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2008, 2006 Big 12 Coach of the Year In six seasons at the helm of the Baylor women's tennis program, Joey Scrivano has led the Lady Bears to five Big 12 regular season titles, three consecutive Big 12 Tournament titles, and four consecutive NCAA championship appearances, reaching the NCAA Final Four last season for the first time in program history. Scrivano has guided the Lady Bears to an overall record of 132-44, including an astounding 72-9 mark in the Big 12 play. He also is the first coach to guide an unseeded player to the NCAA Singles title in 2005 (Zuzana Zemenova) and led her back to the championship match again in 2008. 2008 was a banner year for the Lady Bears: 32-3 dual match record, 11-0 in Big 12 regular season play, midseason ranking of No. 2 in the nation (program high) and finished the season ranked No. 4 in the nation. Scrivano coached his 2007 Bears to their third consecutive Big 12 regular-season title. Scrivano's squad finished the season with a 24-7 record, capturing the Big 12 Tournament championship for the second straight season and advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the third time in as many years. In 2006-07, Baylor saw a 25-match Big 12 regular season win streak come to an end, but the Bears quickly put the loss behind them, finishing the season with a 10-1 conference mark. In the Big 12 Tournament, held in Kansas City, Mo., Baylor marched past Nebraska (4-0) and No. 71 Oklahoma State (4-0) before facing No. 37 Texas in the championship match for the third consecutive season. The Bears out-lasted the Longhorns in a highly contested battle, earning a 4-3 victory and the tournament championship. Baylor hosted a regional and quickly advanced to the NCAA Championship, defeating Oral Roberts (4-0) and No. 26 Texas A&M (4-1) to earn a spot in the Round of 16. For a third straight season the Bears were pitted against a top-five Florida squad that ended Baylor's season with a 4-2 victory; the Florida loss marked the third consecutive season that the Gators ended Baylor's tournament. At season's end, the Bears earned a No. 13 ranking. Scrivano has also had several successful individuals since coming to Baylor. In 2007, Zuzana Zemenova earned her third consecutive Big 12 Player of the Year award and earned the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship & Leadership Award, an honor not bestowed upon a Baylor athlete since 1997. Along with Zemenova's storied success, first-year member Lenka Broosova made her mark, winning the Big 12 No. 3 singles title and earning Southwest Region Rookie of the Year honors. Both Zemenova and Broosova return for Scrivano this season, along with two others from last season's campaign to go along with a talented freshman class of four. In 2005-06, the Bears claimed their third Big 12 regular-season title, going undefeated (11-0) for the second-straight year, and also tallied their first-ever Big 12 postseason championship after defeating Texas in the finals. At the NCAA Tournament, Baylor soared through the first three rounds before falling to No. 4 Florida. Baylor's advancement to the quarterfinals became a first in program history. Along with an undefeated Big 12 campaign, 2006-07 saw the netters earn a program-best 28-4 record. The team also received its highest ever Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) final ranking, ending the season at No. 6 in the nation. Under Scrivano's guidance, the 2005 Bears posted a 24-6 mark and ended the year ranked No. 14 in the ITA Poll. The Bears produced the program's first perfect Big 12 record, breezing through league play with an 11-0 mark. In addition, freshman sensation Zuzana Zemenova claimed the NCAA singles championship becoming the first unseeded NCAA champion and en route, became the program's first singles All-American. Zemenova also was named women's tennis Honda Broderick Award winner. By guiding the Bears to four conference championships in five seasons, Scrivano is seven-for-eight when it comes to conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances. After leading the University of South Alabama women's tennis team to three-straight conference championships and a like number of NCAA Tournament berths in his first three years as a head coach, Scrivano, in his first year at the helm of Baylor's women's program, accomplished the same feat. In fact, he guided the Bears to their first-ever Big 12 championship in women's tennis. Scrivano, who was hired in July of 2002 as Baylor's associate director of intercollegiate tennis and head women's tennis coach, inherited a team that had placed fourth in the Big 12 the previous season, was bypassed for the NCAA Tournament, graduated an All-American, lost the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and returned only three position players. Scrivano was able to bring in players to bolster the roster and dramatically improved the players who returned. The result, a 9-2 Big 12 record and a conference championship. The fact that the Bears did so well was impressive given the fact that they had only one player ranked among the top 100 in singles all season and no doubles tandem ranked at all. Scrivano knew about Baylor and its tennis facilities prior to taking the job. He got a look at the BU tennis program and facilities during the 2002 season when he brought his then-40th ranked South Alabama team to the Baylor Tennis Center and promptly handed Baylor's 19th-ranked women's team a 7-0 blanking. While he was head coach at the University of South Alabama, the Jaguars posted a 60-18 record and won three-straight Sun Belt Conference titles in three seasons. In addition, the Jaguars made it to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament in 2000 and to the second round each of his last two years. During his tenure at South Alabama, Scrivano tutored All-Americans Martina Ondrejkova and Iva Puflerova. Puflerova and Ondrejkova won the 1999 National Claycourt Doubles Championship and he guided them to the 2000 Final Four of the NCAA Doubles Championship. He also coached the combined men's and women's squad that upset Stanford, ranked No. 1 nationally, to win the 2000 World Team Tennis National Championship. Scrivano was twice named Sun Belt Coach of the Year (2001 and 2002) and was selected ITA South Region Coach of the Year in 2001. Scrivano joined the South Alabama staff in 1999 as a men's and women's assistant coach. He helped guide the women's program to a first-ever NCAA Elite Eight appearance beating No. 8 UCLA and No. 9 Pepperdine along the way. He served as an assistant coach at Northwestern in 1998 and an assistant coach at the University of Mobile in 1997. In addition, Scrivano has coached several NCAA All-Americans and WTA Touring professionals and has also been the head coach three times for the Tennis Europe National Team which prepared U.S. juniors for ITF European tournaments. His broad range of experiences, both in the collegiate ranks and working with U.S. juniors, serves him well in the tennis recruiting wars which are an important part of building a successful collegiate tennis program. "I'm excited," Scrivano said. "I'm looking forward to this challenge. There are a lot of things in place here to get the job done. My goal has always been to win a national championship, and it's nice to be at a school that shares that goal." Scrivano played collegiate tennis at Eastern Michigan University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in communication in 1997. Scrivano, 34, is a native of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
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