WACO (February 16, 2013) -- The 18th-ranked Baylor women’s tennis team fell behind 3-0 and was unable to recover en route to suffering a 5-2 loss against No. 17 Vanderbilt on Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
“We are not good enough to be feeling sorry for ourselves,” head coach Joey Scrivano said. “We can’t spend too much time on pointing fingers on why we lost today. We are just going to have to bounce back and get prepared for Pepperdine tomorrow.”
Baylor has lost five straight matches and is now 3-5 on the season. However, all five losses have come against top-20 opponents. Vanderbilt improved to 5-3 with the win.
To open doubles play, Vanderbilt’s Marie Casares and Ashleigh Antal beat Alex Leatu and Maria Biryukova, 8-1, at the No. 2 spot. BU would rebound as Megan Horter and Alex Clay disposed of Georgina Sellyn and Frances Altick, 8-3, at the No. 3 position. However, the doubles point would go to the Commodores with 29th-ranked Courtney Colton and Lauren Mira getting past Ema Burgic and Kiah Generette, 8-6, at No. 1 doubles.
In singles play, Vanderbilt’s Antal downed Leatu at the bottom of the lineup, 6-2, 6-0, to help the Commodores go up to 2-0 in the match. Baylor was pushed to the brink of defeat with No. 51 Sellyn dropping Victoria Kisialeva, 6-0, 6-1, at the No. 4 spot.
The Lady Bears would claim the next two points as Generette swept Altick, 6-4, 6-0, at No. 5 singles. The 13th-ranked Burgic then continued her strong play at the No. 1 position by taking care of No. 112 Colton, 7-6(1), 6-3.
“We really like the way Kiah is developing,” Scrivano said. “The more experience she gets the better she is going to play for us. We know what she is capable of doing on the tennis court and she is moving in the right direction.”
Despite cutting the Vanderbilt lead to 3-2, Baylor would be unable to tie the match. The 38th-ranked Mira beat No. 86 Horter, 6-1, 7-5 to clinch the match for the Commodores.
When that match wrapped up, Jordaan Sanford retired from her match against Casares at the No. 3 spot.
Baylor is now 1-5 all-time against Vanderbilt.
The Lady Bears will now face Pepperdine (0-5) at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Live stats and a live blog for the match can be found on BaylorBears.com. Follow @BaylorWTennis for updates on the team all season.
