March 1, 2009
Box Score
ATLANTA, Ga. - No. 40 Jelena Stanivuk defeated No. 38 Christy Striplin in three sets as the seventh-ranked Baylor women's tennis team upset fourth-ranked Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
"Great teams find a way to win they are not playing well and we did that today," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "It takes a lot of courage to win on the road against a team like Georgia Tech and I'm proud of the way the ladies competed today."
The win for Baylor is the second of the season over a Top 10-ranked team. Last week the Lady Bears defeated No. 10 Miami (Fla.), 4-2. Baylor defeats its highest-ranked opponent since the Lady Bears downed fourth-ranked Stanford, 4-1, last season in the 2008 NCAA Quarterfinals.
Stanivuk cruised to a 6-2 win in the first set, but lost a second-set tiebreaker 11-9. The sophomore then took the third set 6-2 to clinch the match for the Lady Bears.
Baylor opened the match with a win in doubles action. After shuffling the lineup, Stanivuk and Taylor Ormond defeated the fifth-ranked duo of Amanda McDowell and Irina Falconi, 8-4, in the Baylor pair's first action at No. 1 doubles. Newcomers Kasia Siwosz and Nina Sercerbegovic downed Sasha Krupina and Lynn Blau, 8-5, on court three to secure the doubles point.
Seventh-ranked Lenka Broosova and Csilla Borsanyi, playing at No. 2 doubles for the first time this season, fell to No. 17 Striplin and Noelle Hickey, 8-6.
Georgia Tech tied the match at 1-1 as No. 13 Falconi walked over No. 26 Ormond, 6-1, 6-0, on court one. No. 75 Broosova moved up to No. 2 singles to defeat tenth-ranked McDowell, 6-4, 6-4, to give Baylor a 2-1 lead.
After trailing 4-1 in the first set, Broosova won five straight games to win the first set and continued her strong play to win the match in two sets.
"Lenka did a great job of coming back from 1-4 down in the first set and never looked back," said Scrivano. "She was extremely disciplined and played the big points well."
The win for Broosova over McDowell avenged a loss in the 2008 NCAA Singles Championships. McDowell downed Broosova, 6-3, 6-2, in the quarterfinals and later defeated Zuzana Zemenova in the finals to win the NCAA singles title.
The Yellow Jackets tied the match again as No. 77 Hickey rallied from a one-set deficit to defeat No. 54 Borsanyi 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2. Sercerbegovic gave Baylor a 3-2 lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Krupina on court five before Stanivuk clinched the match for the Lady Bears at No. 4 singles.
On court six, Siwosz split the first two sets with Viet Ha Ngo before winning a supertiebreaker to win the match, 6-4, 4-6, 13-11.
Baylor returns to action on Friday afternoon as the Lady Bears return to Waco to play host to No. 18 Michigan at 5 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.
