Huskers Fall to Baylor

Lincoln - The Nebraska women’s tennis team lost its first match of the season, 7-0, on Saturday morning to the No. 4 Baylor Bears at the NebraskaTennisCenter. The Huskers nearly won the doubles point, and were more competitive throughout the singles matches than the final scores might indicate. The loss puts the Huskers at 11-1 on the season, while Baylor won its 11th straight match and improves to 13-1.

The match started with three exciting doubles matches, and two of them came down to the wire. Baylor won at No. 3 doubles, 8-4, but the Huskers evened it up after a thrilling match at No. 1 doubles. Jana Albers and Imke Reimers teamed up to defeat the 2nd-ranked doubles team in the nation in Baylor’s Lenka Broosova and Zuzana Zemenova, 9-7. The win marked the highest-ranked doubles team Nebraska has defeated in team history. The deciding match was between NU’s Maria Ring and Wiveca Swarting and BU’s Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk at No. 3 doubles. After falling behind 3-0, Ring and Swarting battled back to tie it at 3-3. Nebraska eventually took a 7-6 lead, but couldn’t put the Bears away, as they stormed back to win 9-7 and take a 1-0 lead.

The Huskers never found a rhythm after losing the doubles point, dropping all six singles matches, including four to ranked Baylor opponents. At No. 1 singles, Reimers nearly pulled off an upset of No. 25 Zemenova, a two-time Big 12 singles champion and former NCAA singles champion. Reimers lost the first set 6-2, but forced a third set tiebreaker after taking the second set, 7-6 (4). Reimers fell just short in the tiebreaker, losing 10-8, as she dropped her first singles match of the spring.

NU Head Coach Scott Jacobson was happy with his team’s effort in the loss to the No. 4 Bears.

“The way we came out and fought in the singles is admirable,” said Jacobson. “It’s always hard to lose the doubles when it’s so close and so tight like that, but it says a lot about the kids’ hearts to go and compete like that against a great program like Baylor after such a hard-fought doubles.”

Nebraska continues conference play next weekend, as they take on Texas Tech on March 14. The team then departs on a five-match road trip, including four against Big 12 opponents, before its next home match on April 11 against Missouri.

“This is a group of kids that aren’t going to let a loss to Baylor get us down to much,” Jacobson said. “They’re going to go out and work hard and get ready for Texas Tech on Friday. The Big 12 Conference is a great conference, and we really feel like we belong and can compete with everyone here, including Baylor.”

Results
Baylor 7, Nebraska 0

Doubles
No. 1 Albers/Reimers (NU) def. Broosova/Zemenova (BU), 9-7
No. 2 Ormond/Stanivuk (BU) def. Ring/Swarting (NU), 9-7
No. 3 Chmelarova/Filipiak (BU) def. Chandronnait/Evans (NU), 8-4

Singles
No. 1 Zuzana Zemenova (BU) def. Imke Reimers (NU), 6-2, 6-7 (4), (10-8)
No. 2 Lenka Broosova (BU) def. Wiveca Swarting (NU), 6-4, 6-3
No. 3 Taylor Ormond (BU) def. Jana Albers (NU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. Stephanie Evans (NU), 6-0, 6-2
No. 5 Karolina Filipiak (BU) def. Amber Chandronnait (NU), 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 Zuzana Chmelarova (BU) def. Maria Ring (NU), 6-2, 6-3