Jan. 25, 2007
Returning four vastly experienced veterans to the squad, Baylor's women's tennis team loads its lineup and takes aim at its nationally competitive 2007 season.
Q&A WITH COACH SCRIVANO
Q: Who do you look to this spring as your team leader?
A: Everyone in the program is expected to help lead the team in one way or another. However, we are excited to see who will step up and be a catalyst. All coaches love to have athletes who make things happen in a positive way and have a passion for the team's success.
Q: Talk about your senior class - experience, leadership, strengths, etc.
A: I am so proud of these young ladies for many reasons but most of all is how much they have grown on and off the court. They have made some positive changes to their games, and their tremendous work ethic has helped the program get to the next level. Also, what makes this senior class so special is that they have been a part of the building process of the program. They believed in the vision of becoming a National Champion when we were ranked No. 40-something in the country and did not qualify for the NCAA's. Now they have a great opportunity to accomplish that vision and finish their collegiate careers on a high note.
Q: How do you keep your players competitive with each other but still playing for the same goal?
A: Our players stay competitively sharp because they understand that they must compete against each other in order to improve each other's game.
Q: What are the keys for this team surpassing last year's success?
A: No doubt we had a great season in 2006. Anytime you win a Big 12 championship and make the quarters of the NCAA's, it is a blessing. However, the fact of the matter is that it's old news. If we do everything the same way we did last year we will be fortunate to get last year's results. We are proactive in our approach to reaching our ultimate goal, and it all begins with player development. We have already made many adjustments to our team training, strength and conditioning, and individual developmental programs to improve on last year's performance. This is a new season, and we must be willing to make changes if we want to get to the next level.
Q: How are the freshman sizing up - talent, strength, adapting to collegiate play?
A: These newcomers are a lot of fun to coach. They have a lot of talent but more importantly a desire to improve. I believe the biggest adjustment for them like most of our newcomers has come in the weight room. However, they are beginning to embrace that part of our training, and it is really paying off. Probably what I like the most about this group is the collective confidence. They can handle being coached and not being pampered.
Q: How does your schedule play into your plan for developing champions?
A: When you play one of the toughest schedules in the country, it forces you to focus and prepare each week. It is hard to develop champions if they don't play in tough situations and against tough competition. While our schedule plays a significant role in our developmental plan, the key to our success is what we do in practice each day.
Q: Where does this team need to improve to win a national championship?
A: What I love about being in athletics is that we keep score and you constantly have to know what the score is if you want to be successful. At the end of the day the scoreboard can give you a lot of feedback. After last season's NCAA Championships we realized that we need to grow and makes changes if we want to win it all in 2007. The team is working hard to make these positive changes on and off the court and it is going to be essential to our success this season and beyond.
Sic 'em Bears!
Coach Scrivano
HERE'S WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Rolling in the Rankings
Baylor enters the 2007 season as the nation's No. 6 program in the team rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Jan. 9, 2007. The poll is the first of 15 rankings released throughout the 2006-07 season.
Starting the season at No. 6 is the highest a Baylor team has even been ranked in the premier poll.
The Bears also claimed four slots on the individual singles rankings; No. 21 Zuzana Zemenova, No. 37 Lenka Broosova, No. 38 Jessica Zok and
No. 91 Zuzana Cerna.
Seniors Climbing BU Charts
Seniors Zuzana Cerna, Iva Mihaylova and Klara Zrustova begin the 2007 season listed on Baylor's career singles wins chart. Mihaylova is tied at fifth with Jahnavi Parekh with 88 career singles wins, Zrustova sits at No. 7 with 87, and Cerna is tied at tenth with 79 career singles wins. Former standout Katja Kovac leads the program with the most singles wins as she recorded 127 victories from 1998-2002.
Zrustova also begins the season with 63 career doubles wins, the only current Bear on the list. Zrustova ranks eighth in program history.
Zuzana Cerna currently holds the record for most singles wins in a season. In 2005-06 Cerna posted 47 victories and set a new program mark, passing Jahnavi Parekh who held the previous record at 39. Cerna picked up 10 singles wins during the 2006 fall tournaments on her way to breaking her own record.
Newcomers' numbers
Lenka Broosova, Zuzana Chmelarova, Jessica Zok and Jana Bielikova joined Baylor's squad in 2006. Combined the quartet posted a 39-22 fall singles record, earning a .639 winning percentage in their first NCAA semester.
Freshmen Broosova and Zok recorded 13-4 fall singles records with .765 winning percentages, the best winning percentage by a freshman since Carolin Walter posted a .917 (11-1) mark in the fall of 2003.
Broosova went undefeated (5-0, including two wins over ranked opponents) at Midland's Racquet Club Collegiate where the Slovakia-native claimed the tournament title.
A fellow rookie, Zok burst onto the collegiate scene at Baylor's Fall Invitational where the Canada-native bounced back after a first round loss to claim the Gold Draw's consolation title.
Strength of Schedule
Baylor boasts one of the nation's top schedules by including 18 ranked teams featured in the Fila/ITA poll released Jan. 9, 2007.
Among the competition, Baylor has scheduled one top 10 team, three top 15 teams, eight top 25 teams, 12 top 50 teams and 18 top 75 teams. Overall, 17 of the 21 teams on the schedule, an outstanding 80 percent, begin 2007 nationally ranked. The highest ranked opponents are No. 9 Northwestern, No. 13 Virginia Commonwealth, No. 14 Pepperdine, No. 15 UCLA and No. 16 TCU.
The Big 12 Conference posted nine teams in the rankings, with Baylor topping the competition at No. 6. League-foe Texas is the next highest team at No. 20 while seven other teams follow; No. 25 Texas A&M, No. 46 Nebraska, No. 50 Oklahoma State, No. 53 Kansas State, No. 54 Texas Tech, No. 56 Colorado and No. 59 Kansas.
