No. 4 Women's Tennis Wins Eighth Straight

Women's Tennis 2/29/2008 12:00:00 AM

Feb. 29, 2008

Fourth-ranked Baylor won its eighth straight match Friday with a 6-1 victory over No. 15 Fresno State in women's tennis action at the Baylor Tennis Center. The win improves the Bears to 10-1 in dual action and extends the lady netter's home win streak to 31 matches.

The Bears jumped out to a quick start, never trailing in any of their doubles matches. No. 4 Lenka Broosova and Zuzana Zemenova clinched the doubles point by besting the nation's top-ranked doubles duo of Melanie Gloria and Tinesta Rowe. The victory marks the second time this season that Broosova and Zemenova have topped Gloria and Rowe; the Baylor tandem beat Fresno State's top doubles team, 8-6, Nov. 2, 2007, at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship in Columbus, Ohio.

Zuzana Chmelarova and Karolina Filipiak earned Baylor's first victory, 8-0, at No. 3 doubles before Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk completed the doubles sweep with an 8-6 victory over 14th-ranked Anastasia Petukova and Renata Kucerkova.

Fresno State (6-3) evened the match at one when No. 20 Petukova won in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) over No. 20 Ormond at No. 2 singles, but the Bears won the next three singles matches to clinch the victory.

Stanivuk, who joined the team in January, improved to 2-0 against nationally ranked opponents by defeating No. 77 Rowe (6-4, 6-3) to put the Baylor back out in front and Filipiak gave the Bears a 3-1 edge with a three-set win over Vaness Heroux.

Filipiak won the first set 6-2, but was beat by the same score in set two. With the match tied, Heroux jumped out to a 1-4 lead before the Filipiak battled back to earn a 6-4 win in set three to take the match.

With three matches still in play, the Bears needed just one point to clinch the match. No. 18 Broosova fought off a late rally by No. 98 Kucerkova and earned her 11th-consecutive victory of the season (6-3, 6-4).

"Fresno State is a tremendous team and I just really proud of the way our girls were able to stay in the match and fight to the very end," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "I had been thinking about switching up some doubles teams and I have to really credit my wife for convincing me to keep things the way they were. ZZ and Lenks looked extremely strong tonight and their intensity really sparks this team."

With the match already in hand, the Bears' Zemenova and Bielikova both fought from behind to earn wins against No. 11 Gloria and Heroux, respectively.

Baylor returns to the courts Sunday against No. 19 Wake Forest in a 1:00 p.m. (CST) contest. All the action can be followed live at BaylorBears.com.

Singles competition

1. #24 Zuzana Zemenova (BU) def. #11 Melanie Gloria (FSU) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

2. #20 Anastasia Petukhova (FSU) def. #22 Taylor Ormond (BU) 6-3, 6-4

3. #18 Lenka Broosova (BU) def. #98 Renata Kucerkova (FSU) 6-3, 6-4

4. Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. #77 Tinesta Rowe (FSU) 6-4, 6-3

5. #37 Jana Bielikova (BU) def. Jacqui Haskett (FSU) 7-5, 7-5

6. Karolina Filipiak (BU) def. Vanessa Heroux (FSU) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4

Doubles competition

1. #4 Lenka Broosova/Zuzana Zemenova (BU) def. #1 Melanie Gloria/Tinesta Rowe (FSU) 8-3

2. Taylor Ormond/Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. #14 Renata Kucerkova/Anastasia Petukhova (FSU) 8-6

3. Zuzana Chmelarova/Karolina Filipiak (BU) def. Jacqui Haskett/Vanessa Heroux (FSU) 8-0