Baylor Women's Tennis Opens NCAA Tournament against SMU Friday

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Baylor women’s tennis begins its NCAA Tournament run on Friday at the Mitchell Tennis Center when it takes on SMU at 10 a.m.

The two will be joined by Quinnipiac (15-8) and No. 2 national seed Texas A&M (27-2), the regional host. The winner of each opening-round match will square off at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“Ultimately, we did what we needed to do, especially in the month of April, to get in,” Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano said. “This team is very deserving.”

The meeting between the Bears (16-13) and the Mustangs (16-8) will be the second this season. Baylor won the first contest, 4-1, highlighted by Paula Barañano's match-clinching win on No. 5 singles on Senior Night. The Bears earned the doubles point to start, while Liubov Kostenko and Daniella Dimitrov also picked up singles victories in the outing.

“I think there are always things you can do better. So, we’ve already started figuring that out,” Scrivano said. “But there is a psychological component to it where you have to get yourself up to do it again. That’s what great teams and great players do, and that’s a part of the process for our team is to learn how to do that. It’s a reset. You have to learn from that last match and be ready to play this one.”

Baylor is making its 24th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 17th appearance under the direction of head coach Joey Scrivano. The Bears are 38-19 all-time in the tournament and have advanced to at least the second round in each of their appearances dating back to the 2005 season, making the tournament every year since except 2019.