Tennis teams clinch Big 12 titles for fifth straight year

For the fifth straight spring, the Baylor men’s and women’s tennis teams are Big 12 Conference champions; each squad will enter this week’s Big 12 Championships as the No. 1 seed in its bracket.

Head coach Matt Knoll’s men, currently ranked No. 5 in the nation, won their eighth straight regular season conference championship (ninth overall). No school in the Big 12 in any sport can match that claim. The Bears finished the regular season 21-5 overall and a perfect 6-0 in conference, the seventh time in 10 years that the men have gone undefeated in Big 12 play. (Click here for a photo gallery from the celebration.)

The fifth-ranked Baylor women, meanwhile, clinched at least a share of the Big 12 title with their win Sunday; a victory over Colorado on Wednesday would give them the championship outright. The Lady Bears have won five straight Big 12 titles (and six in head coach Joey Scrivano’s seven years at Baylor). Only the Baylor men and Texas women’s tennis have won more than the Lady Bears’ five consecutive Big 12 regular season titles in any sport since the conference’s beginning.

Sic ’em, Baylor tennis!