Oct. 17, 2007

For the first time this fall the entire women's tennis team is hitting the road as Baylor travels to Lubbock, Texas, to compete in the Wilson ITA Southwest Regional hosted by Texas Tech University beginning on Thursday.

The regional serves as a qualifier for the National Indoor Championships held in Columbus, Ohio. The winner and finalist of the singles and doubles draw will qualify to compete at the indoors hosted by The Ohio State University on Nov. 1-4.

Senior All-American Zuzana Zemenova (Kosice, Slovakia), currently ranked No. 6 in the nation, will be competing in the doubles competition with teammate Lenka Broosova (Banska Bystrica, Slovakia) and not the singles as she has already earned an automatic berth at the National Indoor Championship.

No. 54 Broosova, along with junior Jana Bielikova (Prievida, Slovakia), sophomore Zuzana Chmelarova (Prague, Czech Republic) and freshmen Karolina Filipiak (Poznan, Poland), Natalie Holmes (Corsicana, Texas) and Taylor Ormond (Hamilton, Ontario) will all be participating in singles action.

The Bears will also be competing in the doubles draw during the regional. Along with the team of Zemenova and Broosova, Baylor's Ormond will team up with Filipiak while Bielikova and Chmelarova will join forces for the final doubles pairing.

"We are looking forward to some tough competition this weekend and gaining some much needed match play experience," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "There is no substitute for tournament play."

Last season Broosova won her first three matches at the Southwest Regional before falling to then-No. 36 Anna Lubinski from Texas A&M.

Bielikova and Chmelarova each lost in the opening round. Bielikova won her first consolation match, but was ousted from the tournament in the consolation round of 16.

Chmelarova advanced to the quarterfinals in the consolation bracket after losing her first round match.

Action is set to begin at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday at the McLeod Tennis Center on the campus of Texas Tech University.