Womens Tennis Ends Successful First Day at UNLV Invitational

The Oklahoma women's tennis team completed a successful first day of competition at the UNLV Fall Invitational at the Fertitta Tennis Complex Friday afternoon. OU won six of its seven singles matches and swept all four doubles matches. The three-day competition, which is using an individual results format, also includes players from LSU, Oklahoma State, Minnesota and Hawaii as well as from host school UNLV.

In singles competition, Chelsea Orr and senior Jessica Braver were the lone Sooners to sweep their matches in two sets. Braver defeated Hawaii's Chloe Bihag, 6-2, 6-0, while Orr was forced into a first set tie-breaker win (7-6) before blanking UNLV's Mery Constanti in her second set victory.

Picking up OU's other singles victories were sophomores Gabby Baker and Amanda Pratzel, senior Heather Saluri and Christy Baxley. Saluri's was the most tightly fought singles match of the group as she dropped a first set tie-breaker, 6-7, before winning the second set by two games at 7-5, and winning comfortably in the third set, 6-3, over Minnesota's Lindsay Risebrough.

After failing to win a game in her first set, Baker rebounded to win her match by capturing 6-3 victories in the final two sets against Oklahoma State's Iryna Tkatchenko. Pratzel likewise dropped her first set against the Gophers' Danielle Mousseau, 3-6, before rebounding to win her final two games, 7-5 and 6-2.

Baxley picked up bookend wins in her match versus Staten Spencer of LSU to pull out the victory by counts of 6-1, 2-6 and 6-4.

The Sooners handily won three of their four doubles matches by a margin of four games or more. In the fourth doubles match, Braver and Baxley emerged victorious from a closely played match against UNLV's Claire Smith and Gyorgyi Zsiros, 9-8.

Senior Bethany Griffin lost a tough fought three set match to LSU's Daysi Espinal to suffer OU's only loss on the day. Griffin fell 6-4, 2-6 and 3-6.

Tournament play will resume on Saturday morning beginning at 12 p.m. (CST) with the semifinal rounds in the singles competition with finals play to follow. Competition in the losers' bracket will also begin on Saturday.

Results

Singles
Gabby Baker (OU) def. Iryna Tkatchenko (OSU) - 0-6, 6-3, 6-3
Heather Saluri (OU) def. Lindsay Risebrough (UM) - 6-7, 7-5, 6-3
Jessica Braver (OU) def. Chloe Bihag (UH) - 6-2, 6-0
Daysi Espinal (LSU) def. Bethany Griffin (OU) - 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
Amanda Pratzel (OU) def. Danielle Mousseau (UM) - 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
Chelsea Orr (OU) def. Mery Constanti (UNLV) - 7-6, 6-0
Christy Baxley (OU) def. Staten Spencer (LSU) - 6-1, 2-6, 6-4

Doubles
Baker/Saluri (OU) def. Nischela Reddy/Risebrough (UM) - 8-4
Irina Lykina/Griffin (OU) def. Jane Anderson/Ida Malmberg (UM) - 8-2
Braver/Baxley (OU) def. Claire Smith/Gyorgyi Zsiros (UNLV) - 9-8
Orr/Pratzel (OU) def. Shelby Rohrer/Jenna Tellefsen (UM) - 8-2

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Womens Tennis Ends Successful First Day at UNLV Invitational

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