Cowgirls Spur No. 10 Baylor in Conference Opener

Thursday, March 9

Stillwater, OK

5 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

Baylor

Photo by: OSU Athletics

March 09, 2017 | Cowgirl Tennis

STILLWATER – The seventh-ranked Oklahoma State women's tennis team opened its Big 12 season on Thursday with a 4-1 victory over No. 10 Baylor in its first match back at the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center since Jan. 29. The win was the Cowgirls' 15th-straight regular season conference match and 28th consecutive home win.

The Cowgirls (11-3) took care of business, picking up their 12th doubles point of the season with wins on the top two doubles courts before tallying three straight-set victories in singles to close out the Bears.

"Playing against conference teams is always tough and playing against ranked teams is always tough. Of course, Baylor is in the Big 12 and ranked very high, so we expected a really good match. When you play against good teams, you expect good matches. We weren't scared or nervous, but we just knew that we wanted to win because we lost to them here two years ago."

The 37th-ranked Cowgirl tandem of Sofia Blanco and Aliona Bolsova handled Baylor's Angie Shakhraichuk and Jessica Hinojosa on court two for the Cowgirls' first win of the day, moving the duo to 19-6 overall on the year. Shortly after, Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari earned their fifth ranked win of the season in a 6-3 triumph over No. 22 Blair Shankle and Elizabeth Profit in the top doubles spot to seal the point.

"I thought both teams played a little tentatively in doubles early on, and the wind had a little bit to do with that," Young said. "It was a little bit tricky, but I thought our girls really established themselves. That was a good win at No. 1 doubles for our girls."

In singles, the Cowgirls continued to roll as they opened with five first-set wins. It wouldn't take long to get the necessary three victories to lock up their 11th win of the season, getting straight-set wins from Katarina Adamovic, Aliona Bolsova and Vladica Babic at two, three and four, respectively.

"That's the great thing about playing the schedule we've played is that no one got too anxious about this match tonight because we've been there, done that," head coach Chris Young said. "Over the last two years, this team has become so experienced. I think you saw some jitters from our young kids at Nos. 5 and 6 who maybe didn't play as well as they wanted to, but I thought the veterans stepped up and took the lead while Aliona Bolsova did her job tonight as well."

Bolsova was the first to strike, dropping Elizabeth Profit, 6-4, 6-3, to increase her team-leading season win total to 19 and push the OSU lead to 2-0.

Almost seconds later, Adamovic would finish off her win over No. 110 Rhiann Newborn, 6-3, 6-3, to put the Bears' backs against the wall. With the win, the Cowgirl senior snagged her 15th win of the season her seventh win in her last eight matches.

Despite Baylor getting on the board with a Jessica Hinojosa 6-4, 6-2 victory over Cowgirl sophomore Sofia Blanco, Vladica Babic put away the Bears by way of 6-4, 6-3 tally over Theresa Van Zyl for her second clincher of the season.

In the remaining two matches, Viktoriya Lushkova led No. 11 Blair Shankle, 2-1, in the third set, while freshman Lena Ruppert was tied at one in the third with Angie Shakhraichuk.

The Cowgirls take a short Spring Break road trip next week to Las Vegas, Nev., where they will face off with UNLV and Washington State. OSU will face the Rebels on Sunday at noon CT, before taking on the Cougars at noon CT on Monday.

No. 7 Oklahoma State 4, No. 10 Baylor 1
March 9, 2017 | Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center | Stillwater, Okla.

Doubles | Order of finish: 2, 1
No. 1: No. 6 Babic/Tur Mari (OKST) def. No. 22 Shankle/Profit (BU) 6-3
No. 2: No. 37 Blanco/Bolsova (OKST) def. Shakhraichuk/Hinojosa (BU) 6-3
No. 3: No. 32 Adamovic/Lushkova (OKST) vs. Newborn/Van Zyl (BU) 4-5, unf.

Singles | Order of finish: 3, 2, 6, 4
No. 1: No. 10 Viktoriya Lushkova (OKST) vs. No. 11 Blair Shankle (BU) 6-2, 2-6, 2-1, unf.
No. 2: No. 76 Katarina Adamovic (OKST) def. No. 110 Rhiann Newborn (BU) 6-3, 6-3
No. 3: No. 43 Aliona Bolsova (OKST) def. Elizabeth Profit (BU) 6-4, 6-3
No. 4: No. 92 Vladica Babic (OKST) def. Theresa Van Zyl (BU) 6-4, 6-3
No. 5: Lena Ruppert (OKST) vs. Angie Shakhraichuk (BU) 6-2, 3-6, 1-1, unf.
No. 6: Jessica Hinojosa (BU) def. No. 122 Sofia Blanco (OKST) 6-4, 6-2