The Baylor men’s tennis team, ranked 13th in the nation, starts the Big 12 Championship Saturday as the top seed. The Bears (19-4) will play the winner of TCU and Texas.
The team began the season with a rough start in a loss at Tulsa, but then went on an eight-match win streak. The team then lost three in a row to top-five teams, including top-ranked Virginia. However, the Bears found themselves in every third set against the Cavaliers, making for a close match.
Despite his best efforts to evade being drenched, head coach Joey Scrivano was unsuccessful in avoiding the contents of the water jug as the Baylor women’s tennis team celebrated its ninth Big 12 title in 11 years.
“That was the best bath I’ve had in a long time,” Scrivano said. “I missed having that bath last year and I couldn’t wait to get it this year. To win any kind of championship takes a tremendous amount of work. We battled a lot of adversity this year and it was great to see a completely new team have this experience.”
The No. 15 Baylor men’s tennis team will continue conference play against the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners at 6 p.m. today at the Hurd Tennis Center. The Bears (15-4) are 1-0 in conference play this season and are coming off of a 6-1 win at Texas Tech last week and a five-match win streak.
The Baylor Women’s tennis team came up short on Wednesday night against 4th-ranked Texas A&M at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center. The Lady Bears took an early lead after winning the doubles point, but were unable to keep the Aggies from taking control of the match in singles play and securing the 4-2 overall victory.
“We definitely competed harder in that particular match than we have lately, but ultimately we still fell short,” head coach Joey Scrivano said.
The Baylor men’s tennis team showed a valiant effort against the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers Monday, but ultimately lost 6-1. The Bears (10-3) lost five of their six singles matches, and all losses were three-set thrillers.
“I thought we came out today and really came out swinging,” head coach Matt Knoll said. “We made a match out of it. Unfortunately we weren’t good enough to get a ‘W’, but we’re getting better.”