WACO, Texas – The Baylor women's tennis doubles pairing of Ema Burgic and Blair Shankle advanced to the NCAA Doubles Championship quarterfinals with a straight-set victory Friday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
The 14th-ranked BU duo got past Arizona State's 26th-ranked Desirae Krawczyk and Stephanie Vlad, 6-2, 7-5. The win improves the tandem's record to 13-4 on the season.
Earlier in the morning in singles play, the 22nd-ranked Burgic suffered a 6-4, 6-1 setback to No. 21 Chanelle Van Nguyen to end her championship run.
Burgic fell to 21-7 on the season and 8-7 against ranked foes. She concludes her BU singles career with a 96-29 record and a pair of singles All-American accolades. Her 96 singles wins are 10th-most in program history.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Under Scrivano, Baylor players have earned 31 All-American honors, including 16 doubles honors by nine different players.
- Burgic and Shankle give BU a doubles pairing in the quarterfinals for three of the last four years.
“Being efficient is a sign of a good tennis player and a good doubles team and the last two days they have been incredibly efficient. Any time you can get off the court in this stage of the season it's a good thing.” – head coach Joey Scrivano on the doubles win
TOP QUOTE #2
“Today was a special day for us. I lost my singles match and I had to bounce back, because I know that winning this together really means a lot to Blair. I really gave my all today, not just for myself, but really for her, because she's worked so hard and is a great person. I'm very happy for both of us.” – Ema Burgic on the day
TOP QUOTE #3
“We came out really well in the first set and played great throughout the whole thing. I kind of went down for a little in the second set, for a few games, but she kept me up and we ended up getting that second set and the match. But it was a tough one, they played really well in the second set.” – Shankle on the doubles victory
WHAT'S NEXT
Ema Burgic and Blair Shankle will next play the country's No. 1 tandem, Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe of Alabama, at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Live scoring and a video feed of the match will be available for each match through links on BaylorBears.com.
Follow the official Twitter account of the team: @BaylorWTennis for an inside look at the team with scores, notes and stories.
