Women's Tennis 1998-99 Season Review

Sooners Finish Second in Big 12 Tournament . . .
Oklahoma ended its 1999 campaign with a second-place finish at the third annual Big 12 Tournament in College Station, Texas, at the Varsity Tennis Courts.

Due to new NCAA standards, OU was not invited to the 64-team Women's Tennis NCAA Championship.

OU ended the year with an overall record of 16-11 and regular season conference mark of 6-5.Oklahoma, a seventh seed, opened the conference tournament with a 6-2 win over 11th-seeded Texas Tech.

In the quarterfinals, the Sooners faced second-seeded and 30th-ranked Colorado. OU fought back from a 4-2 deficit to win, 5-4, its first victory of the season when trailing after singles.

In the semifinals, Oklahoma knocked out No. 6 seed Oklahoma State, 5-3, to qualify for its first Big 12 Championship match. OU faced top-seeded No. 7 Texas for the conference title. Texas won 5-1 in a match that took more than three hours to play the singles matches.

OU All-Conference Honors . . .
Senior Raluca Gheorghe (Bucharest, Romania), junior Kristin Guilford (Littleton, Colo.) and sophomore Viviana Mracnova (Zvolen, Slovakia) were named to the 1999 All-Big 12 Singles and Doubles Teams.

Gheorghe repeated her performance of an all-conference singles player when she went 3-1 during the Big 12 Tournament. For the year, she established an overall record of 19-13 and was 14-9 at the No. 1 singles position. Gheorghe's two-year career as a Sooner produced an overall singles mark of 44-21 and a doubles record of 36-12.

Earning their first doubles all-conference accolades were Guilford and Mracnova. The duo established a Big 12 record of 11-1 and went 13-1 on the year. They produced a 2-0 mark during the conference tournament, including a come-from-behind victory that clinched the upset win over No. 30 Colorado. This is Mracnova's second all-conference honor in doubles, as she was voted to the squad a year ago with teammate Danielle Knipp.

Coach Johnson Honored . . .
Head Coach Mark Johnson was named the 1999 Big 12 Women's Tennis Tri-Coach of the Year. Kansas' first-year coach Jeny Garrity and Texas' Jeff Moore were also chosen as Coaches-of-the-Year.

This is the fourth Coach-of-the-Year honor for Johnson. The others were in 1991, 1994 and 1995. The 1982 Oklahoma State graduate joined the Sooner coaching staff in 1988 and has produced an overall OU record of 187-80 (.700).

Academic All-Big 12 . . .
Oklahoma placed five Sooners on the 1999 Academic All-Big 12 Women's Tennis Team. Earning first- team honors were sophomore Viviana Mracnova, juniors Jennie Hamilton and Kristin Guilford, and seniors Raluca Gheorghe and Danielle Knipp.

Big 12 Individual Champions . . . Oklahoma's No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams claimed runner-up honors for the 1999 Big 12 Position Awards. The individuals or doubles teams with the most wins at their positions, before the start of the conference tournament, were declared position champions.

Finishing second were OU's Kristin Guilford and Viviana Mracnova at No. 2 doubles. The pair produced an overall record of 11-1. Also earning runner- up honors were Angela Stroup and Jennie Hamilton. They earned an overall record of 12-8 (records are prior to Big 12 Tournament).

ITA Notes . . .
Oklahoma ended the 1998-99 season ranked 57th in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll released on Wednesday, June 2. The Sooners' highest poll appearance for the 1998-99 season was No. 45 (in the ITA winter poll). In addition, OU repeated its ITA Academic All-America team honor for the third consecutive year. Junior Jennie Hamilton became the second Sooner to be named to the ITA All-America Scholar list.

Seniors Fairwell . . .
OU will miss its 1999 seniors Raluca Gheorghe, Danielle Knipp and Barbie Bayless. Gheorghe leaves the Sooner tennis program as one of the most decorated individuals. She was a two-time All-Big 12 singles selection and All-Academic honoree. Gheorghe was voted the 1997-98 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, Central Region Rookie of the Year and was a member of OU's ITA All-Academic team. Last year, she became the first Sooner since the 1995 season to participate in the NCAA Singles Championships. She produced a career singles record of 44-21 (.677) and doubles mark of 36-12 (.750).

