Ryan Hannegan
Reporter
The No. 16 Lady Bears tennis team earned a pair of wins against St. Edwards and No. 38 Memphis on Thursday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
In doubles, the pairing of Victoria Kisialeva and Jordaan Sanford got things started off on the right foot with a victory over Brooke Hughes and Sasha Khadzhyan, 8-1. The Lady Bears clinched the deciding doubles point with wins from the duos of Alex Clay and Blair Shankle and Alicia Robinson and Makenzie Craft with identical 8-0 scores.
In singles action, Baylor jumped all over St. Edward’s claiming 4 of 5 finished matches. No. 48 Sanford snatched the first singles point with a 6-0, 6-0 score over Hughes. Following shortly thereafter, Alex Leatu defeated Rafaela Haegele, 6-1, 6-0.
“I thought we really competed today and applied what we did in practice,” Sanford said. “Obviously, the results show we did pretty well today. Personally, I was trying to be more aggressive and I think as the season has gone along it’s starting to show piece by piece.”
Summer Biggs defeated Karen Avila for the Toppers lone point of the match, 6-0, 6-0 and Abby Stainback earned the deciding point of the match by a final score of an identical 6-0, 6-0 score.
After Baylor claimed its fourth point, Craft and Robinson’s individual matches were called off due to the Lady Bears having already won the overall match against St. Edwards.
In the second match of the doubleheader, Baylor made quick work of the Lady Tigers with a convincing 6-1 victory over Memphis.
The Lady Bears took the doubles point in part due to the combo of Shankle and Clay who won their match, 8-2, over the pair of Stefanie Mikesnz and Anki Wind. Baylor sealed doubles play with a victory from the team of Generette and Burgic against Alyssa Hibberd and Skylar Kuykendall, 8-4.
“The girls were really focused and just ready to play,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “Memphis is the type of team that has been averaging about one huge upset every season for the past couple of seasons. We didn’t want to be their upset for 2014. I’m really proud of the way we competed today.”
In singles, Ema Burgic soundly defeated Kuykendall, 6-1, 6-0 while Generette made quick work of Mikesz, 6-3, 6-0.
“Everyone showed up today from start to finish,” Burgic said. “It was really windy but we didn’t let it affect us. Personally, I played really well and once I finished I saw that everyone was playing well. I am glad to see that everyone is on the right track.
On court 3, Sanford took the match over Wegner, 6-1, 6-2, while on court 4, Shankle had little trouble with Wind, 6-2, 6-1.
The Lady Tigers grabbed their only point in the match from Morga who took care of Craft 6-2, 6-4.
To finish off the day’s matches, Clay pulled out a win against Hibberd, 7-5, 6-1.
The Lady Bears will be in Fort Worth to play TCU next Wednesday followed by a battle with the Kansas Jayhawks on April 4.
