By Aidan O’Connor | Sports Writer
With a chance to keep rolling in conference play, No. 22 Baylor women’s tennis hit a roadbump, falling 4-0 to No. 26 Oklahoma State Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
“We didn’t have a great start in the doubles,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “We just found a way to underperform on the big points. I think that kind of set the tone for the entire match. I think that was the overall theme. On the bigger points, we just didn’t play. We didn’t execute what we needed to do on the big points. That makes a difference, a huge difference.”
A rocky doubles start for the Bears (16-4, 7-3) spiraled after No. 24 seniors Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea lost 6-1. Oklahoma State (14-6, 8-1) had all the momentum, up 4-2 on the remaining two doubles courts.
However, the green and gold didn’t give up as they mounted comebacks on both courts. Senior Sierra Berry and freshman Na Dong once trailed 5-2 but stormed back to make things 5-4. Berry hit a thunderous overhead winner, and the match was hanging in the balance to give them their fourth game. The comeback was short-lived, though, as they fell 6-4 moments later. Junior Kennedy Gibbs and sophomore Zuzanna Kubacha remained unfinished, trailing 5-4.
In singles, the struggles continued as Kostenko lost 6-0, 7-5. Tiglea and Gibbs were both down one set and behind in the second set, but managed to claw their way back to 5-5 ties in the second set. Once again, the comeback push was halted. Tiglea fell 6-4, 7-5, and Gibbs dropped the final point 6-4, 7-5 moments later to seal Oklahoma State’s 4-0 sweep.
“I’m really proud of the athletes that were resilient and found a way to persevere,” Scrivano said. “A big part of tennis is you’ve got to problem solve. You’ve got to keep fighting when things don’t look like it’s going to be your day. Just credit to those players that did that.”
Freshman Nanaka Sato remained unfinished with a score of 4-6, 7-5, 0-3 after bouncing back from being down 2-5 and multiple match points. Dong and Kubacha also left their matches unfinished, with Dong’s match being left at 6-4, 2-5, and Kubacha’s being left at 7-6(1), 1-6.
“Ultimately, this is a team sport,” Scrivano said. “We’ve got to have all of our positions compete the same way with that same intensity and resilience. We need to do that in our upcoming matches, for sure.”
The Bears will be back on the court at 2 p.m. Friday against Arizona at the Hurd Tennis Center.
