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This is the fourth in a series of stories profiling this year's inductees for the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame, which will be posted every week at BaylorBears.com.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Taylor Ormond can laugh about it now, but it's funny how her path to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame actually started nearly 20 years ago with pancakes.

Making his recruiting rounds to watch a pro tennis tournament in Hamilton, Ontario, Baylor women's tennis coach Joey Scrivano made a pop-in visit at Taylor's house.

"After I lost in the tournament, he came over to meet my parents," Taylor said. "And my dad was making pancakes for my siblings, which was kind of embarrassing, because it was like 4 in the afternoon. I'm four, five and six years older than my siblings, so they still would have been in elementary school. But they're just sitting there eating pancakes. And I'm like, 'Okay, wow!'''

That certainly didn't keep Scrivano from offering a scholarship to Ormond, who paid him off with a career that included All-Big 12 honors three times in singles and once in doubles, plus Big 12 Freshman and ITA Region Rookie of the Year in 2008 and the NCAA Elite 88 Award as a senior in 2011.

The cherry on top came this summer, when Scrivano gave her the news that she had been elected to the 2025 class for the Baylor Hall of Fame, with the induction banquet set for Nov. 14.

"Coach texted me that he kind of had a serious issue. He definitely led me along," Taylor said. "He called and told me. Classic Joey move. I'm very humbled, very surprised. I talked to (former teammate Lenka Broosova) almost immediately. She's been a strong supporter of mine, a Hall of Famer herself. Just a lot of emotions. Did I deserve it? It's exciting, though. I'm super grateful, the Baylor family has meant a lot to me. To be recognized this way is very humbling."

While Taylor's mom, Laura, wasn't even sure if she was "going to make the team" at Baylor, Taylor stepped in and made an immediate impact as a freshman. Playing No. 2 singles and doubles, she was 29-16 overall in singles and 23-7 in dual-match doubles with Jelena Stanivuk.

Baylor's run in the NCAA Tournament that year ended with a 4-3 loss to California in the semifinals. As the last match on, Ormond won the first set against fourth-ranked Marina Cossou, but suffered muscle cramps and fell, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, in the deciding match.

"It was definitely an emotional low," she said, "especially because the day before, Jele (Stanivuk) and I were down 7-4 in doubles, and we came back and clinched the doubles point and beat Stanford. So, the day before, a crazy high.

"I had never had cramps before, ever, in my life. And you're out there being like, 'I don't know how I'm going to turn this match around,' when I'm playing someone who's No. 4 in the country, and I'm not physically capable of it. I think there was a bit of shock after the match."

Even with the tremendous success she had right off the bat, Taylor said it was a "huge transition" going from junior tennis – where "you're by yourself" – to being part of a team on the college level.

"I hadn't really done real weight-training before," she said. "And we had Shaun McPherson, who was also training the women's basketball team at the same time. And all of my teammates were Europeans. You can't get any stronger than those ladies. So, the weight room was a big learning curve for me, but it was a fun experience.

"Tennis can be very stressful, because you're by yourself, and your result is totally dependent on you. And now, you have five teammates who are playing singles at the same time, and you have other teammates who are watching. The camaraderie of playing an individual sport, but in a team setting, was a unique experience that I hadn't had before. And it was a lot of fun."

Moving up to No. 1 singles after the graduation of former NCAA champion Zuzana Zemenova, Taylor compiled a 27-23 record in singles the next year as a sophomore and had a 21-7 doubles record in dual matches with Stanivuk. That team made it to the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to Notre Dame, 4-3.

Arguably one of Baylor's best-ever teams, the Bears' 2009-10 squad (30-3) had a trio of future Hall of Famers at the top of the lineup and earned the first No. 1 ranking in program history before losing to Stanford, 4-2, in the quarterfinals. Csilla Borsanyi was on the verge of winning her match at No. 4 singles when Broosova fell 7-5, 7-5 to third-ranked Hilary Barte at No. 1.

"Stanford was very good, a lot of seniors," Taylor said. "But we were also right there. We had the talent to win (a national championship), especially those two years (in 2008 and '10). I remember, we were pretty beat-up. After that year, three of us had surgeries. (Stanivuk) and I had surgeries before our senior year. And Lenks, who was done, had elbow surgery. It just shows that to win a championship, you have to be a little bit lucky."

Never fully recovered from a November shoulder surgery, Taylor played No. 6 singles as a senior and "wasn't really practicing. I was just playing the matches."

That team "overachieved," she said, reaching the NCAA semifinals for the second time in four years and losing to defending national champion Stanford, 4-1, on the Cardinal's home courts. Overall, her teams went 118-15, swept four-straight Big 12 regular-season and tournament championships and made it at least to the NCAA quarterfinals all four years.

"If I had had more time to recover, I probably could have played a much better senior year," she said. "To think that I had eight months off, no racket, that's a really long time."

With her tennis career on the shelf, Taylor opted to go through Baylor Law School, graduating in 2014. She spent four years with the law firm of Ross & McBride as a defense attorney before switching over to the other side in 2021 as an Agent for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

"That first year of law school was kind of tricky from a self-identity standpoint," said Ormond, who had career records of 88-57 in singles and 84-44 in doubles. "But I'm still in court; I just went from one court to a different one."

Married to Mina Mikhail, Taylor will make the trek back down to Waco next month with her husband; a brother, Elliott; another family friend; and several former teammates.

"My husband has been to Baylor, but he's never been to a college football game," Taylor said. "So, I'm excited to kind of show him that environment, for sure. . . . I'm very grateful to have those people in my life. I'm grateful for what Baylor has done for me, and I'm very happy to be able to come back and show that gratitude."

Joining Ormond in the 2025 Baylor Hall of Fame class are football's Bryce Petty, Cyril Richardson and Derek Turner, women's golfer Hannah Burke, equestrian's Samantha Schaefer, LaceDarius Dunn from men's basketball and baseball player Chris Durbin. Additionally, former football team manager Dusty Sanderson is being added to the Wall of Honor.

The 2025 Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in the Hurd Welcome Center Grand Ballroom on the Baylor University campus. Registration is available here.

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