Sooners Travel to Lone Star State

April 12, 2011

No. 26 Oklahoma Men's Tennis (13-4, 2-1 Big 12)
Friday's Match	at No. 7 Baylor on Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m.
Sunday's Match	at No. 22 Texas Tech on Sunday, April 17 at 12 p.m.
Locations	Baylor Tennis Center \| McLeod Tennis Center
Internet	Baylor Live Scoring

NORMAN, Okla. - The 26th-ranked Oklahoma men's tennis team travels to Texas to take on a pair of Big 12 opponents in seventh-ranked Baylor and No. 22 Texas Tech on Friday April 15 at 6 p.m. and Sunday April 17 at 12 p.m., respectively.

Roddick's squad (13-4, 2-1 Big 12) has won 11 of their last 13 matches and are coming off two, 6-1, wins over Oklahoma State and No. 39 Rice. OU has defeated four teams ranked in the top 42, while each of the Sooners' four losses came against teams ranked in the top 32.

Baylor (16-3, 3-0) has won eight straight heading into Friday's match after posting two 7-0 wins last weekend over Seminole State College and UT Arlington. All of the Bears' losses have come against teams ranked in the top 16.

Texas Tech (14-8, 1-3) is coming off a 5-2 loss to Texas after being edged out, 4-3, by Texas A&M.

Last season OU dropped three matches to the Red Raiders before defeating them, 4-3, in the regional finals to advance to the Round of 16. The Sooners fell to Baylor, 6-1, last year.

RANKINGS RUNDOWN

The Sooners are led by senior Ionut Beleleu, the ITA Central Region champion, and reigning All-American Costin Paval. Beleleu, a native of Romania, is ranked No. 34 nationally. Fellow Romanian Paval checks in at No. 74. Paval and Peerakit Siributwong are ranked No. 68 in doubles.

Baylor is led by John Peers, ranked No. 19 nationally. Four other Bears -- Sergio Ramirez (No. 73), Dennis Lengsfeld (No. 87), Roberto Maytin (No. 91) and Kike Grangeiro (No. 95) -- are ranked in the top 100. In doubles, Peers and Maytin are ranked fifth overall, while Jordan Rux and Ramirez check in at No. 78.

Texas Tech has two singles players, Raony Carvalho and Gonzalo Escobar, ranked at No. 20 and 22, respectively. The Red Raiders have two ranked doubles teams, led by Carvalho and Rafael Garcia at No. 14. Escobar and Vitor Manzini are ranked No. 34.

Dual Match Records

Singles	1	2	3	4	5	6	Overall
1. Ionut Beleleu (Sr.)	7-6	3-1					10-7
2. Costin Paval (So.)	3-1	9-3					12-4
3. Laurentiu Gavrila (Fr.)			7-5	3-1			10-6
4. Peerakit Siributwong (Fr.)			4-1	5-4			9-5
5. Tsvetan Mihov (Fr.)				2-0	5-4	3-3	10-7
6. Lawrence Formentera (So.)					5-2	7-2	12-4
7. John Warden (Fr.)					1-0	0-3	1-3

Doubles	1	2	3	Overall
1. Ionut Beleleu /Costin Paval	2-3			2-3
2. John Warden/Lawrence Formentera		2-3		2-3
3. Tsvetan Mihov/Peerakit Siributwong			2-0	2-0
4. Tsvetan Mihov/Laurentiu Gavrila			0-1	0-1
5. Laurentiu Gavrila/Peerakit Siributwong			1-0	1-0
6. Ionut Beleleu/Tsvetan Mihov	3-8	1-0		4-8
7. Costin Paval/Peerakit Siributwong	0-1	8-2		8-3
8. Lawrence Formentera/Laurentiu Gavrila			8-3	8-3
9. Costin Paval/John Warden		0-1		0-1

SOONER TENNIS NOTES

FOLLOW THE SENIOR
Ionut Beleleu, OU's lone senior, has led the Sooners at the No. 1 position for the majority of the year. Beleleu, the 2010 ITA Central Region Champion, has a career record of 91-42 in singles and 58-51 in doubles. The Zalua, Romania native was named to the first team All-Big 12 and Academic All-Big 12 teams in 2010. This past fall Beleleu was one of 32 participants to make the cut to compete in the prestigious USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.

PAVAL THE LEADER
Last year's Big 12 Newcomer of the Year started off the year winning nine in a row before falling to Virginia's second-ranked Alex Domijan on March 18. The Sooner is now 12-4 and is ranked No. 74.

NEWCOMER ALERT
Roddick's squad has seen four newcomers compete in the singles lineup this year. Laurentiu Gavrila has been steady at the No. 3 position, while Peerakit Siributwong is 5-4 at the No. 4 spot and 4-1 at No. 3. Tsvetan Mihov (10-7) has been instrumental for the Sooners, while Harry Warden has filled in at the No. 5 and 6 spots.

DOUBLES LINEUPS
Oklahoma has tried nine different doubles tandems throughout the season and have won a total of 10 doubles points.

GAVRILA THE GREAT
Laurentiu Gavrila, a Romanian native, comes to Norman with a multitude of accolades to his name, including a career-high ATP, Associated of Tennis Professionals, singles ranking of 888. In doubles Gavrila was ranked as high as 721 in the world. Gavrila has been key for OU at the No. 3 spot where he boasts a 7-5 record (10-6 overall).

LAST TIME OUT
The Sooners are coming off two, 6-1, wins over Oklahoma State and No. 39 Rice last week.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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