Women's Tennis Begins Tough Road Trip

March 17, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - The 44th-ranked Oklahoma women's tennis team returns to the road this week for three matches against ranked opponents in the state of Texas. The Sooner women are 2-0 against conference foes and 10-1 on the season.

OU takes on the 75th-ranked Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio on Tuesday, March 18. Match time is set for 10 a.m. at the UTSA Tennis Complex. UTSA enters the match with a 2-0 mark in the Southland Conference and a 9-2 overall record. The Roadrunners have won six straight and while posting wins over Texas Tech and No. 75 New Orleans.

OU resumes conference play on Thursday night, March 20, against the 30th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies. That match is set to start at 6 p.m. at the Texas A&M Tennis Center in College Station. A&M is 3-1 in conference play and 8-6 overall with wins over No. 36 TCU, No. 50 LSU and No. 51 Wisconsin. They also beat Nebraska and Oklahoma State, who are tied for 57th.

Oklahoma finishes their tour of the lone star state with another tough test against No. 17 Texas at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 22, at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin. The Longhorns are a misleading 4-6 overall with each of their losses coming against highly-ranked opponents including No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Southern California, No. 4 California, No. 8 UCLA, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 22 Miami (Fla.). All of UT's victories have come against Big 12 opponents including Kansas, Iowa State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State.

Sooners Dominate No. 55 Jayhawks
The Sooners posted their second conference win on the season with a 7-0 victory over No. 55 Kansas at the OU Headington Family Tennis Center on Saturday, March 15. OU is currently 4-1 versus ranked opponents and 6-0 against Central Region opponents.

OU clinched the doubles point courtesy of the outstanding play of junior Anda Perianu (Braila, Romania) and sophomore Heather Saluri (Des Moines, Iowa). The 34th-ranked duo remained unbeaten at No. 1 doubles (7-0) with an 8-2 victory over KU's Courtney Steinbock and Paige Brown, who are currently ranked 49th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Oklahoma blitzed the Jayhawks in singles winning all six points while posting straight-set victories at the No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 positions.

One-Loss Wonders
Five of OU's six starters in singles have only one loss at their primary position this spring. Junior Anda Perianu, ranked 94th by the ITA in singles, is 9-1 at No. 1. Senior Elena Jirnova (Kiev, Ukraine) is 7-1 at No. 2 while senior Annette Bryntesson (Perth, Australia) has provided a solid mark of 6-1 at No. 3. Her doubles partner, sophomore Bethany Griffin (Amarillo, Texas) is 3-1 at No. 4 while senior Melissa Mendieta (San Jose, Costa Rica) is 5-1 at No. 6.

Mark Johnson In 15th Year At Oklahoma
In his 15th year as head coach at OU, Mark Johnson has helped the Sooners to a 10-1 record equaling the same accomplishment of last year's squad. With a victory over Texas-San Antonio, OU would be off to its best start since the '95-'96 campaign. Johnson carries a 233-112 record (.675) and led his 1999 team to the championship match at the Big 12 Tournament, earning Big 12 Tri-Coach of the Year honors. Johnson has also coached five consecutive teams to ITA Academic All-America team honors dating back to the 1997 season.

Johnson was named Big Eight Coach of the Year in 1991, 1994 and 1995 after leading his teams to a combined 60-16 record in those three years. He has coached three NCAA doubles qualifiers in Nicole Kenneally and Jenny Del Valle (1994), Monique Malan and Karla Golfin (1996) and Angela Stroup and Viviana Mracnova (2000), and three singles qualifiers in Nicole Kenneally (1994), current OU assistant coach Raluca Gheorghe (1998) and current Sooner Anda Perianu (2002).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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