May 10, 2015 Complete Results
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas - The ninth-ranked and eighth-seeded Baylor women's tennis team captured a spot in the NCAA Round of 16 with a 4-2 victory over No. 28 Rice Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The Bears (27-6) won their eighth-straight match overall and their 10th-straight against the Owls (17-9). Unlike the previous two matches against Rice this year, BU fell down early and had to come-from-behind to clinch the program's 11th NCAA Sweet 16 berth and 10th in the last 11 years.
In doubles, Rice jumped on Baylor early with the 62nd-ranked pairing of Ema Burgic and Rachael James-Baker falling 8-3 to Natalie Beazant and Liat Zimmermann at the No. 1 spot.
Baylor responded with an 8-4 triumph by Blair Shankle and Kiah Generette on court three over Savannah Durkin and Solo Zinko. The BU tandem opened the match losing the first three games, before winning eight of the next nine to take the contest.
With doubles point tied at one match apiece, attention turned to court two where Lindsey Hodge and Alison Ho where serving to give the Owls the point over the 42nd-ranked tandem of Kelley Anderson and Leolia JeanJean. Ho went on to hold and give Rice the early 1-0 advantage.
It was the first loss for BU in the doubles point since April 8 against Texas A&M.
To start singles, Baylor split first sets with Rice, 3-3.
However, Baylor quickly turned two of those three first-set triumphs into singles victories.
First, Anderson rolled to her sixth-straight win by downing Zinko, 6-2, 6-1, on court six. Next, the 80th-ranked Generette cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Katherine Ip on court two to give BU the 2-1 lead.
Over 20 minutes later, James-Baker put BU's third point on the board with a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Hodge at the No. 4 spot. It was the BU junior's first singles win since March 22.
When No. 22 Burgic dropped a 6-2, 6-3 decision to the 32nd-ranked Beazant on court one it cut the BU advantage to 3-2.
At that point, the 40th-ranked Shankle was well on her way to making a comeback at the No. 3 position. After dropping the first set to Zimmerman, 6-3, the BU sophomore cruised to a 6-1 triumph in the second. She held a 3-1 advantage in the third set when Rice cut the lead to 3-2 and went on to claim the set, 6-2, to give the match to Baylor.
NOTABLES
? The Bears will play in the NCAA Championship round of 16 for the 11th time in program history - 10 of those appearances have come in the last 11 years.
? BU is now 11-2 and 10-1 under head coach Joey Scrivano all-time in NCAA second round matches.
? Baylor is 31-17 all-time in NCAA play and 28-11 under Scrivano.
? Baylor is 20-2 at home this season, and improved to 20-0 in NCAA Championship play when hosting.
? Baylor has tied the overall series with Rice at 12-12, after winning all three matches this year and the last 10 in the series.
? Baylor lost the doubles point for the 10th time this season.
TOP QUOTE
"We have played Rice so many times over the past two years. They definitely had the advantage in regards to adjustments. They made some great adjustments and they played well. We had to counter that and our girls showed a lot of character to come back. Anytime you're down in a big match like this your mind can start playing tricks on you and I was just proud of our girls discipline and their ability to stick with it." - head coach Joey Scrivano on the match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will now face eighth-ranked and ninth-seeded Virginia Friday at 7 p.m. CT in Waco, in the NCAA Championship Round of 16. The Bears beat the Cavaliers, 6-1, Jan. 24, in Waco.
