No. 7 Baylor WT Faces Houston on Senior Day

Friday, March 26

Waco, Texas

12:00 PM

Baylor

Houston

No. 7 Baylor WT Faces Houston on Senior Day

3/25/2021 1:36:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Live Stats Live Video

Hosting Last Non-Conference Match, Bears Riding High of 4-3 Comeback Win over OU

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Like Grant Teaff in 1974, when Baylor football came back to beat Texas, 34-24, in the "Miracle on the Brazos," Joey Scrivano somehow believed.
            Even when things looked the darkest – the 11^th-ranked Baylor women's tennis team trailed Oklahoma, 3-1, last Friday, with senior Jessica Hinojosa in a 2-5 hole in the third set at No. 3 – Scrivano said he "felt like we were going to come back."
            "We're one of the best comeback teams in the country, and we've kind of proven that over the last few years," the 19^th-year head coach said. "We've been in a lot of these situations where we've been down 3-0 in a match and come back to win it. So, it wasn't unchartered territory for us."
            This was different, though.
Four times, Hinojosa faced a team match point . . . and won every one of them. Livia Kraus was down 3-6, 0-3 at No. 5 and turned it around to defeat OU's Marcelina Podlinska, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, winning 12 of the last 14 games to remain unbeaten this spring.
            Mel Krywoj actually started the comeback on Court 1, rallying from a 0-2 third-set deficit to beat Carmen Corley, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
            Coming off an ankle injury, Krywoj had not practiced that much in the week leading up to the OU match, "so we were definitely concerned about her not being sharp . . . that it might affect her mentally when she doesn't feel like she's prepared."
            "We were stressing from the pre-match meeting to just control what you can control," Scrivano said of Krywoj. "You're a great player, just fall back on all of your years playing tennis and go for your shots. Be loose and aggressive. And I think she did that. It's amazing how powerful the mind is when you get it on the right track."
            Sophomore Paula Baranaño got the first point on the board for the Bears, beating Kianah Motosono, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 6. Unable to return from Argentina in the fall because of COVID-19 restrictions, Baranaño improved to 7-1 this spring.
            "We lost the doubles point, but I feel like we were in the right mindset," Baranaño said. "My match, I feel like I played so focused. I wasn't looking at the scoreboard, so I didn't really know how everyone else was doing."
            Good thing. She might not have liked what she saw.
            "I'm not going to lie, I thought, 'OK, this was a tough match,''' Baranaño said. "But, I always believe in my teammates, and I saw Jess fighting so hard. We are so tough."
            Like Baylor's team as a whole, Hinojosa has made comebacks a habit. But again, she was down 5-2 in the third after losing the second set, 6-0.
            "I think in that second set, every game was a deuce point, so I wasn't thinking, 'Oh, I lost 6-0, it's done,''' Hinojosa said. "When I was down 5-2 (in the third), I knew it was going to be done if I lost. That part came to my mind, but I just tried to play every point and stop thinking about the result."
            The Sooners' Ivana Corley had a match point serving at 5-3, then three more on Hinojosa's service game at 5-4, when she faced a 15-40 deficit.
            "Jess is such a warrior," Scrivano said. "She's been in a lot of these comebacks, she's seen it before. . . . I felt really good that, win or lose, she's on the right track. She's not panicking because of the score. For a performer and athlete to stay in the moment, that's the hard thing – to not get caught up in the future – she was present and in a good place mentally."
            By the time Hinojosa finished off a 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(4) win over Corley at No. 3 singles, Kraus was in control at No. 5 and ultimately clinched the match with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Podlinska.
            "I don't have words for how amazing that was," Kraus said of Hinojosa's comeback win. "I know that whenever she steps on the court, she will leave everything out there and she will fight until she can't anymore. And that was exactly what she did. I texted her that night and said she is the queen of our team. She actually helped us to stay alive. If it wasn't for her, that result would have looked differently."
            Kraus got the clincher in the dramatic 4-3 win over Oklahoma that ultimately got Baylor (16-2) back in the top 10 at No. 7 in the latest ITA rankings. It was the Bears' fourth 4-3 win of the season, with at least two other matches coming down to the wire like this one.
            Even down 1-3, and with Hinojosa down 2-5 at No. 3, Scrivano said he still "felt really good, because the players were doing the right things."
            "They were executing the right plan, their intentions were right," he said. "In tennis, good errors precede good shots. So, I knew that we were on the right track. It was just a matter of would our players stay on track mentally and not let the scoreboard affect them."
            Playing on Court 5, right next to the gigantic scoreboard on the east end of the Hurd Tennis Center, it was impossible for Kraus to completely ignore the situation.
            "Obviously, it plays with your mind as well. It's hard to see that your team is down like that," she said. "But, on the other side, it also pushes me more, like, 'OK, now I've got to step up.' It gives me a little pressure, but it's positive pressure, like it's a privilege that I'm still allowed to fight."
            Along with Angelina Shakhraichuk and Kristina Sorokolet, Kraus and Hinojosa will be honored prior to Friday's match versus Houston (10-3) that starts at noon at the Hurd Tennis Center.
            "We've got to let go of everything in the past and be completely present, putting all of our attention into the things we can control," Scrivano said. "Why this team has been so successful but so mentally tough is the ability to stay in the moment."
            While the "present" is Friday's match against Houston, the Bears (16-2, 4-0) will quickly turn their attention to No. 2 Texas (14-1, 4-0) at noon Sunday in Austin. The Longhorns have won two previous matches, 4-0 and 6-1, but the last one on March 6 in Waco included a straight-set win by Kraus at No. 5 and three other singles matches going to third sets.
            "We are so close on every single court, 1 through 6, and even in doubles," said Kraus, who is 15-0 in dual-matches and up to No. 71 in the country. "We're going to try to keep our momentum going from last weekend when we had the great Oklahoma matches. I think this will be a big fight for us, but we're ready to leave it all out there."

WACO, Texas – The No. 7-ranked Baylor women's tennis team will host Houston Friday at the Hurd Tennis Center at Noon. The Bears will also honor four seniors prior to the match with festivities beginning at 11:40 a.m.

Baylor received its highest ranking from the ITA since April of 2015 when the Bears jumped from No. 11. Baylor is 16-2 on the season with a 4-0 mark in the Big 12. Houston is 10-3 overall and 3-1 in the American Conference coming into the contest.

The Bears will honor seniors Angelina Shakhraichuk, Jessica Hinojosa, Livia Kraus and Kristina Sorokolet prior to Friday's match. Shakhraichuk and Hinojosa were seniors last season and the NCAA allowed them to come back for a fifth season due to a COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Technically, Sorokolet and Kraus have an option to return in 2022, but neither's future plans with the program have been established.

All four players are having career seasons with Kraus at 24-3 overall in singles and 15-0 in dual-match play. Shakrhaichuk is 19-9 overall and 12-4 in dual-match play. Sorokolet is 12-4 and 5-2, respectively and Hinojosa is 15-11 overall and 9-6 in dual-match play.

Admission to the match is free and capacity is limited to 50 percent. Follow Baylor Women's Tennis all season long @BaylorWTennis on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.