Baylor in the Rankings
The team's No. 13 national ranking (2/28 and 3/7) was the program's highest ever. The Bears have ranked no lower than No. 19 since March 29, 2000.
The Baylor men's and women's tennis teams were both in the top 25 for 53 straight weeks, a streak which ended March 21 when the men fell to No. 43. The stretch began March 15, 2000, when the women moved up to No. 18.
Two Bears have earned their highest career ranking this season. Katja Kovac earned her career-high singles ranking in February at No. 19 (2/12), and Vida Mulec received her highest mark (41) in December.
Head Coach Dave Luedtke
Head coach Dave Luedtke is 189-125 in his 14th season, all at Baylor... Earned his 175th career win vs. Missouri (2/3).
Streaking
The Bears saw an eight-match win streak come to an end March 22 with their loss to then-No. 10 Texas. Each of Baylor's four losses this season has came against top-15 teams, including consecutive matches against then-No. 2 Georgia and then-No. 1 Stanford.
Katja Kovac won a career-high 11 straight matches (10/28-2/1) before losing to then-No. 1 Laura Granville of Stanford in the second round of the Rolex Indoors. The 11-match streak tied for sixth-best in school history. Kovac won another nine straight from Feb. 1 through March 30.
Vida Mulec won eight straight singles matches (2/16-3/17), a season high for her and two wins shy of her career high of 10.
Long-time doubles partners Karin Andersson and Frida Borjesson won their first five matches of the year, lost to No. 8 Granville/Lastra of Stanford, then won seven more in a row before losing March 17. The seven-match streak was a new career high for the duo and tied for the second-longest doubles win streak in school history.
Living It Up at Home
Since entering the Big 12 prior to the 1996-97 season, the Baylor women are 52-7 at home. The Bears won 19 home matches in a row from Feb. 1, 2000 through March 17, 2001. That streak ended with a 5-2 loss to then-No. 10 Texas on March 22.
Between April 16, 1999, and March 10, 2001, the Baylor men's and women's tennis teams won a combined 34 straight matches at home (16 by the men, 18 by the women).
Preseason Honors
The Baylor women earned three singles nominations and one doubles selection on the preseason all-Big 12 team. Senior all-American Jahnavi Parekh, junior Katja Kovac and sophomore Vida Mulec were each honored in singles, and the team of Kovac and Mulec was named to the doubles list.
Five current Bears were named to the Fall 2000 Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll: Karin Andersson, Alison Bradley, Monica Gonzalez, Katja Kovac, and Vida Mulec. Former Bear Claudia Aguilar also made the list, which honors all varsity athletes who register a semester GPA of 3.0 or better.
Miscellaneous
Baylor has won five straight season openers, dating back to 1996... The Bears' win over then-No. 8 UCLA (Feb. 16) was the first win over a top-10 team in program history.
