Jan. 19, 2006

WACO, Texas - Baylor tennis kicked-off its spring season on Tuesday with an award banquet honoring both men's and women's stand-outs from fall competition. The women's program will officially begin its spring season as they host SMU on Saturday afternoon.

Baylor is ranked ninth nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) according to the first poll published in 2006. Among the individual rankings, four Bears' names appear on the singles and doubles lists. In singles, Zuzana Cerna was ranked in preseason polls at No. 122 and has sense jumped to become the No. 9 player in the nation. Cerna went 17-5 overall in the fall and posted a 7-5 record against ranked opponents. Also appearing on the list is Baylor's Zuzana Zemenova at No. 17. Zemenova is the defending NCAA singles champion and went 6-0 overall in her fall matches. The final Bear to be ranked is Daniela Covello who sits at No. 80. Covello posted an 11-6 overall record in the fall.

In doubles, Cerna and Klara Zrustova were the only Baylor duo to earn a top 50 ranking and they ranked 31st. The pair earned a 6-1 fall record overall and 1-0 against ranked opponents.

The match against SMU will feature new names on Baylor's roster as head coach Joey Scrivano picked up three walk-ons after the departure of Junior Carolin Walter from the team. Rachel Clark from Dallas, Texas, has joined the team to help fill out the roster. Clark worked with the program previously as a manager and is a first year graduate student. Freshman Sammi Gottlich from Corpus Christi, Texas, and junior Amanda Imperial from Katy, Texas, have also signed on to help fill Walter's void.

This weekend's match against SMU starts at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center. Live updates will be available on www.baylorbears.com as well as final match results.