By: Joseph Hovey
DALLAS — For the second time in two months, Kennesaw State's
Ema Baraniakova earned Conference USA's women's tennis athlete of the month award, the league announced Tuesday.
Baraniakova is now a three-time CUSA Athlete of the Month recipient, having also garnered the honor in October 2025.
With a 9-0 record over her last two tournaments, Baraniakova finished the fall season 16-1 in singles, helping KSU tally 70 combined singles wins as a team.
Baraniakova's 16 singles wins this fall tie her career-best 16 during the combined 2025-26 fall and spring seasons.
The senior from Leopoldov, Slovakia, now holds a career singles record of 53-29 (.646), elevating her to No. 6 all-time at KSU in both career wins and win percentage.
Baraniakova's dominance during the Owls' fall season is accentuated by a 5-1 record versus power-conference competition.
Her success includes wins over Florida's Capucine Jauffret (6-4, 6-4), Michigan's Laura Rahnel (6-0, 6-4), Tennessee's Audrey Aulia (6-4, 6-4), North Carolina's Ishika Ashar (6-1, 6-2) and Taly Licht (6-0, 6-4) of Georgia Tech.
Baraniakova's only loss of the fall came in a 4-6, 2-6 decision at ITA Southeast Regionals to Jantje Tilbuerger of UCF, the No. 77-ranked player in the ITA's fall singles standings.
Baraniakova and freshman
Adela Zingorova have also enjoyed a 10-3 fall season as the Owls' No. 1 doubles pair. The Czech-Slovak duo became the first doubles pair in program history to reach an ITA Regional quarterfinal, and did so with an 8-7 (7-5) Round-of-32 win over Georgia's Anastasiia Gureva and Nadia Lagaev.
With the help of Barniakova and Zingorova, KSU finished the fall 29-15 (.659) in doubles.
Baraniakova and the Owls will retake the court for the spring season in late January. The full match schedule will be announced at a later date.
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