By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Watching her parents and grandparents playing on tennis courts in Colorado Springs, Colo., 6-year-old Rhiann Newborn discovered a world that she wanted to make her own.

"I was at the park playing, and I ran up to my dad and was like, 'Can I play?''' she said. "And he was like, 'No, you can't, because you don't have a racket. Just go back to the playground and play.'''

Undaunted, she ran to the playground, found a long stick and brought it back to her dad, saying, "Daddy, can I play with this?"

That started a career that has seen Newborn, now 22, become the No. 1-ranked junior in Texas and play her first two years of college at Syracuse before transferring to Baylor last season.

"My dad tried putting me in other sports, but I wanted to focus solely on tennis so that I could see where I could go," said Newborn, who plays No. 3 singles for the 16th-ranked Baylor women (21-6) that open up NCAA Championship play with a first-round matchup against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (20-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.

"I tried track for a little bit, but I didn't like staying at long track meets for hours only to run one event. And then I tried gymnastics and got bored with that, too. Finally, I just said, 'Let me stop everything else and just do tennis from now on.'''

As a 5-star recruit out of Houston, Newborn signed with Syracuse to play for then-head coach Luke Jensen, a doubles standout in the pro ranks who won the French Open with his younger brother, Murphy.

"I wanted to go work with him, because he allowed us to go play pro tournaments in the fall," she said. "And that's what I wanted to do, because I wanted to try to get my ranking up so that when summer hits I'm able to get in the bigger tournaments. So basically, I went just for him."

With Jensen leaving halfway through her freshman season, Newborn said it "didn't work out too well" with new coach Younes Limam, "so I decided to transfer."

"I wanted to be closer to home," said Newborn, who had an 18-19 singles record over two seasons while playing in the top half of the Orange's lineup. "Being in New York for two years was long enough away from home. That was my first time on my own, so I was a little nervous, a little scared, and I was just missing my family a lot."

Baylor offered her a nice landing spot, being closer to home, and "I just loved the atmosphere and I loved all the classes and stuff they had to offer for the major I wanted to do."

Last year, while bothered by a stress fracture in her foot, Newborn was 10-17 in singles and 11-16 with four different doubles partners.

"I couldn't really move or run anywhere," she said. "Basically, I was just sore and out of shape, and now all of that has healed up. I'm in better shape than I was and ready to play."

Coach Joey Scrivano said Newborn "did a great job of just playing through injuries and not showing it to anybody" last year.

"It was incredible to see how tough she is," he said. "This year, I think she's probably still dealing with the same injuries. But, it's amazing when you get your mind right and the perspective that, you know what, if you want to actually have a tennis career then you're going to have to play with pain. The great players, they figure it out, eventually. The ones that don't, you just never hear about them. She's one of those players that's figured it out, and thank God she's figured it out for us."

While playing a limited collegiate schedule in the fall, she made it the Round of 16 in singles and doubles at a pro tournament in Waco. Newborn won eight in a row at one point in the spring and was 4-1 in conference play, earning second-team All-Big 12 honors.

"Rhiann playing the way she is right now, and really developing and improving and being injury-free for the most part, has really helped us a lot," senior All-American Blair Shankle said. "She's been a solid player for us all year. She can compete at any position and win at any position. For us to have that, and for us to have another senior that's doing well, I think that's a huge confidence booster for the team."

After a second-round loss at Georgia last year, the Lady Bears are hosting the first and second round for the 10th time in 12 years. The 20th-ranked Texas A&M women (16-12) will face Sun Belt Conference champion Louisiana-Monroe (16-1) at 10 a.m. Saturday in other first-round match, with the winners squaring off at 1 p.m. Sunday with a chance to advance to the Round of 16 in Athens, Ga.

"We hosted for so many years, and it's just great to host again," Scrivano said. "My wife is happier, (my son) Nico's wondering what his Pop is doing. So, it's all good."

Newborn, who will graduate in August with a degree in heath, kinesiology and leisure studies, said she wants to give pro tennis a try and see if she can get into the top 200 in the world "so I can go to the U.S. Open and some of the bigger grand slams that you see on TV."

"And if that doesn't work out, I'll probably go back to school to become either a physical therapist or a tennis coach," she said.

The Baylor experience has been amazing, Newborn said. "I feel at home here. I'm glad I'm only 2 ½ hours away from here, but my team is amazing, my coaches are amazing and it's just a very positive environment. I love being at a place like this. Baylor has been unbelievable."

Live video streaming, live scoring and an in-match blog for the matches on Saturday and Sunday will be available at www.baylorbears.com.