Men's Tennis Wraps Fall Slate with Busy Weekend

NORMAN – The Oklahoma men's tennis team concludes its fall slate with a busy slate of competition this weekend. Junior Alex Ghilea will carry the torch for the Sooners as he competes in the 2015 National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships (NIIC) in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.

Ghilea will take on the draw's No. 2 overall seed Cameron Norrie of TCU in the first round on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. CT. Norrie is ranked No. 15 by the ITA and won the singles title at this year's Oracle/ITA Masters.

"Alex has a great opportunity this weekend at the National Indoors," head coach John Roddick said. "He earned his spot in the tournament by playing great tennis and winning regionals. I know he is excited to play and he expects to have good results this weekend."

A junior from Neamt, Romania, Ghilea qualified for the NIIC with his win at the 2015 ITA Central Region Championships in October. Ghilea won six straight matches in the singles draw to the claim the singles title for Oklahoma for the sixth consecutive year. Ghilea, ranked No. 50 in singles by the ITA, dropped just two sets during the entire tournament. He played No. 4 singles for Oklahoma for most of the 2015 spring season, finishing 22-7 for the year.

The NIIC, which runs Nov. 12-15, is the fourth national championship on the 2015-16 ITA National Tournament calendar. Earlier this fall, national champions were crowned at the inaugural Oracle/ITA Masters, Men's and Women's All-American and National Small College Championships.

The NIIC features 32 of the nation's elite singles players. Champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships, USTA/ITA National Small College Championships Super Bowl, Oracle/ITA Masters and the consolation champions and men's singles quarterfinalists from the Saint Francis ITA Men's Championships earned automatic entry into the NIIC. Both the USTA and ITA selected at-large and wildcard participants, while Columbia University received a wildcard entry into each draw for serving as event host.

Live scoring will be available for the entire tournament on event host Columbia University's website here.

Senior Austin Siegel and redshirt freshman John Milstead will also be in action this weekend. They will compete at the 2015 Bulldog Scramble in Athens, Ga., hosted by the University of Georgia. The tournament will be a round robin singles and doubles event featuring players from five schools: Georgia, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Notre Dame and Oklahoma.

Siegel and Milstead will look to add to the Sooners' recent success in Athens. Ghilea and fellow junior Andrew Harris both competed in last year's Bulldog Scramble, racking up a 9-1 record in singles with several ranked wins.