May 18, 2007
Athens, Ga. - For the third straight season, the University of Florida ended Baylor's women's tennis season. In the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament, held at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia, the Gators posted a 4-2 victory over the Bears, halting Baylor's 16-match win streak.
In doubles, it took Florida's Whitney Benik and Nina Suvak just 35 minutes to post an 8-1 win over Klara Zrustova and Zuzana Chmelarova at No. 2. On court three, Zuzana Zemenova and Iva Mihaylova suffered their first loss of the season when Megan Alexander and Anastasia Revzina downed them 8-4. The loss dropped the tandem's season record to 17-1. When play was suspended Baylor's Lenka Broosova and Zuzana Cerna were knotted 6-6 against 15th-ranked Csilla Brosanyi and Diana Srebrovic.
When singles play began, Zemenova evened the score at 1-1 when the 18th-ranked junior whipped No. 23 Srebrovic 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1. The match would seesaw back and fourth with Cerna dropping her match at No. 2, Broosova winning at No. 3 and Chmelarova losing on court four.
At this point, the score is 3-2 in favor of the Gators with two Baylor seniors still on the court. Obviously, Mihaylova and Zrustova didn't want their Baylor careers to come to an end. When Chmelarova's match ended, Mihaylova had lost the first set 3-6 but was just minutes away from winning the second set 6-3. Zrustova, on court six, had won the first set 6-3 but was down 3-2 and would go on to lose the second set 6-4. After Mihaylova and her opponent Borsanyi each held serve three times, Mihaylova created an opening when she broke Borsanyi's serve to go up 4-3. That edge was quickly negated when Borsanyi broke Mihaylova's serve twice to close out the match and give the Gators the victory.
Baylor completes its season with a 26-7 record while 4th-ranked Florida moves on to the NCAA Quarterfinals against 12th-ranked UCLA, a 4-0 winner over No. 5 Northwestern.
Two Bears will still see tennis action this season. Zemenova and Cerna have both been selected to compete in the NCAA Singles Championships, which begin on Wednesday, May 23.
"Anybody that knows me knows my philosophy about the doubles point. It's just another point, and it wasn't the end of the world today when we lost the doubles point. We lost three singles matches and that was the difference today. They (Florida) are a better team than we are. That's the bottom line and that's the reason they won today. If we were better than Florida, we would've won," said head coach Joey Scrivano.
#4 Florida 4, #13 Baylor 2
Dan Magill Tennis Complex - Athens, Ga.
NCAA Round of 16
Singles
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1. #18 Zuzana Zemenova (BU) def. #23 Diana Srebrovic (UF) 6-2, 6-2
2. #39 Megan Alexander (UF) def. #49 Zuzana Cerna (BU) 6-4, 6-1
3. #74 Lenka Broosova def. #92 Anastasia Revzina (UF) 6-2, 6-3
4. #122 Nina Suvak (UF) def. Zuzana Chmelarova (BU) 6-2, 6-4
5. #59 Csilla Borsanyi (UF) def. Iva Mihaylova (BU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
6. Klara Zrustova (BU) vs. Whitney Benik (UF) 6-3, 4-6, 0-2 susp.
Doubles
Order of finish: 2, 3
1. #15 Borsanyi/Srebovic (UF) vs. Broosova/ Cerna (BU) 6-6 susp.
2. Benik/Suvak (UF) def. Zrustova/Chmelarova (BU) 8-1
3. Alexander/Revzina def. #49 Mihaylova/Zemenova 8-4
