By Kasey McMillian
Reporter
Baylor women’s tennis defeated No. 8 Northwestern 4-2 Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
For the first time in the last seven matches the Lady Bears received the doubles point which gave them a beginning advantage into the singles matches.
New doubles pair, senior Nina Secerbegovic and freshman Ema Burgic achieved one of the two wins with an 8-3 final score.
“We felt like we should’ve been playing together before even though it was our first time,” Secrebegovic said. “We are from the same country. We kind of have the same concept and same view on some stuff, so it definitely helps when we communicate on the point and in between points. So that definitely helps and she’s very consistent and she’s very coachable. If you tell her something she will do it, so that always helps me. It definitely helps that I have another player next to me that’s good enough.”
The duo split up in preparation for singles and both were just as successful individually. No. 32 ranked Nina Secerbegovic finished with a 7-6(2), 6-1 second set win over Northwestern’s Wowchuk.
Secerbegovic’s point left Baylor one point away from taking an overall win, leaving it all up to Burgic in her remaining match.
“What I do is just focus, I re-ball every point, and I knew I had to do it,” Burgic said. “I saw girls that were losing. I mean [senior] Sona [Novakova] won, Nina was winning but [freshman] Megan [Horter] lost, [senior Diana Nakic] lost, [freshman] Nicole Kosakowski was down and I was like I know I have to do it. So I changed my mind set, I was playing every point, and I went for every ball.”
Burgic has faced this type of pressure previously this season but she struggled in the first set losing 6-2. However, Burgic fired back with a game-changing turn around getting a 6-0 win in the second set. She fought through the last set and came back to win 6-4.
“I love the way we played doubles today. That was a major improvement,” head coach Joey Scrivano said in a press release. “Changing up the lineup worked out well for us. We just executed really well on all three courts. And we are excited about the way Ema came back in her singles match today. She has a really bright future, and we really like the way she finished today.”
Baylor will take on 10th-ranked Miami on March 13 at Coral Gables, Fla.
