By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
After landing a fifth consecutive NCAA Championship bid Monday, No. 22 Baylor women’s tennis is heading down to Austin to take on Boise State Friday. The final rounds of the tournament with the top 16 teams will be hosted at Baylor’s Hurd Tennis Center.
“It’s just great to be in the tournament, we can’t overlook how difficult that is to do,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “With that being said, any team you play in the tournament, you’ve got to really take seriously. Boise, obviously, has had an impressive year, and we’re going to have to be ready for them.”
Boise State (19-5, 7-3) won its first Mountain West championship in program history last week on the heels of a nine-match win streak. The Broncos haven’t lost since March 23 at San Diego State and didn’t lose at home all season. Leading the way was Zdena Safarova, the Mountain West Tournament MVP and Oklahoma transfer who swept UNLV’s Cindy Hu on Court One in the conference championship. Boise State earned four of six singles spots on the Mountain West All-Tournament Team.
“Full transparency, that’s not a team that’s been on our radar, but they are now,” Scrivano said. “So, we’re going to work really hard this week to get to know them and help our team be in a position where we can advance.”
The Bears (20-5, 10-3) enter postseason play ranked No. 22 nationally after a strong showing in Big 12 play. Their three losses came against UCF, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, the only conference opponents ranked above the Bears in the latest ITA rankings.
A first-round victory could send Baylor into a de facto road game against longtime rival Texas (16-10, 9-6), the No. 14 overall seed. The Longhorns, who eked out a 4-3 home victory over the Bears in January, will take on WAC champion Grand Canyon (13-10) in the first round.
“We’re very familiar with Texas,” Scrivano said. “We can’t get away from them, but that’s fine. We chose to play them early in the season. People forget that. … I think we’ll be very prepared if we can get past Boise. First things first, but if we can get past them, we’ll be prepared. And it won’t be a lack of readiness. We’ll be ready to go.”
Baylor will play Boise State at 10 p.m. Friday at the Texas Tennis Center. A win would advance the Bears to play Texas or Grand Canyon at 4 p.m. Saturday. Both matches will be live-streamed.
