Senior Blair Shankle earned her fourth Big 12 Player of the Week honor of the season on Tuesday, setting a Big 12 and Baylor record for conference awards in a regular season. With seven career honors, Shankle ties Big 12 and Lady Bear record-holder Zuzana Zemanova for most all-time.
Shankle won three singles matches in two sets, two against ranked Big 12 opponents, to guide the Lady Bears to a 3-0 week. With the victories, Baylor recorded its first undefeated home season since 2010 and its fifth overall (2000, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2017).
Against No. 24 TCU, Shankle and doubles teammate Karina Traxler topped No. 27-ranked Seda Arantekin and Olaya Garrido-Rivas, 6-1. After helping Baylor secure the doubles point, Shankle carried the momentum into singles play, where she recorded a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 62-ranked Arantekin.
Shankle posted a dominant victory over Carolina Costamagna of Kansas State, 6-2, 6-0, to help Baylor notch a sweep of the Wildcats, 4-0.
The Dallas, Texas, native closed the week with singles and doubles wins to help the Lady Bears record their second-straight sweep, 4-0, against No. 27 Kansas on Senior Day. Shankle and Traxler outlasted No. 30-ranked Nina Khmelnitckaia and Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum, 7-5, at No. 1 doubles to earn the doubles point for Baylor.
Shankle gave the Lady Bears their third point with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 27-ranked Anastasia Rychagova. The win was her eighth over a ranked opponent this season.
Baylor enters the 2017 Big 12 Championships as the No. 3 seed and opens tournament play against the No. 6 seed Oklahoma on Friday, April 28 at 4 p.m. The four-day event will be held at Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Okla.
