April 1, 2011
WACO, Texas - Halfway through the Big 12 schedule, the ninth-ranked Baylor women's tennis team will take on No. 23 Texas in a key match, featuring the top two teams in the league on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Baylor Tennis Center.
Baylor enters the match with a 14-3 overall mark and a 4-1 record in Big 12 play, after dropping their first league match in nearly four years against Kansas State earlier this season. Texas, meanwhile, is atop the league standings with a perfect 5-0 record, but face a Baylor team that has beaten them 11 consecutive times.
The Lady Bears are on a four-match win streak, including back-to-back weekend road wins at No. 18 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Baylor had its lone midweek match at No. 2 Florida rained out shortly after it started.
Baylor's hottest player as of late has been junior Nina Secerbegovic. Playing in the No. 2 spot in the singles lineup, the 36th-ranked Secerbegovic is on a 12-match win streak and has dropped just two sets in those matches.
The Lady Bears have also gotten solid production out of their wins leader Sona Novakova, who is ranked 14th, and junior Diana Nakic, a 38th-ranked player on a six-match win streak. Senior Karolina Filipiak enters the match on a five-match win streak and ranked 124th, while Jelena Stanivuk is 14-2 on the season in singles and ranked 103rd.
Texas comes into the match with a record of 10-4 overall, 5-0 in the Big 12, and led by the 2010 Big 12 Freshman of the Year Aeriel Ellis. The sophomore is the lone ranked singles player on the Longhorn squad, currently 21st in the NCAA. Texas also features one ranked doubles pair in the combination of Amanda Craddock and Cierra Gaytan-Leach.
The Longhorns, who have a current six-match win streak, will take on Texas Tech on Friday night, before traveling to Waco to play Baylor on Sunday.
Baylor and Texas faced each other three times during the 2010 season, once in the regular season, once for the Big 12 Tournament title and once in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. The Lady Bears were able to take each match by scores of 5-2, 4-0 and 4-0.
In the all-time series between the teams, UT won the first 32 meetings, but since Baylor's first win over the Longhorns on April 6, 2005, the Lady Bears have won 12 of the past 13 meetings.
