No. 8 Sooners Sweep Baylor, 4-0

^#37 Baylor

^#8 Oklahoma

NORMAN – The No. 8 Oklahoma men's tennis returned home Friday and put together a strong performance, picking up a 4-0 sweep of No. 37 Baylor at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

The win marked OU's fifth consecutive victory over the Bears and its eighth shutout win of the year.

“You're always happy when your guys go out and win matches and take care of it in pretty convincing fashion."
- Head Coach John Roddick

The Sooners (13-8, 2-1 Big 12) opened the match by securing the doubles point with wins on courts one and two. After Baylor's (14-10, 1-2 Big 12) Julian Lentz and Tyler Stayer defeated OU's Andre Biro and Maxime Mora at the No. 3 line, 6-4, the Sooners quickly battled back as the 46th-ranked duo of Axel Alvarez and Andrew Harris topped the Bears' No. 82 Tommy Podvinski and Max Tchoutakian, 6-4, on court one.

“We played well on courts one and two in doubles,” Oklahoma head coach John Roddick said. “It was tough conditions and you play just one set with no ad scoring and I thought we did a good job of battling after getting a break on court two and then dropping a break on court one.”

OU's Spencer Papa and Alex Ghilea rallied from a 4-2 deficit and reeled off four straight games to earn a 6-4 comeback victory on court two to seal the doubles point for the Sooners.

In singles, No. 46 Ghilea quickly extended OU's lead to 2-0 with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 victory on court four over Baylor's Jimmy Bendeck.

Mora continued his strong play by defeating the Bears' Tyler Stayer in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3 at the No. 6 line to push OU's advantage to 3-0. The freshman improved his record to 12-5 in singles play this season.

The Sooners clinched the match behind a strong performance from Andrew Harris on court two. After falling down 4-2 to Baylor's No. 85 Tchoutakian in the first set, Harris rallied back to win four straight games to take the first set. He continued the momentum in the next frame and did not drop a game to take the 6-4, 6-0 victory for his second singles win of the year.

When play was suspended, the Sooners were leading on the three remaining courts. No. 23 Alvarez won the first set, 6-2, and was tied at 3-3 in the second against Baylor's No. 17 Lentz. With his win in doubles, the senior is just two victories shy of setting the OU school record for combined wins.

Papa had a one-set lead on court three when play was called, while Florin Bragusi was up 6-2, 4-0 on court five.

The Sooners return to action at home on Sunday for Senior Day. OU hosts No. 11 Texas Tech at 1 p.m. CT.

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

RESULTS

DOUBLES

1. ^#46 Alvarez/Andrew Harris def. ^#82 Tchoutakian/Podvinski - 6-4

2. Ghilea/Papa def. Bendeck/Rios - 6-4
3. Lenz/ Stayer def. Biro/Mora - 6-4

Order of finish: 3, 1, 2

SINGLES

1. ^#23 Alvarez vs. ^#17 Lenz - 6-2, 3-3, unfinished
2. Harris def. ^#85 Tchoutakian - 6-4, 6-0

3. Papa vs. Rios - 6-2, 2-3, unfinished

4. ^#46 Ghilea def. Bendeck - 6-0, 6-0

5. Bragusi vs. Podvinski - 6-2, 4-0, unfinished

6. Mora def. Stayer - 6-1, 6-3

Order of finish: 4, 6, 2

RESULTS

DOUBLES

SINGLES

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Florin Bragusi

Alex Ghilea

Andrew Harris

Andrew Harris

Spencer Papa

Spencer Papa

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics