No. 35 Baylor Women's Tennis to Face No. 31 LSU in First-Round Matchup

[Ingram, Brent]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – May 2, 2024

No. 35 WT to Face No. 31 LSU in First-Round Matchup
Baylor to Face LSU on Friday at 12 p.m. CT

For more information contact: Brent Ingram; 210-845-8651, brent_ingram at baylor.edu<mailto:brent_ingram at baylor.edu>


WACO, Texas -- No. 35 Baylor women’s tennis is headed to the NCAA Stanford Regional and a first-round matchup with No. 31 LSU, on Friday at 12 p.m. CT at the Taube Family Tennis Center.



Baylor (17-12, 7-6 Big 12 Conference) is making its 25th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, earning the at-large selection on Monday night. The Bears will face No. 31 LSU (15-10, 6-7 Southeastern Conference) in the first round, opposite in the bracket vs. host and No. 2 seed Stanford (22-2, 8-1 Pac 12 Conference), who opens the tournament with UMass (15-7, 4-1 Atlantic 10).



“It is always great to be in the tournament, it is an accomplishment that is not easy,” Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano said. “There are a lot of teams that wish they were in our shoes right now.”



The trip to Stanford marks a familiar one for the storied Baylor women’s tennis program, as the Bears made memorable NCAA Tournament stops in 2006 and 2011 at Stanford. In 2006, the Big 12 Champion Bears cruised through the first and second rounds as the No. 5 seed in Waco, and moved into the Elite 8 with a 4-2 win over No. 12 Vanderbilt in Palo Alto, Calif., before meeting No. 4 Florida in the quarterfinals. In 2011, Baylor was the No. 7 seed and smashed Texas-Arlington and Oklahoma in the first two rounds in Waco and used wins over No. 32 SMU and No. 4 North Carolina to advance to the Final Four in Palo Alto.



“I don’t think there is any pressure (to play in the NCAA Tournament), it is a privilege to play in the postseason,” Baylor senior Miska Kadleckova said. “We just want to go there with our teammates and have fun and enjoying competing.”



The Bears have now advanced to a staggering 18 NCAA Tournaments in 22 years under Scrivano, the winningest coach in program history. Scrivano has led the Bears to two Final Fours, Six Elite Eights and 19 Big 12 Championships. A six-time Big 12 Coach of the Year and a three-time ITA Texas Region Coach of the Year, Scrivano directed the Bears to 14 straight NCAA Tournament trips from 2005-18, with the Bears posting a sparkling and eye-popping 125-16 mark during the stretch.



SERIES HISTORY, COMMON FOES

The two teams have not met since 1990, in a 5-4 home loss for the Bears. LSU has won all four meetings in the series, which started in 1984 with three meetings in the 1980s. The Bears have a 2-4 all-time mark against Stanford in a series that started in 2001 and saw BU post wins in 2008 and 2009. The teams last faced off in the Final Four in 2011.



Baylor and UMass have never met.



Common opponents for Baylor and LSU this season include the SMU Mustangs, which Baylor bested twice, 4-2, while the Tigers lost, 4-1, and TCU, which Baylor lost to, 4-0, and LSU defeated 4-1. Stanford posted a 4-3 win over No. 2 Texas A&M on opening weekend, a 4-0 win over No. 8 Florida, and lost vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State in the ITA Indoor Championships. Stanford also posted a 4-3 win over No. 4 Texas and a 4-1 win over No. 30 Arizona State. The Bears fell in meetings with Texas A&M, UF, Oklahoma State and Texas but posted a 4-2 win over Arizona State.



ABOUT THE BEARS

Baylor is coming off of a 1-1 showing in the Big 12 Tournament, posting a win over West Virginia before falling to the Oklahoma Sooners in Stillwater. The team is 5-8 in away matches but boasts a 3-1 record at neutral site matchups. The Bears are led by senior Miska Kadleckova, ranked No. 102, with a 16-4 record overall on court one and a 2-3 record vs. nationally ranked foes.



Sierra Berry and Zuzanna Kubacha are ranked as the No. 89 doubles team in the nation, posting a 4-9 mark on court one. Isabella Harvison and Liubov Kostenko have gone 6-2 on court three in the spring, while Kadleckova and Danielle Tuhten lead the team with a 12-6 mark in doubles, going 11-4 on court two.



Harvison is 12-5 on the year, while Kubacha is 12-10 and Kostenko owns a 10-11 mark in singles.



In last year’s NCAA Tournament, the Bears defeated SMU in the first round, 4-3, before falling to  No. 2-seeded Texas A&M.



ABOUT THE FIELD

LSU’s SEC Championship run was interrupted in a shutout to the eventual champions, Georgia, 4-0. The team is 15-10 overall including 3-5 away and 2-1 at neutral sites. The Tigers are led primarily by Florentine Dekkers, who owns a 3-5 record both nationally and on the top court.



Last year’s Tigers were bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the first round by No. 22-seeded Wisconsin.



Stanford has only two losses on the year, vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 17 UCLA. The Cardinal has four singles athletes ranked in the top-125, including Connie Ma, who is 15-2 on court two and 36-5 overall, No. 30 Alexandra Yepifanova, who is 11-3 on court three, Angelica Blake, who is 10-3 on court one, and Alexis Blokina, who is 9-4 on court four. In doubles, Ma and Yepifanova form the nation’s No. 20 team, going 10-4 on court one and 24-8 overall.



To stay up to date on all things Baylor women’s tennis, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorWTennis.



- BaylorBears<http://www.BaylorBears>.com -


--
Brent Ingram | Assistant AD for Communications
Men’s Tennis Sport Program Administrator
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 210-845-8651

[signature_1049805336]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/bumedia/attachments/20240502/6ad2307c/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 20341 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/bumedia/attachments/20240502/6ad2307c/attachment-0001.png>