March 7, 2015 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas - The fourth-ranked Baylor women's tennis team suffered its first home loss of the season in a 4-3 setback against No. 12 UCLA Saturday at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
In a back and forth battle, Baylor (12-3) never trailed UCLA (10-2) until the final point was decided. The Bears won in doubles, but only captured singles matches at the No. 2 and 3 spots to fall to the Bruins.
In doubles, Kiah Generette and Theresa Van Zyl cruised to 6-0 victory on court three over Kristin Wiley and Terri Fleming to give the Bears the early advantage.
When that match wrapped, the 13th-ranked pairing of Blair Shankle and Ema Burgic were in a 4-4 contest against the country's second-ranked tandem of Kyle McPhillips and Catherine Harrison. The BU duo would then go on to break the Bruins and Shankle served it out for a 6-4 victory on court one that clinched the doubles point for BU.
In singles action, Baylor's 1-0 lead did not last long as Kelley Anderson dropped a 6-2, 6-1 decision against the 72nd-ranked Harrison on court four.
The next three matches were all decided within the span of five minutes.
First, the Bears responded as No. 125 Generette recorded a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over the 29th-ranked McPhillips at the No. 3 spot.
The Bruins would again tie the contest up at two points apiece as No. 92 Rachael James-Baker lost, 6-4, 6-2, on court five to 91st-ranked Kaitlin Ray.
The 37th-ranked Shankle pushed the Bears back in front one last time as she upset No. 7 Chanelle Van Nguyen, 6-4, 6-2, at the No. 2 position.
However, Shankle's victory would be the final point for BU.
At the bottom of the lineup, Van Zyl came up short against Wiley, 7-5, 6-3, to tie the match again.
With team scored all knotted at 3-3, the focus turned to the lone remaining match on court 1 as the 23rd-ranked Burgic was trailing No. 3 Robin Anderson, 7-6, 4-3.
In the first set, Burgic had rebounded from a 5-1 deficit to force a tiebreaker that Anderson went on to win 7-5. The second-set was a back and forth battle that ended up in another tiebreaker. In the second-set decider, Burgic jumped out to 6-2 lead, but Anderson won the next six points to take the tiebreaker, the set and the match, 7-6(5), 7-6(6).
NOTABLES
? Baylor fell to 9-1 at home on the year.
? Baylor lost a home match for the first time since March 19, 2014.
? The loss snapped a 17-match home win streak for the Bears.
? Baylor and UCLA are now tied 5-5 in the all-time series as the Bruins have won the last four matches.
TOP QUOTE #1
"UCLA has a great team. They were just tougher than us and played a better brand of tennis than us. That's why they won. They were just better. I know what we have to do moving forward, but now I just have to get our team to understand what to do." - head coach Joey Scrivano on the match
TOP QUOTE #2
"We have a lot of work ahead of us. If this was our last big opportunity of the year, this would be difficult. We can learn from this match and if we use it to be better prepared for the next one that is all you can hope for." - Scrivano on what his team can learn from the match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor travels to Stillwater, Okla., to face No. 8 Oklahoma State on March 13 in the first Big 12 match of the season.
For the latest news on the Baylor women's tennis team follow its official Twitter account: @BaylorWTennis.
