Sooners Announce 2017 Spring Schedule

NORMAN – The Oklahoma men's tennis team and first-year head coach Nick Crowell announced their 2017 spring season schedule Wednesday. The slate features nine regular season home matches and for the first time since 2013, Oklahoma will host the Big 12 Championship.

The Sooners look to build on their 2016 campaign in which they reached the finals at the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive year. The squad kicks off its 2017 campaign with a trio of home matches. OU hosts Creighton on Friday, Jan. 13. and then squares off against Nebraska-Omaha and Abilene Christian on Sunday, Jan. 15.

The first road trip of the year comes on Jan. 21, as the team travels to Wake Forest. The Sooners bounced the Demon Deacons from the NCAA Tournament last year in the round of 16 with a 4-0 victory.

The Sooners' 2017 slate features seven matches against opponents that finished 2016 ranked in the top 25 of the Oracle/ITA rankings, four of which will be played at home at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

Oklahoma will host a trio of teams on the weekend of Jan. 28-29 as part of the 2017 ITA Kickoff Weekend. The winner will qualify for the National Indoor Championships held Feb. 17-20 in Charlottesville, Va. OU claimed its first ever ITA National Indoor Championship in 2015 and has qualified for the 16-team field in each of the last four seasons.

Oklahoma will be in Fayetteville, Ark. on Feb. 4 to take on the Razorbacks. Crowell and his team will be back at home to take on Wichita State and Alabama on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12, respectively. Last year, Oklahoma took down Alabama 5-2 in Tuscaloosa.

Following the ITA National Indoor Championships, the Sooners return to the Headington Family Tennis Center for a matchup with in-state foe Tulsa on Feb. 24. The squad's final three non-conference matches will come at Ohio State (March 5), vs. Cornell (March 12) and at Pepperdine (March 14). The Buckeyes finished the 2016 season ranked No. 4 nationally. OU last played in Columbus on March 6 of 2015, when the then No. 1-ranked Sooners tallied a come-from-behind, 4-3 win over the eighth-ranked Buckeyes. The win snapped OSU's 200-match home winning streak. A mark that stands as the NCAA all-time collegiate varsity sport record.

Following their showdown with Pepperdine, the Sooners will travel from Malibu to Indian Wells, Calif., for the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Challenge presented by Oracle (March 17-19). The Sooners have been part of the typically strong field in back-to-back years and won the tournament in 2015.

A Red River showdown against Texas will open up conference play for Oklahoma on March 31, followed by a date with TCU on April 2, both of which will be in Norman. Back-to-back road trips to Baylor (April 7) and Texas Tech (April 9) lead into Bedlam in Norman on April 22, which will be the team's final regular season match of the season.

The Big 12 Tournament will be hosted in Norman this year from April 28-30. The last time Oklahoma hosted the conference tournament (2013) the Sooners defeated Texas and Baylor to earn a Big 12 Tournament title. The Sooners have won at least the regular season or conference tournament titles in four of the last five seasons.

Admission for regular season home meets, as always, is free.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors