By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
Na Dong finished her fall season on a dominant stride, capping it off with a trip to the NCAA championship for both singles and doubles.
“My expectation will be getting 1% better every day,” Dong said. “I just want to give my best and play for Baylor because I’m really honored to get to represent Baylor out here.”
Dong, a senior from Tianshui, China, is 35-6 in her career and 8-3 this fall. Alongside junior Zuzanna Kubacha, she punched her ticket to the NCAA singles championships at the ITA Central Sectional Championship and to the doubles championships at the ITA Texas Regionals.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the first round of the 64-player NCAA singles national championships. Dong came out swinging, upsetting No. 1 seed Valerie Glozman of Stanford. Dong won the match 6-3, 6-7, 6-4.
“I think I just can’t do anything without all the support from my teammates and coaches,” Dong said. “They just stepped up and supported me and encouraged me all the time. That’s the most important thing to me, and I’m just really grateful for that.”
Dong is no stranger to competition at the highest level. She took the collegiate women’s tennis world by storm last year — her first for the green and gold — as she dominated her way to a 27-3 singles record in the 2024-25 season.
“Playing singles has a lot of complexity, and you got to really be able to move laterally,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “It’s an entirely different thing than doubles. … When a player understands, that is when it all starts to come together in the best way.”
Dong lost her second-round matchup to Gabriella Broadfoot of NC State in two sets, 6-3, 7-5.
While falling short of personal glory in the singles bracket, Dong gained a second opportunity to place a national title in the trophy case in Waco. Kubacha joined Dong in a doubles pairing that began the Bears’ further quest for a national title Wednesday afternoon, but ultimately fell short.
“I think we trust each other, and I think that’s the most important thing for us,” Dong said. “On the doubles court, we can’t doubt each other because we’re working as one. Our strategy and our techniques are working very well because we’re sticking to Coach Joey’s plan and just being disciplined all the time.”
Dong and Kubacha qualified for the national championship tournament after winning the ITA regional doubles championship, guaranteeing their place in Orlando come November.
“It was a great time,” Scrivano said. “To win tournaments and win in such a way that Na and Zuz did is very hard to do. I don’t think they lost a single set that entire tournament.”
As the two upperclassmen sought to bring the championship back to Texas, they attempted to find ways to gain greater control over their game.
“A big part of tennis is if you can be in control of the majority of the match,” Scrivano said. “When you’re in control, good things usually follow, and Na is very good at finding that. I like their chances against anybody, but first things first, they have to be able to find and gain control of the court and kind of work their way to that.”
Despite losing her singles efforts in the round of 32, Dong still had faith in her and Kubacha’s ability as a doubles pairing to compete for the championship hardware.
“I think this [season] is our first time partnering together,” Dong said. “I think because of the experience from the last year, even though we didn’t play doubles together, but we practiced a lot and we have a good relationship on and off the court, and I think that’s why we have good doubles chemistry together.”
Wednesday evening did not go as planned for the talented pairing, as they lost their first-round matchup against Ole Miss in two sets 6-4, 6-3.
