Sights Set on Main Draws

TULSA, Okla. – The Oklahoma men's tennis doubles team of Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb advanced to the main doubles draw of the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla. with a victory on Wednesday.

The 40th ranked duo defeated Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger of Virginia 6-3, 5-7, 1-0 (10-6) in the final round of the doubles qualifying draw to earn one of eight play-in spots in the 32-pair main doubles draw.

“Axel and Dane played great today in their doubles match,” associate head coach Bo Hodge said. “They played aggressive on the big points and that is something we preach all the time.”

Alvarez and Webb won three total matches in the qualifying draw, which was their first action of the fall schedule. The duo paired five times in the 2014 spring season, going 3-2 at No. 1 doubles.

The Sooners will be well represented in the main draws of the championship, which are slated to begin Thursday. No. 3 ranked Alvarez, No. 14 ranked Webb and 40th ranked sophomore Andrew Harris were all pre-selected for the main singles draw and now Alvarez and Webb will represent the Sooners in the main doubles draw.

“It is huge for us to have three singles players and one doubles team in the main draws,” Hodge said. “It really shows the kind of depth we have this year.”

Webb will lead things off for the Sooners in singles. He is slated to see Nick Chappell of TCU at 8 a.m. on Thursday in what will be the tennis version of the weekend's football matchup between the two schools.

Harris will face Leonard Stakhovsky of Penn State at 11 a.m. on Thursday and Alvarez will see Adrien Berkowicz of rival Texas at 11:30 a.m. Berkowicz earned his spot in the main draw by virtue of three wins in the qualifying draw.

In the 32-pair main doubles draw, Alvarez and Webb are slated to face Kevin Metka and Ralf Steinbach of Ohio State at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. Metka and Steinbach were pre-selected for the main draw.

For more tournament information, including full brackets, visit: http://bit.ly/1uNbgiM

For more information on OU Men's Tennis, follow the team on Twitter at @OU_MTennis.