April 9, 2010
|  |
| Singles | | Broosova
| | #1 | 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 | Mosolova | | Secerbegovic | | #2 | 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) | Murray | | Ormond | | #3 | 7-6 (5), 6-2 | Lui | Borsanyi
| 6-2, 6-2 | #4 |
| Turvy | Stanivuk
| 6-1, 7-5
| #5 |
| Lee | | Filipiak | 6-4, 7-5 | #6 |
| Mushrefova |
|
| Doubles | | Broosova/Borsanyi
|
8-4 | #1 |
| Mosolova/Mushrefova | Stanivuk/Secerbegovic
| 8-2 | #2 |
| Lee/Lui | Ormond/Filipiak
|
| #3 | 8-3 | Turvy/Murray |
|
|
|
|
WACO, Texas - Baylor's No. 1-ranked women's tennis team made a serious claim to remain in the top spot of the Campbell's ITA rankings as the Lady Bears dispatched of the fifth-ranked Northwestern Wildcats, 4-3, on Friday night at the Baylor Tennis Center.
The Lady Bears (17-2) raised their win streak to 11-matches and secured their 30th-straight win at home. Baylor's last home loss came at the hands of then No. 1 Northwestern on March 26, 2008. The Lady Bears now hold a 6-1 record over teams ranked inside the nation's top 10.
"Thankfully, we got enough players today that executed and competed hard and we came out with a great win," head coach Joey Scrivano said. "Our players just did a good job of weathering and enduring the storm and then finding a way to win."
With the win, Baylor earned the program's first victory over Northwestern as the Lady Bears had previously been 0-3 against the Wildcats. Joey Scrivano improved to 1-2 against Northwestern.
In doubles, Baylor lost the opening match at No. 3 as Kate Turvy and Samantha Murray defeated the Baylor duo of Taylor Ormond and Karoline Filipiak, 8-3. However, the Lady Bears would roar back and take the next two doubles matches to clinch the point. At the two spot, Nina Secerbegovic and Jelena Stanivuk won their seventh-straight contest as they took out Stacey Lee and Lauren Lui, 8-2. On court one, the 12th-ranked pairing of Lenka Broosova and Csilla Borsanyi rallied from a 4-3 deficit by winning the next five games to take an 8-4 win over Maria Mosolova and Linda Abu Mushrefova. The Baylor duo is now 15-4 on the season.
"I loved the doubles," Scrivano said. "That was one that was a little surprising, because Northwestern if you look at their results this year, they haven't lost many doubles points and for us to find a way to beat them in doubles, I was really pleased. Our two doubles team is playing extremely well. One didn't play their best today, but they just competed and found a way."
The singles matches would prove to be hard fought at every position and for the first time this season all of Baylor's top three singles players lost in the same match. However, the bottom of the Lady Bears lineup stepped up to secure the victory.
Northwestern (14-5) jumped right back into the match as Lui beat 59th-ranked Ormond 7-6(5), 6-2 to snap the junior's eight- match singles win streak.
From the 1-1 tie, the Lady Bears would respond in a big way as Filipiak beat Mushrefova 6-4, 7-5, 97th-ranked Borsanyi beat Turvy 6-2, 6-2 and Stanivuk dispatched of Lee 6-1, 7-5 to give the Bears the match. Borsanyi pushed her win streak to three matches, after losing three of her previous four.
"We have a lot of depth with our team, so we don't have to rely on the top spots, but the bottom of our lineup is doing a lot better job and they are starting to find their groove," Scrivano said.
With the match in hand, the sixth-ranked Broosova would lose for only the second time this year as the senior fell to 13th-ranked Mosolova 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. The loss stops Broosova's seven-match win streak and drops her dual match record to 15-2.
The 16th-ranked Secerbegovic would fall as well and had her perfect 18-0 record blemished with a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(4) loss to 45th-ranked Murray.
It was Baylor's fifth match decided by a 4-3 margin this season with the Lady Bears holding a 4-1 record in such contests.
"Northwestern is one of the toughest teams in the country, obviously," Scrivano said. "They have been at No. 1 for most of the past two years. They know how to get their players to compete and make balls. You are never going to beat a team like Northwestern easy, so we were expecting it was going to be a hard fought battle."
The Lady Bears will now put their perfect 5-0 conference on the line as they travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to face 45th-ranked Nebraska (17-2, 6-0) at noon on Sunday, April 11 at the Nebraska Tennis Center.
