Ryan Hannegan
Reporter
Baylor men’s and women’s tennis played matches against Oklahoma State and Oklahoma over the weekend. The Lady Bears played both teams at home while the men hit the road for matches against both teams.
The No. 17 Baylor women’s tennis team remained undefeated in Big 12 play with victories over No. 18 Oklahoma and No. 23 Oklahoma State.
“We played with a lot of intensity and had a lot of focus,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the effort across the board. Our whole team just showed up and wanted it bad.”
Against the Lady Pokes, the Lady Bears pushed ahead early in the match by clinching the doubles point. The Baylor duo of Alex Clay and Blair Shankle claimed the first victory over Katarina Adamovic and Karyn Guttormsen, 8-4. Ema Burgic and Kiah Generette won as they downed Caria Tur Mari and Maria Alvarez, 8-4, to claim the point.
In singles, Baylor earned wins on four of the six courts. However, OSU’s Karyn Guttormsen started singles strong defeating Alex Leatu, 6-4, 6-3. The Lady Bears responded back with a victory from No. 116 Shankle taking down Katarina Adamovic, 6-2, 6-4.
No. 97 Burgic pushed the Lady Bear lead to 3-0 as she dispatched of Megan McCray, 6-4, 6-4.
Clinching the match for the Lady Bears, No. 56 Jordaan Sanford took control over OSU’s Kanyapat Narattna, 6-4, 6-3.
“It means a lot to us,” Sanford said. “We’re finally seeing all our hard practices pay off on the court. It’s really showing right now.”
Against Oklahoma, the Lady Bears earned a 6-1 victory to clinch a share of their tenth Big 12 regular season title at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
To start the match, Baylor’s pairing of Burgic and Kiah Generette took down Morgan Chumney and Ema Devine, 8-3.
On court one, Sanford and Kisialeva could not get past the No. 70 pair of Mia Lancaster and Whitney Ritchie, 8-5. Clinching the doubles point for Baylor, Shankle and Clay defeated Hermon Brhane and Zita Engbroks, 8-4, on court three.
In singles play, Sanford struck first with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Chumney. Clay put another point on the board for Baylor as she downed Abbi Melrose, 6-1, 6-1, at the bottom of the lineup.
To clinch the match for Baylor, Leatu outworked Emma Devin, 7-5, 6-4, at the No. 5 spot.
Those first three points of the day in singles for Baylor all came from seniors. Clay, Leatu, Sanford and Abby Stainback were all recognized prior to the match in a Senior Day celebration.
The No. 6 Baylor men’s tennis team had an 11-match winning streak snapped with a 4-3 loss to No. 4 Oklahoma at the Headington Family Tennis Center.
Coming into the match, Baylor had claimed eight straight doubles points. However, Oklahoma opened with a victory on court two as Diego Galeano and Tony Lupieri fell to Axel Alvarez and Guillermo Alcorta, 8-4. Baylor’s doubles team of Julian Lenz and Michel Dornbusch evened the doubles point at one match apiece, dispatching of Peerakit Siributwong and Nick Papac, 8-7(3).
“Today was another great match,” head coach Matt Knoll said. “We had some great performances but we just didn’t show up at every position today. It is hard to beat an elite team when you don’t have nine positions show up.”
The Sooners went on to claim the doubles point with an 8-6 win by the No. 29 pairing of Dane Webb and Andrew Harris over Patrick Pradella and Mate Zsiga.
In singles action, Oklahoma pushed the lead to 2-0 as No. 44 Harris downed No. 102 Lupieri, 6-3, 6-2.
The Bears claimed the next three matches to gain a 3-2 advantage. First, Zsiga blasted Alex Ghilea, 6-1, 6-1. After that, No. 15 Pradella earned an upset victory over No. 6 Alvarez, 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 1 spot. Then Dornbusch claimed Baylor’s final point of the day with a 6-4, 6-4, victory over Austin Siegel.
The Sooners pulled even with the Bears at three points apiece as the No. 40 Dane Webb upset No. 29 Galeano, 6-3, 7-6(5).
In a battle to decide the entire match, No. 5 Alcorta and No. 2 Lenz faced off. Alcorta claimed the match as he defeated Lenz, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
The Bears bounced back against No. 24 Oklahoma State shutting out the Pokes, 7-0, at the Greenwood Tennis Center.
The Bears quickly claimed the doubles point to put them up 1-0 in the match.
In singles competition, Galeano put the Bears up 2-0 with a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over Kadhe before Lupieri was able to get past Lucas Gerch, 6-2, 7-6(12).
Baylor clinched the match point on court one where Pradella topped No. 86 Jakob Sude 6-4, 7-6(7) to secure Baylor’s 20th win of the season.
The Bears will be back in action on Wednesday as they return to Waco to host No. 7 Texas for the last regular season matchup of the 2014 dual match season.
The Lady Bears will be playing for the outright Big 12 title when the squad travels to Austin to face No. 22 Texas on Friday.
