The No. 27 SMU women’s tennis team has faced tough opponents this season, including several top-25 teams. But the Mustangs will be in for the fight of their lives tonight, when they travel to Waco to play Baylor University, the No. 7 tennis team in the nation.

Even more impressively, the Bears were actually the No. 1 tennis team in the nation after defeating No. 13 USC and No. 2 UCLA back-to-back last week. Since then, they have defeated No. 4 UNC, No. 56 Oklahoma State and No. 34 Oklahoma. Despite their wins, the Bears dropped in the rankings while UNC climbed all the way to the top.

Sophomore Marta Lesniak, ranked No. 29 in the nation, will face the biggest challenge of all the Mustangs, as she will mostly likely be taking on Lenka Broosova, who is the No. 5 player in the nation. Lesniak, who has not lost a singles match so far, has defeated seven nationally ranked opponents this season.

Though Lesniak has the toughest match-up, she will not be the only Mustang to play a high-caliber opponent. Baylor has three other players ranked in the top 100 in the nation: No. 18 Nina Secerbegovic, No. 65 Taylor Ormond and No. 79 Csilla Borsanyi. The Bears’ top doubles team, Borsanyi and Broosova, are ranked No. 8 in the nation.

Sophomore Aleksandra Malyarchikova, No. 97 in the nation, will most likely draw one of Baylor’s top players as well, leaving two for SMU head coach Lauren Longbotham-Meisner to assign to her trio of top freshmen players.

Katerina Vankova has recently been playing in the No. 2 singles spot, but Shahzoda Hatamova and Edyta Cieplucha have also been solid contributors for SMU this season, giving Longbotham-Meisner plenty of flexibility to try and surprise Baylor.

The last meeting between SMU and Baylor was last season in the second round of the NCAA tournament with the Bears pulling out the victory, 4-2.