Sooners Out of Big 12 Tournament

April 24, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. -- The 44th-ranked University of Oklahoma men's tennis team (12-10, 1-5 Big 12) dropped its quarterfinal match Friday against red river rival Texas.

Oklahoma, the No. 6 seed, was looking for redemption after dropping a match earlier in the season to the third seeded Longhorns; however, the Sooners did not have enough to pull off the upset over No. 15 Texas.

"I'm disappointed in the outcome," OU head coach Paul Lockwood said. "In doubles, it seemed like we started out poorly and we never recuperated from that. Texas probably had a lot to do with that but we played a month ago and I thought we competed a lot better, played a lot better."

OU began the match dropping the doubles point and the early 1-0 lead. The Sooner's combination of junior Andrei Daescu and sophomore David Pultr dropped just their second doubles match in Big 12 play. The duo finished the regular season with a 5-1 Big 12 record, making them the Big 12 regular season champions at the No. 2 doubles position.

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After dropping the doubles point, the Sooners searched for a dominating effort in the singles competition. However, the first three matches went in favor of the Longhorns. Beginning with UT's Jonah Kane-West defeating OU's junior Blake Boswell, 6-3, 6-1.

The next set to finish was at the No. 3 position where UT's Kellen Damico downed Sooner sophomore Ionut Beleleu, 6-2, 6-1. The Longhorns Josh Zavala clinched the match at the No. 5 position. He defeated OU's freshman George Chanturia, 7-6, 6-3.

Now the Sooners await to hear their NCAA fate. On Tuesday, April 29, the NCAA will announce who will compete in the 2009 NCAA Championships.

OU has a top-notch resume and boasts one of the hardest schedules in the nation. First, OU plays in the Big 12 conference, which has three teams ranked in the top-15 and all seven in the top-72 nationally.

On top of the conference the Sooners have played out of conference matches against the No. 20, 27, 33, 38, 47, 58, 63 and 68th-ranked teams in the country. Against those top-ranked opponents the Sooners are 5-3.

"Hats off to Texas today," Lockwood said. "Hopefully, we'll make the NCAA tournament here in a few days."

No. 6 Oklahoma 0
No. 3 Texas 4

Singles
1. Andrei Daescu, Oklahoma (8-7) vs. Dimitar Kutrovsky, Texas (12-8) 4-6, DNF
2. Sergey Avdeyev, Oklahoma (4-6) vs. Ed Corrie, Texas (11-5) 4-6, DNF
3. Kellen Damico, Texas (6-0) def. Ionut Beleleu, Oklahoma (4-4) 6-2, 6-1
4. David Pultr, Oklahoma (3-0) vs. Olivier Sajous, Texas (2-4) 7-6, DNF
5. Josh Zavala, Texas (8-0) def. George Chanturia, Oklahoma (8-5) 7-6, 6-3
6. Jonah Kane-West, Texas (4-1) def. Blake Boswell, Oklahoma (8-5) 6-3, 6-1
Order of Finish: 6, 3, 5

Doubles
1. Corrie/Damico, Texas (11-7) def. Beleleu/Avdeyev, Oklahoma (10-9) 7-4
2. Daescu/Pultr, Oklahoma (12-2) def. Kutrovsky/Zavala, Texas (15-5) 8-3
3. Sajous/Varela, Texas (10-1) def. Boswell/Chanturia, Oklahoma (5-7) 8-1
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1

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