The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Baylor
No. 24 Women's Tennis falls to No. 42 Baylor, 4-2
04.23.2016 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns begin tournament play next Friday at the Big 12 Championships in Stillwater.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas junior Neda Koprcina and freshman Katie Poluta put away straight-sets singles victories, but No. 24 Texas (14-7, 6-3 Big 12) suffered a 4-2 defeat to No. 42 Baylor (17-13, 6-3 Big 12) Saturday afternoon at Westwood Country Club.
Baylor took the doubles point by collecting victories at the third and second positions, and the Bears pushed their lead to 2-0 with a straight-sets win at No. 6 singles.
At second singles, UT's Neda Koprcina went to a first-set tiebreaker against Baylor's Rhiann Newborn. Koprcina trailed 7-6 in the tiebreaker but saved the match point and put away the next two points to win the tiebreaker and the set. The All-Big 12 junior blanked Newborn in the second set, 6-0 to pull Texas within 2-1.
Baylor tacked on another point for 3-1 when Theresa Van Zyl finished off a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win over UT freshman Daniella Roldan at fifth singles. The match went final when Baylor and Texas closed out singles wins moments apart.
Baylor's Kiah Generette defeated UT sophomore Dani Wagland by a 6-3, 6-3 count at third singles, and Texas freshman Katie Poluta finished off a 6-3, 6-2 win over Karina Traxler at fourth singles. UT All-America senior Breaunna Addison held a one set and 5-4 lead over Baylor's Blair Shankle at first singles, but the match was abandoned once the team victor had been determined.
Texas has earned a first-round bye at next week's Big 12 Championships in Stillwater. The tournament seedings and schedule will be released Sunday evening.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Howard Joffe
On today's match: It's always just disappointing to lose a match, and also this one had the quality feel that we might actually be able to get out of jail and get ahead in the match in that last 20 or 30 minutes. That part was very disappointing, but one also has to be objective about it. We've definitely squeezed as much as we can out of the six scholarship players and seven total players on the roster. My hope was that, after being depleted in the middle of the year, that we could rejuvenate. But we just had a little too much for everyone. I feel like, hopefully, a few days of rest gets us a little more peppy for the conference tournament and I think our best chance this year is going to be at the NCAA Tournament. After the conference tournament there will be a two week break where we can legitimately try to heal up and so forth. In that respect, I'm very proud of the group. We lost the doubles point and the match got really interesting in the end. On the other hand, results-wise, it's obviously disappointing and we'll shoot for higher and better next year.
On Breaunna Addison and Lana Groenvynck's final home match on senior day: I just talked to them and the thing that any of these kids get asked to do is give it a good effort in the classroom and on the tennis court and be a good citizen. Lana and Breaunna are both stellar students. They are both clean-living good kids. Certainly, with Bree...I've coached quite a bit and she would go down as good as any player that's played tennis in the last 15 years. And with Lana, this season has actually helped and she won a couple of meaningful matches for us. I was very proud of them and will be sad to say goodbye.
No. 42 Baylor 4, No. 24 Texas 2
Doubles – Order of Finish: 3, 2
1 No. 15 Breaunna Addison/Dani Wagland (UT) vs. No. 18 Kiah Generette/Blair Shankle (BU), 5-3, susp.
2 Rhiann Newborn/Karina Traxler (BU) def. Neda Koprcina/Daniella Roldan (UT), 6-4
3 Kelley Anderson/Elizabeth Profit (BU) def. Lana Groenvynck/Katie Poluta (UT), 6-3
Singles – Order of Finish: 6, 2, 5, 3, 4
1 No. 10 Breaunna Addison (UT) vs. No. 91 Blair Shankle (BU), 6-3, 5-4, susp.
2 Neda Koprcina (UT) def. Rhiann Newborn (BU), 7-6 (7), 6-0
3 Kiah Generette (BU) def. Dani Wagland (UT), 6-3, 6-3
4 Katie Poluta (UT) def. Karina Traxler (BU), 6-3, 6-2
5 Theresa Van Zyl (BU) def. Daniella Roldan (UT), 7-6 (1), 6-1
6 Elizabeth Profit (BU) def. Lana Groenvynck (UT), 6-2, 6-1
Players Mentioned
