By Harper Mayfield | Sports Writer
A very busy weekend for the Baylor tennis teams ended in excellent fashion, as both the men’s and women’s teams were victorious. The women faced in-conference rival No. 29 Texas Tech while the men welcomed No. 21 Arizona State to Baylor’s Hurd Tennis Center.
The No. 15 women’s team won a decisive 4-2 victory over a strong Texas Tech team on Sunday. The Lady Bears took two of the three doubles matches, with Angie Shakraichuk and Audrey Boch-Collins winning their match 6-1, dominating Texas Tech’s combo of Margarita Skriabina and Nell Miller. On the singles courts, Baylor got wins from Paula Barañano, Jessica Hinojosa, Livia Kraus (11-0 on the singles court) and Boch-Collins.
Boch-Collins felt this win was incredibly important, especially coming off of a loss.
“Everyone wanted to turn it around today after the loss to UT yesterday,” Boch-Collins said. “We went out there with high intensity and did whatever it took to pull it out today.”
The win against Tech kicked off a new winning streak for Baylor, as they had lost four consecutive contests with the Red Raiders before their win on Sunday. Baylor still leads the all-time series against Tech 17-7, buoyed by an enormous winning streak from 2003 to 2011. Head coach Joey Scrivano felt this win is only scratching the surface for what this team is capable of.
“I’m really proud of them,” Scrivano said. “The way you respond in these situations is the sign of a great team. We showed that today.”
On the men’s side, the Bears were able to beat Arizona State soundly, picking up the 4-0 victory. The sweep marked Baylor’s 11th such victory in the 2021 dual season, and helped move Baylor closer to their best start to a season since 2007. The men’s team is currently No. 2 in the nation, and did nothing but bolster that status with their handling of the No. 21 Sun Devils.
The Bears swept the doubles matches, and did likewise in singles. On the doubles courts, senior Constantin Frantzen moved into fourth place all time in doubles wins at Baylor, just five wins shy of the Baylor record. Additionally, junior Sven Lah entered the all-time top 10 in doubles wins. Interim head coach Michael Woodson was impressed with the doubles play from the entire team, not just Frantzen and Lah.
“I thought the level of doubles was really high on all three courts, from all six teams,” Woodson said. “I was really impressed that we hung toe-to-toe with them and played our best tennis right when we needed to at the end.”
Baylor’s win over Arizona State was made even more impressive by the blistering hot streak the Sun Devils were on coming into Sunday. ASU had won 10 matches in a row, but Woodson was both confident in his team and impressed with the way they performed.
“This team has won 10 matches in a row and they have a lot of super-seniors, and they compete really hard and they’re very talented,” Woodson said. “I think for us to come through clean in singles was really impressive.”
Baylor men’s tennis will be back on the court for a showdown with Texas A&M on Thursday and the women’s team will be back in action on Friday to face off with Iowa State to kick off conference play.
