By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
Baylor athletics’ tough day against the University of Oklahoma continued with the No. 7 seed women’s tennis team’s 4-2 loss to the No. 2 seed Sooners on Friday in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals at the Jayhawk Tennis Center at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan.
The Bears (16-13) won the doubles point just like the men’s team did in the match prior, as the sophomore duo of Alina Shcherbinina and Brooke Thompson edged their opponent, 6-4 on court three.
Fifth-year senior Paula Barañano and freshman Daniella Dimitrov couldn’t overcome the No. 10 tandem of graduate senior Ivana Corley and senior Carmen Corley. The Corley sisters took down Barañano and Dimitrov by a score of 6-3 on court one.
But senior Isabella Harvison and sophomore Anita Sahdiieva grinded out a 6-4 win on court two over the No. 43 pairing of graduate student Alexandra Pisavera and senior Layna Sleeth to secure Baylor’s double point.
OU (19-8) clapped back with a 6-1, 6-2 victory on court three before taking a 2-1 lead after a 6-4, 6-0 win on No. 5. The Sooners found another win on court six, but Harvison trimmed the Bears’ deficit to one, thanks to her 6-1, 6-3 win in the No. 4 spot. Harvison’s victory marked her team-leading 16th singles success this season.
Oklahoma clinched its overall win after a 6-2, 6-1 victory on court two.
Head coach Joey Scrivano said “it was a tough match today” and that he expects the team to grow from the loss.
“We started off strong, but ultimately, in singles we fell a bit short,” Scrivano said. “Now, we just have to wait for the postseason to unfold with the NCAA Tournament. Overall, it was a good tournament for us this week. There were a lot of lessons learned in our last two matches, and we’ll go back and look at how we can improve, and we will do it.”
Baylor now looks ahead to its destination for the NCAA Tournament, which runs from May 17-27. The NCAA’s selection show for Division I women’s teams will take place at 5:30 p.m. CT on Monday, May 1 and it can be watched on NCAA.com.
