OU Women Advance to Big 12 Finals

May 1, 1999

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - One day after shocking second-seeded Colorado in the Big 12 Tennis Championships, Oklahoma's women's tennis team continued to roll through the tournament by recording its second straight upset over today, this time over Oklahoma State. The sixth-seeded Cowgirls (17-8) suffered a 5-3 defeat at the hands of the seventh-seeded Sooners (14-10) in semifinal action at the Texas A&M Varsity Tennis Courts. OU will now face the winner of the Baylor-Texas match, to be played at 5 p.m. on Saturday, in the finals on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Oklahoma's Raluca Gheorghe, who has led the team during the tournament with no singles losses, paced the Sooners by beginning the match with a win at the No. 1 position. Gheorghe soundly defeated Maria Galoustova, 6-3, 6-2, to remain undefeated in tournament action.

Danielle Knipp needed three sets to clinch her singles win against OSU's Martina Hautova, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, at No. 3 singles. OU's Viviana Mracnova and Jennie Hamilton fell at the No. 2 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Mracnova continued to struggle in singles play by losing, 6-4, 6-4, to Dominika Olszewska, for her eighth straight loss. Hamilton lost, 6-4, 6-2, to Marketa Chemlova.

The Sooners' Kristin Guilford and Angela Stroup eliminated their opponents in straight set victories. At No. 5 singles, Guilford only dropped two games in her match en route to a, 6-0, 6-2, victory over Cameron Stoudt, while Stroup accomplished her win, 6-1, 6-3, against Ashleigh Dolman.

Needing only one point out of the doubles matches to secure victory, OU captured wins in both the No. 1 and No. 3 matches. Knipp and Gheorghe (No. 1) and Hamilton and Stroup (No. 3) emerged victorious 8-5 and 8-3 over Galoustova and Dolman and Hautova and Lenka Humenikova, respectively.

Oklahoma Head Coach Mark Johnson expressed his appreciation of his teams' hard work after the match. "I'm real proud of the girls today. It's hard to come out here for the third day in a row and compete like we did today. We came out real strong and hung on there in the end."

- OU -

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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