AUSTIN, Texas – Baylor women's tennis closed out its 2024-25 season in the first round of the NCAA Team Championship tournament on Friday morning in a 4-3 loss to Boise State at the Texas Tennis Center.
 
Baylor (20-6) lost the doubles point to the Broncos (20-5), but fought back to take three singles courts before Boise State clinched the match behind a pair of third-set thrillers.     
 
THE RUNDOWN
The doubles point went the way of Boise State with wins at the Nos. 1 and 3 doubles courts, but not without a fight. The pairing of Zdena Safarova and Maya Dutta defeated the 37^th-ranked Cristina Tiglea and Liubov Kostenko, 6-4, after being up 5-0. The Baylor duo won four straight games to nearly pull a comeback.
 
With the doubles clinch, Court No. 3's Bhakti Shah and Paula Schaefer got a 6-4 win over Sierra Berry and Zuzanna Kubacha. Na Dong and Wenfei Yu were up 5-4 when their match was left abandoned.
 
In singles, BU started out by taking five of six first sets, claiming all but the No. 2 court that finished first in Dutta's defeat of Kostenko, 6-3, 6-3. Baylor responded moments after with its first point of the match in a strong 6-0, 6-1 win for Kubacha over Shah.
 
The Bears had the next two points of the match with wins at Nos. 4 and 5, as Dong ended her season with a 15^th-straight victory, 6-4, 6-0, coming against Schaefer. Kennedy Gibbs took down Ari Briones Ginesta with a pair of 6-4 sets to put BU within one point of moving on to the next round.
 
It was Boise State who took the last two points of the match, both coming in in three sets. Safarova downed Tiglea, 4-6, 6-4, 0-0, and Masa Viriant clinched the victory for the Broncos with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 decision.