Feb. 22, 2009
Box Score
WACO, Texas - The seventh-ranked Baylor tennis team defeated No. 10 Miami, 4-2, on Saturday afternoon to snap its two-match losing streak.
The match, originally scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center, was rescheduled for Saturday night at the Ennis Indoor Tennis Courts due to strong winds in the Central Texas area.
With the win Baylor improves to 4-2 overall. Miami drops to 8-2 on the season.
"Coming off a tough weekend and losing some really close matches, we just felt like we really needed to examine our lineup and kind of reshuffle it and see if there was anything that could get us going," head coach Joey Scrivano said. "When you lose tight matches like we did last week (4-3 losses to Notre Dame and Duke), it's real easy to start second-guessing yourself, and your confidence can be shaken a little. So we just wanted to get the team stirred up again and get them back on the winning track."
Baylor opened the match by winning the singles point. Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk defeated Michaela Kissell and Alessa Waibel, 8-4, on court two. Julia Cohen and Laura Vallverdu upset the seventh-ranked pair of Lenka Broosova and Csilla Borsanyi, 9-7, on court one. On court three, Nina Sercerbegovic and Kasia Siwosz held on to defeat Bianca Eichkorn and Gabriela Mejia in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (5), to secure the doubles point.
In singles action, No. 26 Ormond defeated No. 34 Vallverdu, 7-5, 6-4, on court two to give Baylor a 2-0 lead.
"It was great for her to bounce back," Scrivano said. "TO competed really hard last weekend; she just ran into some very good players. But that's one of her strengths. She can take a few losses, and that's not going to shake her confidence. She believes in herself. And today, she came out and played very well and beat a heck of a player."
Miami got on the board on court four as No. 51 Eichkorn topped No. 75 Broosova, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. The loss is the second straight for Broosova, whose 23-match dual-match winning streak was broken last week against Duke.
No. 20 Cohen defeated No. 54 Borsanyi, playing her first match of the season on court one, by a score of 6-4, 7-5. No. 40 Jelena Stanivuk rallied from a 5-4 third-set deficit to defeat No. 61 Kissell, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5), on court three.
"She was a couple points from losing it," Scrivano said of Stanivuk, who moved up from No. 4 to No. 3 singles. "She was down 4-5 in the third, and played a heck of a game to break Kissell to stay alive. It was just a terrific tennis match."
Sercerbegovic downed Claudia Wasilewski, 6-0, 6-2, on court six to clinch the match for Baylor. On court five, Karolina Filipiak and Mejia did not finish as their match started the second set.
Baylor returns to action next weekend as the Lady Bears face a pair of top 10 teams. Baylor will play at second-ranked Georgia on Saturday morning before facing fourth-ranked Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
