By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
With a new-look fall season in the rearview mirror, Baylor women’s tennis is set to compete for its first Big 12 title since 2015.
The Bears hosted the NCAA individual singles and doubles championships in November, separated from the spring team season for the first time as part of a two-year pilot program. Seniors Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea secured berths before falling in the Round of 32 to USC’s Lily Fairclough and Grace Piper. The Baylor duo stands as the No. 13 doubles pairing in the nation, second in the Big 12 behind TCU’s Isabel Pascual and Jade Otway (No. 12).
Now, the team turns to the spring season. Picked second in the preseason Big 12 poll — which would register as the Bears’ best finish since 2021 — head coach Joey Scrivano is confident his team’s depth is enough to carry them through.
“It’s definitely one of the deepest teams we’ve had in recent years,” Scrivano said. “We feel like our one through six are pretty interchangeable and then the players that are next up all can really play well. … It’s a good problem to have.”
Purdue transfer Kennedy Gibbs will get plenty of run after going 22-5 in singles last season for the Boilermakers. The junior Houston native was the state’s No. 3-ranked recruit in the 2022 class.
“We worked really hard in the fall, so we’re excited to see our hard work pay off in the spring,” Gibbs said. “I feel like the coaches do a good job of building our game all around … Personally, I’ve worked really hard on my serve and just improving that and continuing to build that as a strength, and also my forehand.”
Sophomore Zuzanna Kubacha says she’s “never been more ready” after concluding her freshman season with 16 singles wins, the second-most on the team.
“We all worked really hard to get where we are right now, and we can’t wait to make it all worth it,” Kubacha said. “We [are] just focusing day by day, practice by practice, on the most important things, the things that we should focus on.”
The Bears opened their season Sunday against Harvard, a defending tournament team, and came away with a 4-0 sweep. This weekend, they’ll travel down to Austin to play in the ITA Kickoff Weekend against BYU and either No. 7 Texas or Maryland. Two weeks later, it’s off to Southern California for a back-to-back against San Diego State and San Diego.
“We’re definitely ready to compete and deal with some on-court adversity,” Scrivano said. “We need that. Great teams gotta go through that adversity, and it’s better to have that early than late.”
