March 21, 2006
WACO, Texas - The Big 12 office released its weekly awards this afternoon which highlights Baylor's junior Zuzana Cerna as the conference's women's tennis Player of the Week. Boasting her 14-1 singles dual record this spring, Cerna has quickly become one of the most consistent players on this year's roster. And in her doubles dual play, Cerna is 10-3 with various partners. On the year, Cerna is 31-6 in singles and 16-4 in doubles.
Cerna currently has a running record among the current Bears with eight-straight wins, which ties teammate Zuzana Zemenova for the season's longest win-streak. Cerna's three wins last week, all against ranked opponents, led the Bears to a 2-1 record, including a victory over the fourth-ranked USC Trojans in Los Angeles, Calif. The Bears were down 0-3 before making the season's most impressive comeback winning four-straight singles matches. The 16-ranked Bear's win over USC's No. 39 Dianne Matias on court two was the match-clincher.
Today's honor is the second for the women's tennis team this year as Zemenova was awarded Player of the Week on March 7. Also notable for Baylor, Lars Poerschke was the Men's Big 12 Player of the Week on March 13.
In more Baylor news, the women's tennis team jumped in the Fila/ITA rankings to No. 11 this week. Along with team rankings, individual polls were posted for both singles and doubles, and Baylor earned a number of spots in both. For singles, sophomore Zemenova moved up to No. 8, Cerna sits at No. 16, and senior Daniela Covello jumped two spots to No. 92. The Bears posted two doubles teams in the rankings as well with Cerna and Klara Zrustova at No. 28 and Covello and Zemenova premiering at No. 39.
Baylor's women's tennis team will host two matches this week, the first tonight at 5 p.m. against Oklahoma. The Sooner are neither ranked as a team nor are any individuals ranked in the singles or doubles polls. On Thursday at 2 p.m., Baylor will welcome No. 13 Georgia Tech to the Baylor Tennis Center.
The Bears are 13-3 overall this spring and 4-0 in conference play. Baylor currently holds a 17-match winning streak in regular season conference contests dating back to April 16, 2004, when Oklahoma defeated the Bears 4-3 in Waco.
Live updates for the matches this week will be available at www.baylorbears.com.
