May 1, 2011
WACO, Texas - For the sixth straight year, Baylor's women's tennis team claimed the Big 12 Championship crown by downing the University of Texas. The Lady Bears posted a 4-1 win, recording three straight-set singles victories and winning the doubles point, at the Baylor Tennis Center to earn the title on Sunday morning.
"It gets harder every year and I could not be prouder of our team," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "They did a great job today just competing so hard. Texas really pushed us. They have a fantastic team so it was a tough match."
For the second straight match, junior Diana Nakic clinched the winning point for the Lady Bears. She was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after posting a 3-0 mark in singles and claiming two doubles wins.
Baylor earned the all-important doubles point with wins on courts two and three. Texas' 54th-ranked tandem of Amanda Craddock and Cierra Gaytan-Leach downed 59th-ranked Nina Secerbegovic and Karolina Filipiak on court one 8-5. When BU's Diana Nakic and Sona Novakova claimed an 8-4 victory on court three over Juliana Gajic and Maggie Mellow, Baylor's No. 2 doubles team of Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk held a 7-4 lead. At that point, Texas' Krista Damico and Aeriel Ellis won two straight games to pull to within 7-6, but Stanivuk served out the match to earn the win and the doubles point, 8-6.
In singles, Secerbegovic, ranked No. 47, made quick work of Mello on court three, taking just 52 minutes to post a 6-0, 6-3 win and give the Lady Bears their second point. The Longhorns' 26th-ranked Ellis, upset 11th-ranked Novakova at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-2, to give Texas its lone point of the contest. Ormond, one of three seniors on the Baylor squad, earned a win at No. 6, downing Cierra Gaytan-Leach, 7-5, 6-4. Needing just one point to win the contest, Nakic had won the first set on court two and raced out to a 5-2 second-set lead. However, UT's Damico fought back to even the set at 5-5. Nakic held serve and then broke Damico's serve to preserve the Lady Bear win by a 7-5 score.
"I thought that today, experience helped a lot. We obviously know we can get through and our players have a lot of confidence under the big stage. When the lights come on, our players typically perform and today was no different," said Scrivano.
NCAA Tournament selections will be announced on Tuesday, May 3 at www.NCAA.com. The women's bracket will be announced at 4 p.m. (Central) and the men's bracket will be revealed at 4:30 p.m.