Knipp was a two-time ITA All-Academic Team member and Academic All-Big 12 selection. She also was named to the 1997-98 All-Big 12 doubles team, with teammate Viviana Mracnova. Knipp established a career record of 31-15 (.674) in singles and 30-28 (.517) in doubles.

Bayless primarily was a practice player during her collegiate career. However, she earned 2-3 singles and 2-1 doubles records as a Sooner.

Double Trouble . . .
Oklahoma's doubles teams made a strong run during the Big 12 Tournament. Combined, the Sooners established an overall record of 6-1, better than any other doubles combination in the league.

OU's No. 1 doubles pair of Raluca Gheorghe and Danielle Knipp eliminated No. 30 Colorado and No. 59 Oklahoma State from tournament action. Also earning a perfect 2-0 mark was the No. 2 doubles team of Viviana Mracnova and Kristin Guilford. Angela Stroup and Jennie Hamilton posted a 2-1 record.

Gheorghe Had Solid Run in Tournament Action . . .

Senior Raluca Gheorghe (Bucharest, Romania) played her best tennis of the spring season at the 1999 Big 12 Tournament. OU's top singles & doubles player, Gheorghe established a 3-1 singles mark and a 2-0 doubles record during the four-day tournament. She assisted OU to a school-best second-place finish in the Big 12 Tournament.

Gheorghe's Big 12 Run

No. 1 Singles
Zana Zlebnick (TT)          W    6-3, 6-0
Jessica Garrow (CU)         W    7-6 (4), 6-4
Maria Galoustova (OSU)      W    6-3, 6-2
#33 Sandy Sureephong (UT)   L    7-6 (4), 1-6, 7-5

No. 1 Doubles (with Danielle Knipp)
#50 Garrow/Fisher (CU)      W    8-5
Galoustova/Dolman (OSU)     W    8-5

Leading By Example . . . Oklahoma's starting six were all upperclassmen, except one (sophomore Viviana Mracnova). The Sooners' super six each won at least 13 matches, with junior Kristin Guilford (Littleton, Colo.) leading with a team-high 22 victories and a .629 winning percentage (22-13).

No. 1    Raluca Gheorghe, Sr.     19-13 (.594)
No. 2    Viviana Mracnova, So.    15-18 (.455)
No. 3    Danielle Knipp, Sr.      16-12 (.571)
No. 4    Kristin Guilford, Jr.    22-13 (.629)
No. 5    Jennie Hamilton, Jr.     17-18 (.486)
No. 6    Angela Stroup, Jr.       13-13 (.500)

Sooner Notes. . .
Sophomore Viviana Mracnova was ranked No. 88 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Poll on May 3. Her highest poll appearance was at No. 63. Senior Raluca Gheorghe was the only other Sooner to be ranked during the 1998-99 season. She opened the year ranked 44th but dropped out after the ITA Fall Poll.

Junior Kristin Guilford had the team's best singles record of 22-13 (.629), pushing her career singles win total to 46.

Junior Angela Stroup was the only Sooner who did not play more than one position during the spring. Stroup went 13-13 in dual matches and 7-3 vs. conference teams at No. 6 singles.

Viviana Mracnova established a flawless 6-0 record from Feb. 2 to March 7. Teammate Kristin Guilford also had a perfect record of 7-0 from Feb. 2 to March 16. Other Sooner winning streaks included senior Danielle Knipp's 5-0 (March 31-April 17) and freshman Katrin Schubart's 5-0 (Sept. 18-Oct. 16) skeins.

Final Big 12 Standings. . .

             Big 12            Overall 
             W    L    Pct.    W     L    Pct.
Texas       11    0    1.000   21    7    .750
Colorado     9    2    .818    20    7    .741
Kansas       8    3    .727    13   13    .500
Texas A&M    8    3    .727    14    9    .609
Baylor       7    4    .636    17   10    .630
OSU          6    5    .545    16    8    .667
Oklahoma     6    5    .545    16   11    .593
Nebraska     4    7    .364    17    9    .654
Kansas State 3    8    .273     5   18    .217
Texas Tech   2    9    .182     4   18    .182
Missouri     2    9    .182     7   16    .304
Iowa State   0    11    .000    5   17    .227

Note: Big 12 Tournament matches do not count toward conference records.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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