April 27, 2006
WACO, Texas - Baylor's No. 5 women's tennis team will open its Big 12 Championship play Friday at the Baylor Tennis Center when the top-seeded Bears face off against eighth-seeded Kansas at noon. As the championship's No. 1 seed, Baylor received a bye in the first round.
When asked about being the No. 1 seed, head coach Joey Scrivano said, "It really doesn't mean anything. You've got to go out and perform. That's all that matters. The seedings don't automatically do that for you."
The Bears are 2006's regular season Big 12 champions for the third time in history, also for the third time since Scrivano's arrival in 2002. Baylor has never won a Big 12 Championship title. In last year's championship, the Bears advanced to the finals but were defeated by Texas 4-3. Overall in the 10 conference championships Baylor has participated in, the Bears are 6-9.
The last time Baylor met Kansas was this spring on April 9 in Lawrence, Kan. Baylor defeated the Jayhawks 6-1 as the Bears earned the doubles point with wins on courts two and three. Baylor earned five singles wins with the only loss coming on court five. Against Kansas, Baylor leads the series 8-4 and has won eight of the last 10 matches.
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released new rankings on Tuesday and featured the Bears as No. 5 in the nation. This is the third-straight week that Baylor has sat in the No. 5 spot. In the individual polls, three Baylor singles players and one Baylor doubles team appear. Sophomore Zuzana Zemenova is ranked No. 5 while junior Zuzana Cerna is ranked No. 15. Also in the top 100 is junior Klara Zrustova who sits at No. 97. Cerna and Zrustova are ranked No. 44 in the doubles list when paired together.
The Jayhawks defeated ninth-seeded Colorado on Thursday in the first round to advance to the quarterfinals. Kansas is nationally ranked No. 64 in the ITA rankings. No individuals are ranked in the singles or doubles polls.
Due to poor weather likely to arrive in the afternoon, the Big 12 Championship brackets have been modified to better accommodate all eight matches, both men's and women's, scheduled to be played tomorrow. The updated bracket has been posted at www.baylorbears.com.
Baylor's women's team will play at noon, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., on courts No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9 at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Also because of the rescheduling of Friday's matches, only one match will be available for live scoring at a time. The highest seeded team's match will have the live scores updated at www.baylorbears.com.
For women's, the Texas vs. Kansas State scores for the 8:30 a.m. slot will updated online as will the Baylor vs. Kansas scores for the noon slot will be updated online.
