Texas Tech Tops OU, 4-1

¹⁴Texas Tech

Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. – The Oklahoma women's tennis team fell to No. 14 Texas Tech, 4-1, inside the Gregg Wadley Indoor Pavilion Sunday afternoon.

The Sooners (7-12, 2-5 Big 12) began the day by winning the No. 1 doubles match. The 57th-ranked duo of senior Emma Devine and sophomore Lily Miyazaki defeated Texas Tech's Lynn Kiro and Gabriela Talaba, 6-1.

At the No. 2 line, sophomore Christiana Brigante and Malene Stripp fell to the Lady Raiders' Alex Valentstein and Sabrina Federici, 6-2. The doubles point came down to the No. 3 spot. OU's Mimi Fotopoulos and Simran Sethi dropped a 6-3 decision to Felicity Maltby and Sarah Dvorak to give Texas Tech (19-4, 5-3 Big 12) an early 1-0 lead.

The Lady Raiders carried the momentum into singles play as Texas Tech took the first singles match of the afternoon when No. 119 Talaba topped OU's Devine 6-1, 6-1, on court two.

At the No. 4 position, OU's Sethi fell to Maltby, 6-0, 7-6 (3). Sethi led 3-0 early in the second frame, but Maltby rallied to force a second-set tiebreaker to clinch the match.

The Sooners took the next singles match as Malene Stripp defeated Tech's Katelyn Jackson in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 6-3, on court six to cut the deficit down to 3-1.

The Lady Raiders clinched the match with a victory at the No. 1 line. TTU's Sarah Dvorak won, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, over the Sooners' No. 125 Miyazaki.

When play was abandoned, OU's Brigante was down 0-1 early in the final set at the No. 5 line. On court three, Fotopoulos was tied 5-5 in the second set with the Lady Raiders' Valenstein.

Head coach Dave Mullins is happy with the continual progress he's seen from the team.

"I feel much better now," he said. "We're a much better team than we were five weeks ago, six weeks ago. If our schedule had been upside down, it would've been a little bit better for sure. We didn't take advantage of some opportunities we had early on."

"To see the improvement, like I told the girls, if our season ended today, I would feel much better about it and I would feel good going into next year. It doesn't end today and we have two more opportunities next weekend. I want to see if we can build of this performance. We had opportunities there against a really good team. That's exciting."

The Sooners are back in action next Friday as they travel to Kansas. OU closes out Big 12 play at Kansas State next Sunday.

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

RESULTS

DOUBLES

1. ^#57Miyazaki/Devine def. Talaba/Kiro 6-1

2. Federici/Valenstein def. Stripp/Brigante 6-2

3. Maltby/Dvorak def. Sethi/Fotopoulos 6-3

Order of finish: 1,2,3

SINGLES

1. ^#88Sarah Dvorak def. ^#125Lily Miyazaki 2-6, 6-1, 6-3

2. Gabriela Talaba def. Emma Devine 6-1, 6-1

3. Mimi Fotopoulos vs. Alex Valenstein 4-6, 5-5

4. Felicity Maltby def. Simran Sethi 6-0, 7-6 (4)

5. Christiana Brigante vs. Sabrina Federici 7-6 (5), 4-6, 0-1

6. Malene Stripp def. Katelyn Jackson 7-6 (4), 6-3

Order of finish: 2,4,6,1

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Players Mentioned

Christiana Brigante

Christiana Brigante

Emma Devine

Emma Devine

Mimi Fotopoulos

Lily Miyazaki

Malene Stripp

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics