Women’s tennis knocks off Northwestern

Freshman Kristina Sorokolet hits a forehand off a high bounce in her three set victory over Northwestern junior Lee Orr. Jessica Hubble | Multimedia Editor

By Nathan Keil | Sports Editor

Baylor women’s tennis picked up a top ten win Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Bears knocked off No. 9 Northwestern 5-2 at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

Head coach Joey Scrivano said his team came out prepared and worked hard to get the top ten win.

“It was a great team win. I’m really proud of our team, they played hard start to finish and Top 10 wins are not easy to come by,” Scrivano said.

The Wildcats came out and grabbed the early lead on the Lady Bears by taking the doubles point.

Sophomore Julie Bryne and junior Rheeya Doshi knocked off senior Theresa Van Zyl and freshman Giorgia Testa 6-3 on court three. Then the fourth ranked pair of seniors, Erin Larner and Maddie Lipp knocked off freshman Kristina Sorokolet and sophomore Jessica Hinojosa 6-4 on court one, to grab a 1-0 match lead.

But Baylor would grab the first two points on the singles circuit, finishing up victories on courts six and four. First, it was sophomore Angelina Shakhraichuk earning a 6-3, 6-0 win then Hinojosa picked up a 6-2, 6-1 to help Baylor grab a 2-1 lead.

Northwestern then evened the match up on two as Larner took a 6-1, 6-2 win over Van Zyl in court one.

After a close 7-5 win in the first set, freshman Livia Kraus dominated the second 6-1 to give the Lady Bears a 3-2 lead.

Sorokolet followed suit, winning in three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to clinch the match for Baylor.

“It’s definitely a big experience, and I’m glad I had this opportunity to clinch the match and try to show my best. It’s really important to have such experiences,” Sorokolet said.

Even though the match had been decided, sophomore Camilla Abbate and Lipp decided to finish their match. Abbate needed three sets against Lipp, finishing her off 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2).

Kraus said that the team has been really close to getting these types of wins this season and that it was big for them to be able to close out the match and get the win.

“We were all so excited and we were really, really proud,” Kraus said. “We fought so hard and worked so hard in the last few weeks. We had some really good matches against really good opponents, so it’s about time for us to get a good win like that.”

With the win, Baylor improves to 11-10 on the year and collects its second win over a top 15 opponent.

Baylor will take on Texas Tech at 5 p.m. April 6 at the Hurd Tennis Center.