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No. 2 Women's Tennis Falls to Top-Ranked Northwestern
March 26, 2008
WACO, Texas - Nazlie Ghazal won a second-set tiebreaker and held on to win the third set over Jelena Stanivuk, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, to clinch the match as top-ranked Northwestern defeated No. 2 Baylor 5-2 on Wednesday night at the Baylor Tennis Center. Baylor falls to 17-2 on the season, with both losses coming to top-ranked teams. The Lady Bears' only previous loss came to then-top-ranked Stanford 4-2 at the ITA Indoor Championships. Baylor is now 0-3 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams. Baylor now holds a 13-2 record this season against nationally-ranked opponents. The loss breaks Baylor's 12-match winning streak this season and ends the Lady Bears' 38-match home winning streak. The last time Baylor lost at home came on March 15, 2005. "That was a great battle against the top team in the country," said head coach Joey Scrivano. "We put ourselves in position to win, but we just couldn't take advantage of our opportunities. We are very close, but at this level we aren't satisfied with close." Northwestern came out early to take the first match of doubles play as No. 28 Georgia Rose and Lauren Lui defeated fourth-ranked Zuzana Zemenova and Lenka Broosova 8-4 at number one doubles. Zemenova and Broosova held a 3-1 lead before the Wildcats stormed back to take four straight games. After Baylor held on serve to cut the lead to 5-4, Rose and Lui collected three straight games to win the match.
Baylor evened the doubles point at one match apiece as No. 54 Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk downed Suzie Matzenauer and Samantha Murray 8-6. The Lady Bears were down a break through the first 10 games until Baylor broke Northwestern's serve to take a 6-5 lead. Baylor won two of the next three games to take the match. The doubles point came down to court three where, despite trailing 3-1, Zuzana Chmelarova and Karolina Filipiak rallied to win five of the next six games and take a 6-4 lead. Alexis Conill and Maria Mosolova rallied to win four straight games and win the match 8-6 to secure the doubles point for the Wildcats. "We had a tough start with losing the doubles point," said Scrivano. "We had some chances in singles on courts one and five, but just couldn't capitalize. Northwestern made some good adjustments and you have to give them credit for that." Five of the six singles matches went to a third set, with four players rallying from one-set deficits to win. No. 46 Lui defeated No. 62 Jana Bielikova 6-4, 7-5 on court four to give Northwestern the 2-0 advantage. No. 11 Broosova rallied from a set-down to defeat No. 25 Murray3-6, 6-1, 6-2 at number three singles to put Baylor on the board. Fifth-ranked Rose held on to down No. 26 Ormond on court two 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The match was tied at 3-3 in the third set when Ormond suffered a leg injury slowing her for the remainder of the match. Ghazal sealed the match for the Wildcats with her three-set victory at number five singles, while Filipiak rallied to defeat Matzenauer on court six. Filipiak faced a 5-2 deficit in the second set, but came back to win in a tiebreaker before holding on for the 5-7, 7-6 (7), 6-4 win. "I really wanted to come back and win that match," said Filipiak. "I was down in the second set and figured that I had nothing to lose. I started to follow my gameplan and I played hard and got the win." No. 23 Zuzana Zemenova won the first set at number one singles, but could not hold the lead as third-ranked Mosolova came back to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. The Lady Bears return to action on Friday as Baylor plays host to #1 Northwestern 5, #2 Baylor 2 Singles competition - Order of finish (4,3,2,5,6,1) 1. #3 Maria Mosolova (NW) def. #23 Zuzana Zemenova (BU) 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 2. #5 Georgia Rose (NW) def. #26 3. #11 Lenka Broosova (BU) def. #25 Samantha Murray (NW) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 4. #46 Lauren Lui (NW) def. #62 Jana Bielikova (BU) 6-4, 7-5 5. Nazlie Ghazal (NW) def. Jelena Stanivuk (BU) 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 6. Karolina Filipiak (BU) def. Suzie Matzenauer (NW) 5-7, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 Doubles competition - Order of finish (1,2,3) 1. #28 Georgia Rose/Lauren Lui (NW) def. #4 Zuzana Zemenova/Lenka Broosova (BU) 8-4 2. #54 Taylor Ormond/Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. Suzie Matzenauer/Samantha Murray (NW) 8-6 3. Alexis Conill/Maria Mosolova (NW) def. Karolina Filipiak/Zuzana Chmelarova (BU) 8-6 |
