Women's Tennis Hosts Kansas State Saturday

NORMAN, Okla. - The Oklahoma women's tennis team will welcome the Kansas State Wildcats to its first home match of the season at the OU Headington Family Tennis Center this Saturday, March 12 at 12 p.m. in Norman.

OU looks to improve on its 1-1 record in the Big 12 and carries an 8-4 overall record heading into this weekend's match up. The Sooners are coming off their first weekend of Big 12 action where they dropped a dual to the Huskers, 5-2, but bounced back for a dominating win over the Iowa State Cyclones, 6-1.

Kansas State also played its first Big 12 match this weekend, edging Texas Tech to improve their overall record to 4-3. Before the Wildcats face OU, they will meet Oklahoma State on Friday for a dual in Stillwater, Okla.

OU leads the all-time series against Kansas State 18-7 with the last meeting in Manhattan, Kan., where the Sooners dominated the Wildcats, 6-1. Oklahoma also owns the series in Norman with a 9-3 mark.

Admission to all home matches at the OU Headington Family Tennis Center is free. Live scoring of the match will be available at www.SoonerSports.com.

OU Defeats Iowa State, 6-1
The Sooners took its first Big 12 win of the season against Iowa State Sunday, March 6 with a 6-1 win over the Cyclones at the Seven Flag Center in Des Moines, Iowa. OU swept the doubles and took five of six singles matches for the victory. Senior Jessica Braver clinched the match for the Sooners with her win at the No. 4 slot and claimed her seventh victory this spring. Also earning points at singles and claiming straight-set victories were seniors Heather Saluri and Bethany Griffin along with freshman Christy Greenly while fellow freshman Christi Baxley was granted a victory by default.

Sooners Drop Dual to Huskers, 5-2
In its first Big 12 match up of the season, OU dropped a tough match, 5-2, to Nebraska Saturday, March 5 inside the Woods Tennis Indoor Center in Lincoln, Neb. The Sooners faced the toughest top-25 match up they had seen all season with No. 18 Gitte Osterman in singles and the 23rd-ranked pair of Osterman and Katie Garcia in doubles. Highlighting the day was senior Bethany Griffin at No. 3 and freshman Christi Baxley at the No. 6 slot who picked up their sixth and seventh wins, respectively, of the season.

Did You Know?
In the 12 matches the Sooners have played this spring they have used 15 different doubles pairings. Three of those pairs are undefeated with a 2-0 record. Those pairings include seniors Jessica Braver and Heather Saluri at No. 2 doubles, freshman Chelsea Orr and Saluri also at the No. 2 slot and sophomore Irina Lykina and freshman Christy Greenly at the No. 3 position.

Sooner Rankings
The Sooners dropped three spots in this week's ITA national rankings released Tuesday, March 8. Previously, OU held the No. 40 spot in the polls but slid to No. 43 after going 1-1 this past weekend. Overall, seven Big 12 teams complete the top 75 in the ITA poll with the Texas Longhorns leading the way at No. 15.

OU Newcomers
The addition of five freshmen to the Oklahoma roster strengthens OU's possible lineups. Topping that group are Christi Baxley (New Braunfels, Texas), Rachael Cox (Acworth, Ga.), Christy Greenly (Yukon, Okla.) and Chelsea Orr (Tulsa, Okla.), Oklahoma's high school tennis player of the year in 2003. The freshmen have made an immediate impact on the Sooners with an overall class record of 16-6 in singles and 11-8 in doubles this spring. As a combined group, the freshmen have accounted for 61 percent of the team's doubles wins and 33 percent of the singles victories this spring.

Mark Johnson In 17th Year At Oklahoma
In his 17th year as head coach at OU, Mark Johnson carries a career record of 262-124 (.679), and has coached 33 conference champions, four NCAA singles qualifiers as well as five pairs of NCAA doubles qualifiers. In addition, the five-time coach of the year has also coached eight consecutive teams to ITA Academic All-America honors.

Looking Ahead
OU will remain at home for a dual against the Kansas Jayhawks Friday, March 18 at 11 a.m. at the OU Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Okla. Admission is free to all home matches and there will continue to be live scoring access at www.SoonerSports.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Women's Tennis Hosts Kansas State Saturday

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors