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<h1 dir="ltr" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 0px; line-height: 30.666664px; margin: 0.25in 0in 4pt; font-family: "Aptos Display", sans-serif; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(15, 71, 97);">
<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 13.8px;"><b>BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Jan. 17, 2026</b></span></h1>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; color: black;"><b>No. 25 Baylor WT Wins Season Opener 4-3 Against Illinois</b></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: black;"><b>For more information contact:
</b>Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: purple;"><u><a href="mailto:colin_pirtle1@baylor.edu" title="mailto:colin_pirtle1@baylor.edu" data-outlook-id="6ac24e38-48d9-4a9d-a0d6-49a152906ad9" style="color: purple; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">colin_pirtle1@baylor.edu</a></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>WACO, Texas. –</b> No. 25 Baylor women’s tennis won its season opener against Illinois, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Facility. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Bears (1-0) earned the doubles point and victories on Courts Two, Three and Five to defeat the Fighting Illini (0-2) and start the season 1-0 for the second consecutive
year. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>THE RUNDOWN</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Starting in doubles, the 61<sup>st</sup>-ranked duo of Dong and Kubacha made fast work, claiming the 6-2 decision on Court One against the Fighting Illini’s 60<sup>th</sup>-ranked
squad. Illinois took the victory on Court Three 6-3, with the doubles point coming down to Court Two, where Kennedy Gibbs and Alian Zack won 7-5 to give BU the 1-0 lead. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In singles, Gibbs was the first to finish, grabbing the victory on Court Three 6-4, 6-0. Freshman Mu-Jie Tzeng earned her first dual match victory, claiming Court Five 6-2,
6-3. On Court Two, Kubacha clinched the win for the Bears with a 6-1, 6-2 victory. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Finishing out the matches, Gabrielle Villegas fell on Court Six 6-4, 6-0 and Zack dropped on Court Four 6-3, 6-1. Dong fell in her first set 6-2, however, claimed the second
set 6-3 to force a third set. In a very back-and-forth third set 10-point tiebreaker, Dong wasn’t able to complete the comeback, falling 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7). </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>QUOTABLE</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Head coach Joey Scrivano</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">On starting season 1-0…</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“I’m really proud of the team, they worked really hard to prepare for this one. We had two really hard and long weeks of training camp, and then we played in Knoxville last
weekend and we grew a lot in these last two weeks. We have a young team so to see how much they’ve grown in that time is really impressive.”</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">On Tulane tomorrow…</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“I feel good, I feel like we gotta just learn from today and take it into tomorrow. We got a lot of work to do in the next 24 hours and we gotta learn a lot about Tulane so
that’s our job right now.”</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>WHAT’S NEXT</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Bears host Tulane (0-1) in a Sunday matinee at noon at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">To stay up to date, follow the team on Facebook, X and Instagram: @BaylorWTennis</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i> - BaylorBears</i></span><span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: black;"><i><u>.com</u> -</i></span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;">_________________________________________</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: rgb(7, 61, 30);"><b>Colin Pirtle</b> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black;">| Associate Director of Athletics Communications (WBB, Soccer, W. Tennis) </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black;">Department of Athletics | Baylor University</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: black;">C: 940-564-0351</span></p>
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