May 20, 2015
WACO, Texas – The NCAA Team Championship title rests safely with the Commodores, but the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament is just heating up for 32 of the nation’s top competitors as day one of the NCAA Singles Tournament comes to a close.
Thanks to sophomore Sydney Campbell, the tournament has one less threat as the Franklin, Tenn. native knocked-off Cal’s No. 18 Klara Fabikova 6-2, 6-3.
“I feel like I played a pretty good, disciplined match today,” said Campbell. “She (Fabikova) was really good coming in to it. She hits the ball really hard.. I just had to go in and stay disciplined with big margins and get on top of the point before she did, and I feel like I did that really well today.”
No. 8 Campbell advances to Thursday’s second round of play where she will take on an SEC foe in Texas A&M’s Saska Gavrilovska at 12:00 pm CT.
The automatic All-American will be looking to give her team a little redemption as the ‘Dores fell in a 4-3 heartbreaker to TAMU, ending the squad’s chances of being SEC regular season champs. Now back in the Lone Star State, the winner of Thursday’s inter-conference competition will move on to the NCAA Singles Sweet 16.
Tomorrow isn’t Campbell’s only match of the day, as she and Courtney Colton take on Clemson’s No. 4 duo of Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies at 4:30 pm CT. No. 20 Colton/Campbell defeated the Tiger tandem Friday night in an 8-6 nail biter to generate VU’s first win of the night.
No. 18 Ashleigh Antal and Astra Sharma take the courts Thursday at 5:30 pm CT in the NCAA Doubles Tournament as the team takes on UCLA’s No. 3 Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips. The Bruin duo defeated the ‘Dores Tuesday afternoon ending Antal/Sharma’s 19-match win streak in a close 8-5 win.
Earlier Wednesday evening Sharma played USC’s Giuliana Olmos in a rematch, with both contenders vying for the opportunity to play in the NCAA second round. But it’s been a long week for the NCAA Tournament MVP who retired after dropping her first set 6-1 to the Trojan junior.
For live stats, live video and live blog of tomorrow’s action check out Baylor’s NCAA HERE.