Feb. 9, 2012
Tournament Central
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- After earning a qualifying berth two weeks ago, Baylor's fifth-ranked women's tennis team will begin play against No. 17 Tennessee in the first round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Friday in Charlottesville, Va. The 16-team tournament is set to run Friday through Monday, Feb. 10-13.
Baylor (9-1) earned the No. 3 seed as one of eight seeded teams, and will face the unseeded Lady Vols (4-2) at 2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET. The winner of the match will face the win of sixth-seeded North Carolina and 16th-ranked USC on Saturday.
Baylor defeated UCF and No. 73 Wyoming on back-to-back days to earn one of the 16 available berths into the national championship event. It marks the sixth consecutive season Baylor has earned the berth, but BU is coming off its first loss of the season to No. 1 Florida its last time out.
Individually, Lady Bear seniors Nina Secerbegovic and Sona Novakova are riding the longest singles win streaks of the year for Baylor at 10 each. Secerbegovic continued her win streak against Florida's 25th-ranked Lauren Embree with a three-set comeback victory. Novakova also earned a three-set comeback win in the Florida match, taking out fourth-ranked Joanna Mather.
Baylor's lone ranked singles player, No. 14 senior Diana Nakic, had her own six-match win streak snapped in three sets by Florida's third-ranked Allie Will. Nakic leads Baylor in singles wins dating back to the fall season with a record of 20-6.
In doubles, Baylor has been nearly as dominant. Prior to the Florida match, in which the Gators took the opening point, the Lady Bears had only lost the point once in their first eight matches. The addition of Ema Burgic has helped fortify Baylor's doubles lineup. The freshman is 3-0 in her first three career doubles matches, including a win with Novakova over Florida's pair of Alexandra Cercone and Olivia Janowicz.
Tennessee enters the match with all four team wins coming over top-60 opponents, including three over the top 25. The Lady Vols earned their berth into the tournament with wins over No. 58 UC Davis and No. 22 Tulsa, but most recently, Tennessee has beaten No. 24 Notre Dame and No. 10 Michigan.
UT features three singles players ranked in the top 60 and two doubles tandems ranked in the top 20. Senior Natalie Pluskota is ranked No. 24 and has a 9-7 mark on the year, while sophomore Brynn Boren is No. 27 and amidst a four-match win streak. Kata Szekely rounds out the ranked Lady Vols at No. 59 with an overall mark of 11-2 and four straight wins.
In doubles, Pluskota and Szekely are ranked ninth and 9-2 as a pair, but have not teamed up in any of UT's dual matches. Pluskota has teamed with Caitlyn Williams for a 4-2 record in dual matches, while Szekely is 4-0 in dual matches teamed with Joanna Henderson. The duo of Boren and Sarah Toti has easily been the team's most consistent pair, combining for a season-long record of 17-3, including a 6-0 mark on Court 2 in dual-match play.
The ITA National Team Indoor Championship tournament central page is located at www.itatennis.com and features links to live scoring and other event information.
