Red River Rout

No. 7 Texas

No. 1 Oklahoma

Photos

Results

2015 Stats

NORMAN – The top-ranked Oklahoma men's tennis team picked up its 13^th top-25 win of the season Sunday afternoon with a 4-1 win over the 7^th-ranked Texas Longhorns in front of a standing room only crowd at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

“I think it is special,” head coach John Roddick said. “We always seem to get our biggest crowd of the year, and we had another big one today. I think it means a lot to our lettermen and some of the other guys who took a pounding from them for years. I know they enjoy that and our guys enjoy playing in front of that many people.”

The win moves the Sooners to 19-1 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. Oklahoma has now won its last seven consecutive regular season conference matches and has not lost a regular season conference match at home since March 27, 2011.

That was huge to get doubles. We have been getting better each match. Our doubles has come miles from four or five weeks ago.
Head Coach John Roddick

The two squads started the day evenly, splitting the first two doubles matches, with OU getting a 6-3 win from junior Axel Alvarez and senior Dane Webb the top Texas pair of Soren Hess-Olesen and Llyod Glasspool at one doubles.

That brought all eyes to court 2 where sophomores Andrew Harris and Alex Ghilea were knotted at 3-all and a break a piece with UT's Adrien Berkowicz and George Goldhoff.

Both duo's continued to hold serve and at 6-all the match went to a tiebreaker. OU scored three points on Texas serves while Texas took just one point for the Sooners and Oklahoma won the tiebreak 6-3 to take the doubles point.

“That was huge to get doubles,” Roddick said. “We have been getting better each match. On three we had three or four break points that could have evened that one up. When it is that short you have to give yourself a chance and I liked what I saw. We played great at one again. Our doubles has come miles from four or five weeks ago.”

The Sooners rode their doubles momentum into singles, winning five first sets, three of which came quite convincingly.

“In the end there was a lot of energy,” sophomore Andrew Harris said. “It pumped us all up. We know once we win the doubles point we are very very hard to beat. That gave us confidence.”

Alvarez was the first to finish. Playing at No. 2 singles, the junior made quick work of No. 34 Llyod Glasspool, winning 6-1, 6-2 in a match that last roughly 50 minutes. Harris and Ghilea's single-set doubles match lasted 52 minutes. Alvarez moves to 16-0 in dual play and leads the Sooners in wins.

“Axel went out and took care of business,” Roddick said. “He played the way he needed to play to make the guy feel like he didn't have a chance.”

Harris came up with perhaps the biggest win of the day. Playing at No. 1 singles the sophomore from Melbourne, Australia topped the nation's top-ranked player, Soren Hess-Olesen, 6-1, 6-3 to give the Sooners a 2-0 lead. The win is Harris's 10^th at No. 1 singles this season and his 8^th over a ranked opponent.

You don't get to play No. 1 in the country very often. I just really focused and took every chance I got. I was really focused and it showed.
Sophomore Andrew Harris

“I was just really excited,” Harris said. “I knew leading up to this match it would be a great opportunity. You don't get to play No. 1 in the country very often. I just really focused and took every chance I got. I was really focused and it showed. “

“Andrew beating the no. 1 player in the country—that's how he can play when he really focuses and doesn't give any free points away,” Roddick said. “That was a great effort.”

Sunday's match is just the second time this season that the Longhorns' top two singles players have lost in the same match.

Freshman Spencer Papa finished things off for the Sooners. The Edmond, Okla. native won 6-4, 7-5 over Nick Naumann in the five spot when he broke serve at 5-all in the second. Papa improves to 8-6 on the year, but 3-0 at No. 5 singles.

“Spencer closed it out well,” Roddick said. “He dealt with a little bit of adversity, but he handled it really well. He was able to close it out. The first three chances we had to close matches out, we did it. That's what we want to do.”

For fan's who missed Sunday's win over the Longhorns, the match will be rebroadcast Monday, March 30 at 4:30 p.m. on FOX Sports Oklahoma and again Tuesday, March 31 at 8 a.m. on FOX Sports Southwest.

The Sooners are back in action Wednesday, April 1 when they play host to in-state rival Tulsa at 5:00 p.m.

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

RESULTS

DOUBLES

#6 Webb/Alvarez def. #41 Hess-Olesen/Glasspool 6-3
Harris/Ghilea def. Berkowicz/Goldhoff 7-6(7-3)
Naumann/Riechmann def. Papa/Bragusi 3-6

Order of finish: 3, 1, 2

SINGLES

#13 Andrew Harris def. #1 Soren Hess-Olesen 6-1, 6-3
#2 Axel Alvarez vs. #34 Lloyd Glasspool 6-1, 6-2
#72 Adrien Bercowicz def. #23 Dane Webb 6-4, 6-3
#65 Alex Ghilea vs. George Goldhoff 7-5, 5-2 DNF
Spencer Papa def. Nick Naumann 6-4, 7-5
Florin Bragusi vs. Clement Homs 6-2, 3-6, 0-1 DNF

Order of finish: 2, 1, 3, 5

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Florin Bragusi

Alex Ghilea

Andrew Harris

Spencer Papa

Dane Webb

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics