WT Opens Season Hosting Harvard

Sunday, January 19

Waco, Texas

11 a.m.

Baylor

Harvard

WT Opens Season Hosting Harvard

1/18/2025 3:27:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Bears break open 2025 spring slate at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center

Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Even after losing three of the team's top six from a year ago, Baylor women's tennis coach Joey Scrivano said the Bears are "definitely one of the deeper teams we've had in recent years."

Boosted by talented transfers Cristina Tiglea from Texas Tech and Kennedy Gibbs from Purdue and freshmen Na Dong and Wenfei Yu from China and Nanaka Sato from Japan, Baylor was picked second in the Big 12 coaches' preseason poll behind defending conference champion and fourth-ranked Oklahoma State.

Coming off a 17-13 season that ended with a 4-3 loss to LSU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Bears will open the 2025 spring season with a matchup against Harvard at 11 a.m. Sunday in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

"We feel like our 1 through 6 is pretty interchangeable," said Scrivano, who has led Baylor to 19 NCAA Tournament berths in 22 seasons, "and then the players that are next up all can really play well; they can play at a high level. They've proven themselves, so it's a good problem to have. Depth is always a good problem to solve."

Among the returning players, senior Liubov Kostenko was a combined 11-10 at Nos. 2 and 3 singles and defeated former Baylor teammate Anita Sahdiieva in straight sets in that first-round matchup against LSU.

Playing predominantly at Nos. 4 and 5 as a freshman, Zuzanna Kubacha was second on the team with 16 singles wins and played No. 1 doubles with South Florida transfer Sierra Berry.

"I would say we have never been more ready," Kubacha said. "I feel like we all worked really hard to get where we are right now. And we can't wait to make it all worth it, the hard work, to make it pay off."

Finishing last year with a No. 56 ITA singles ranking, Tiglea was a first-team All-Big 12 pick who was 19-10 overall in singles with nine ranked wins and put together an overall 24-9 doubles record at Tech. She also earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Singles Championship, losing in straight sets to sixth-seeded Fiona Crawley of North Carolina.

In the fall, Tiglea and Kostenko qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship with an unexpected ITA Midwest Regional title, beating Michigan's Lily Jones and Jessica Bernales. They ended the fall ranked 13^th, losing to USC's Lily Fairclough and Grace Piper, 6-2, 6-4, in the first round of the NCAA tournament that was held at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center.

"It was a nerve-wracking deal. We didn't even consider putting them together as a team until the due date for sectionals," Scrivano said, "because they just didn't really gel that well. . . . I had no expectations going in. I thought I was going to Michigan and was just going to have some Tim Hortons (donuts) every morning and come back to Waco and have to watch everyone else compete for a week."

Baylor's highest-ranked singles players coming out of the fall were Dong (8-2) and Yu (8-1), who were 76^th and 118^th, respectively.

A former five-star recruit out of Houston who was the 34^th-best prospect in the nation, Gibbs was 22-5 in singles and 21-13 in doubles last year at Purdue, playing primarily at Nos. 2 and 3 singles and Nos. 1 and 2 doubles. As a freshman with the Boilermakers, she won 10 of her first 12 collegiate singles matches and had a 12-6 dual-match record in doubles.

"Kennedy's been excellent, just a high level of maturity," Scrivano said. "She has a lot of college tennis under her belt, which is always positive, and just super coachable. She's been all-in from day one."

Gibbs said coming from Purdue was "definitely a big change, weather-wise, but also just the team. I'm surrounded by amazing girls, amazing coaches. This school is amazing. I feel like I couldn't have picked a better program."

Baylor is 4-0 all-time against Harvard, including a 5-2 win in Cambridge, Mass., two years ago. While the Bears' only holdover from that match is senior Brooke Thompson, who won at No. 2 doubles, the Crimson still have three of their top four in junior Charlotte Owensby and seniors Maxi Duncan and Angel You.

"Ivy League tennis is really tough," Scrivano said, "because women's tennis players are attracted to high-academic institutions. They're super deep. All their athletes have been American high success-level tennis players. . . . They're going to be a pain in the neck, but we need that."

This will be Baylor's lone tune-up before facing BYU on Friday in the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Austin, where seventh-ranked Texas is the host.

WACO, Texas – Baylor women's tennis opens the 2025 spring slate against Harvard on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. in the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

Live results for the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center are available online with live streaming provided by Playsight.

Baylor, whose 17-13 campaign in the 2023-24 season ended in a nail-biting NCAA first-round loss to LSU, returns six players to the roster for the fresh 2024-25 slate.

Among the newcomers, freshmen Na Dong and Wenfei Yu check in at 76^th and 118^th, respectively in singles. Third-year Bear Liubov Kostenko paired up with Texas Tech transfer Cristina Tiglea for an appearance in the NCAA Doubles Championship and will open the season at No. 13.

In fall play, Tiglea and Kostenko joined together for an appearance at the Waco-based NCAA Individual Championships but were knocked out of the first round of the doubles bracket. Freshman Nanaka Sato led the Bears in singles wins with nine and the pairing of Yu and Berry put up seven doubles wins last fall.

Fans who attend the Sunday morning match can be among the first to receive the 2024-25 team poster, featuring Brooke Thompson, Sierra Berry, Kostenko and Tiglea.

All home matches are free for fans to attend.

To stay up to date, follow the team on its official Facebook, X and Instagram accounts: @BaylorWTennis.

- BaylorBears.com -