Women's Tennis Well Represented in Regional Rankings

Women's Tennis 12/11/2007 12:00:00 AM

Dec. 11, 2007

WACO, Texas - After a fall season in which the Baylor women's tennis team captured three individual titles and two doubles titles in just seven events, the ITA Southwest Regional rankings were released Tuesday with the Bears taking four of the top five spots in the singles poll and top honors in doubles.

Senior and 2005 NCAA National Champion Zuzana Zemenova earned the highest singles ranking at No. 2 after finishing the fall season with a 6-2 mark.

In doubles action, Zemenova joined forces with sophomore Lenka Broosova to earn the region's top doubles ranking. The duo finished the fall season with a 12-3 record which included an eight-match winning streak and a championship at the ITA Southwest Regional in Lubbock, Texas. In November, the two traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship where they reached the title match with wins over the No. 44 and No. 11 doubles teams in the nation. Broosova and Zemenova fell just short of the title, falling to No. 9 Brook Buck and Kelcy Tafft of Notre Dame.

"I am excited to see our ladies ranked so high in the region," head coach Joey Scrivano said. "It will be very interesting to see where our team and players come out in the national rankings next month. It would not surprise me to see four of our players ranked in the top 25."

Individually, Broosova finished the fall season with a 16-3 mark (8-1 vs. nationally ranked opponents) and earned a No. 3 spot on the singles chart. Of the five combined championships won by Baylor during the fall, Broosova had a hand in three of them. Broosova fought her way to singles titles at the HEB Baylor Invitational (Sept. 30) and also captured top honors at the ITA Southwest Regonal (Oct. 23).

Freshman Taylor Ormond and junior Jana Bielikova round out the top-5 in the region, earning the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, respectively.

Ormond, a first-year member of the team from Hamilton, Ontario, opened her collegiate career with a 14-4 record in singles action which included a 4-2 mark against ranked opponents. Ormond made a strong push towards the end of the fall, reaching the finals of the ITA Southwest Regional on the heels of a seven-match winning streak, before falling to Broosova in the title bout. Despite the loss, Ormond bounced back and made the strongest showing in Baylor history in the singles competition at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship. Following an opening-round upset of No. 13 Riza Zalameda of UCLA, Ormond reached the semi-finals with wins over No. 3 Melanie Gloria (Fresno State) and No. 60 Amanda McDowell before bowing out of the competition just two wins shy of a title.

The lone junior on the squad, Bielikova opened the season with a singles title at the Rice Tennis Classic in Houston, and reached the title match the following weekend in the HEB Baylor Invitational. Bielikova finished the season with an 11-4 record including a sin over second-ranked Lindsey Nelson of Southern California at the Dual in the Desert.

Freshman Karolina Filipiak also found a spot in the top 10, ranking No. 8 in the regional poll. Filipiak also appears twice in the doubles rankings, teaming with Bielikova at the No. 6 spot and Ormond at the No. 15 spot.

The women's team returns to action Jan. 5-6, 2008, with dual matches against BYU and Hawaii. Both matches are scheduled to be played in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Following Baylor's season opener, the ITA will release its team and individual rankings Jan. 8

ITA Southwest Regional Rankings

Singles:

1. Megan Falcon, LSU

2. Zuzana Zemenova, Baylor

3. Lenka Broosova, Baylor

4. Taylor Ormond, Baylor

5. Jana Bielikova, Baylor

6. Nina Munch-Soegaard, TCU

7. Anna Sydorska, TCU

8. Karolina Filipiak, Baylor

9. Olga Panova, Texas A&M Corpus Christi

10. Julie Chao, Rice