WACO, Texas – The 50th-ranked Baylor women's tennis team (9-12, 2-2) was beaten 4-1 by No. 17 Oklahoma State (15-4, 4-0) Sunday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
In doubles, the Bears quickly fell behind as Rhiann Newborn and Karina Traxler dropped a 6-2 decision to 45th-ranked Katarina Adamovic and Vladica Babic at the No. 3 spot. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Profit and Kelley Anderson were unable to upset 38th-ranked Viktoriya Lushkova and Carla Tur Mari, 6-3, to give OSU the opening point.
Blair Shankle provided the only point of the day for BU as she opened up singles action with a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of 33rd-ranked Adamovic at the No. 1 position.
From that point the Bears dropped three straight-set decisions. First, Rhiann Newborn fell to the 38th-ranked Babic, 6-2, 6-0, on court three. Next, Kiah Generette lost 6-2, 6-2 to the 62nd-ranked Lushkova at the No. 2 spot.
To close out the match, Karina Traxler suffered a 6-3, 6-4 loss to Carla Tur Mari.
Baylor’s two other singles players, Elizabeth Profit and Theresa Van Zyl, had both won first sets in their matches at courts 4 and 5, respectively, when the team match was clinched.
NOTABLES
• Baylor is now 7-6 at home.
• The Bears are 2-2 in conference play.
• Baylor is 20-6 in the all-time series against the Cowgirls.
• BU is 126-13 in Big 12 matches under Scrivano.
• The Bears lost their first Big 12 regular season match at home since March 27, 2013 and only the sixth-ever under Scrivano.
“Oklahoma State was just too good. Like I said before the match, they've been consistent and they have a very experienced team. They were just really good today. A lot of credit to them.” - head coach Joey Scrivano on the match
TOP QUOTE #2
"Blair (Shankle) is a great player and she was obviously very ready to play. Blair is special and today is just another great example of how professional she is. She takes care of business." - Scrivano on Shankle’s victory
TOP QUOTE #3
"I'm just worrying about our next practice after this. We've got to learn from this match. There's so much room for growth on this team. Losing is hard, but that's the only way you can get better. You just have to take your losses and figure out what you have to do better. That's all I'm concerned about now." - Scrivano on looking ahead to the next match
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will continue Big 12 play Friday with a trip to Fort Worth, Texas, to face No. 35 TCU at 2:30 p.m.
