Sooners Stumble At Blue-Gray

March 19, 2009

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The 41st-ranked University of Oklahoma men's tennis team (7-5) was unable to redeem its earlier loss to No. 22 Boise State (10-6), as the Sooners fell to the Broncos, 4-0, at the Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic held at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center in Montgomery, Ala.

OU played Boise State back on Feb. 7 at the Great Northwest Shootout in Seattle, Wash., but lost in a heartbreaker, 4-3.

In the rematch, OU fell behind early losing the doubles point and could not swing the tide in the Sooners' favor.

“I was pretty disappointed in our performance,” head coach Paul Lockwood said. “We started out playing some of the poorest doubles that we have played all season and it didn't get much better in singles."

Junior Andrei Daescu proved his value at the No. 1 position for the Sooners. He battled the Bronco's Clancy Shields, the 38th-ranked singles player, and took the first set 6-2, but dropped the next set 3-6. The first two sets set the stage for a much-anticipated third set; however, Boise State secured the 4 points necessary to win and the match was never finished.

“I give Boise State a lot of credit for playing solid tennis today,” said Lockwood. “We are eager to see who we will play next.”

The Sooners await the outcome of the Notre Dame versus Mississippi State match that is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Notre Dame is ranked the 26th best team in the nation, while Mississippi State is also highly ranked at No. 48.

The Irish are three-time champions, having won the tournament in 1993, 2001 and 2007. In addition, they have one player, Brett Helgeson, ranked the 22nd best singles player in the country.

“Hopefully tomorrow we will be better prepared to play,” Lockwood said. “It's a new day and our players look forward to getting out and picking up a good win.”

OU is set to begin match play at 1:30 Friday, March 20.

For live scoring updates click the link below.

TBD v. Oklahoma

Boise State 4, Oklahoma 0

Doubles
Feeder/Meredith (BSU) def. Beleleu/Avdeyev (OU), 8-2
Daescu/Pultr (OU) def. Sarapanich/ C. Shields (BSU), 8-6
B. Shields/Solomon (BSU) def. Chanturia/Boswell (OU), 8-4

Singles
Andrei Daescu (OU) v. Clancy Shields (BSU), 6-2, 3-6, 1-1 (DNF)
Kean Feeder (BSU) def. David Pultr (OU), 6-3, 6-2
James Meredith (BSU) def. Ionut Beleleu (OU), 6-3, 6-4
Christian Hodel (BSU) def. Sergey Avdeyev (OU), 6-3, 6-2
Stanley Sarapanich (BSU) v. George Chanturia (OU), 7-5, 2-4 (DNF)
Blake Boswell (OU) v. Blane Shields (BSU), 6-4, 0-3 (DNF)

Next Event

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics