By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Crisp winds rolled through the Hurd Tennis Center Friday afternoon as Baylor women’s tennis secured a 5-2 victory in its home opener over Nebraska.
“[There was] a lot of fight today,” Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano said. “We had a slightly different lineup than the previous three matches we played, and the girls did a great job of adjusting.”
The Bears’ top doubles pairing, Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea, breezed to their fourth win of the season on Court One, 6-2. Before long, they were joined by Zuzanna Kubacha and Wenfei Yu, who picked up a 6-4 victory on Court Two to secure the doubles point.
Kennedy Gibbs, playing on Court Four for the first time this season, blasted two consecutive 6-2 victories over Reya Lee Coe to continue her hot streak. Gibbs is now 3-1 in singles matches, her lone loss coming to No. 12 Texas’ Carmen Herea.
“I really love the way Kennedy came out — she was dominant,” Scrivano said. “She stayed on task and she got that point on the board for us, which was big.”
Nebraska got on the board with a Court One victory from Ana Zamburek, who knocked off Tiglea, 6-4, 6-1. Tiglea is 1-3 in singles matches, all on Court One, and undefeated in doubles.
Past Court One, all five Bears won their opening sets, including tiebreaking wins by Kostenko 7-6(5) and Nanaka Sato 7-6(6) on Courts Two and Six. Nebraska’s Maria Taranova fell into a 3-5 hole against Kostenko but won in straight serves to keep the set alive.
Meanwhile, Nebraska’s Tiziana Rossini completed her sweep of Sierra Berry on Court Five, 6-4, 6-4, to tie the match at 2-2. Three minutes later, Sato came through with a 7-6(6), 6-2 sweep on Court Six to secure the victory and set up match point.
Kostenko delivered the final blow, finishing off Maria Taranova, 7-6(5), 6-4, to take a 4-2 lead and secure the victory. Knotted up at 5-all in the potential deciding set, Kubacha scored seven straight points and finished off Emma Rizzetto to wrap up the 5-2 match win.
“First match in windy conditions, so they handled some adversity and they competed hard,” Scrivano said. “I’m proud of them. Great to have a match under our belt here.”
