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No. 9 Baylor Tops No. 5 Virginia 6-1
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Box Score Jan. 24, 2015
WACO, Texas – No. 5 Virginia suffered its first loss of the season as No. 9 Baylor defeated the short-handed Cavaliers 6-1 in women’s tennis action on Saturday (Jan. 24) at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
The fifth-ranked Cavaliers, who played the match with four players, fell to 2-1 with the loss. The Bears improved to 2-0. Baylor won the doubles point and five singles matches, including a pair of forfeits, to claim the win.
“Every team in any sport will face adversity over the course of a long season,” Virginia head coach Mark Guilbeau said. “We are certainly in the midst of that now. Our perspective is actually quite simple – keep a strong belief in what you and your teammates are doing and know that there is nothing more important than doing the absolute best you can in any and every situation. Troy [Porco] and I know that this group is doing that and we are very proud of them.”
Virginia played its second straight match without several players who were out with the flu. The Cavaliers forfeited matches at No. 3 doubles and Nos. 5 and 6 singles, respectively, in the loss.
Freshman Cassie Mercer (Huntington, W.Va.) earned Virginia’s lone point at No. 4 singles. Mercer won by default due to a code violation over Baylor’s Leolia JeanJean when leading 6-3, 3-0.
The Bears claimed the doubles point with the forfeit at No. 3 and win from Ema Burgic and Blair Shankle at No. 1. The Baylor duo topped No. 11 Skylar Morton (Bethesda, Md.) and Mercer 6-4. Virginia’s Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) and Maci Epstein (Winter Park, Fla.) beat Kiah Generette and Theresa Van Zyl 7-6 at No. 2 doubles.
No. 49 Shankle beat Morton 6-2, 6-2 at No. 3 singles and No. 72 Burgic clinched the win with a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 16 Nauta at No. 1. Generette added a 6-0, 6-7, 1-0 win over Epstein at No. 2.
“This group of four came here to give everything possible to win this match,” Guilbeau added. “This past week and two tough dual matches in the last 72 hours has revealed a toughness in this group that is very impressive. We are very confident that better days are ahead for this team, and we hope for full health to return to the entire group as quickly as possible.”
Virginia hosts No. 23 South Carolina on Friday, Jan. 30. First serve at Boar’s Head Sports Club is set for 5 p.m. Live video and scoring is available on VirginiaSports.com.