Sooners Look to Defend Title at Big 12 Championship

¹⁰Oklahoma

⁵TCU

Semifinals Round | April 30 | Noon CT | Stillwater, Okla.

Live Stats

Draw

Twitter

^#18 Texas

^#10Oklahoma

First Round | April 29 | Stillwater, Okla.

Recap

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP

SATURDAY'S SEMIFINAL

With their win over No. 18 Texas on Friday, the Sooners advance to the semifinals round at the Big 12 Championship. They will take on 5th-ranked and 2nd-seeded TCU at noon CT. Weather permitting the match will be played outdoors in the standard format.

TEXAS TAKEDOWN

OU was strong on Friday, beating Texas 4-1 to advance. The match was moved indoors due to wet courts and because of scheduling concerns the teams played singles first. Oklahoma jumped on the Longhorns early, winning five of the six first sets. Wins from Florin Bragusi, Andre Biro and Axel Alvarez put OU up 3-0 before Max Mora's win at No. 5 singles clinched the 4-1 win. For complete recap click here or follow the link above.

MATCHUPS AT A GLANCE
	^#10Oklahoma	^#5TCU
2016 Record	15-9	22-3
2016 Big 12 Result	3-2 (No. 3)	4-1 (No. 2)
2015 Result	29-3 (NCAA Final)	25-8 (NCAA Semifinals)
Singles Ranks	#21, #51, #81, #91	#6, #24, #87
Doubles Ranks	#21, #38, #62	#58

LAST TIME VS. TEXAS CHRISTIAN

OU traveled to TCU in the regular season, falling 4-3 in a closely contested match. The teams split the singles matches 3-3 making TCU's doubles point victory the deciding factor. OU got singles wins from Axel Alvarez, Alex Ghilea and Florin Bragusi in the match against then-No. 2 TCU.

SCOUTING THE HORNED FROGS

TCU enters the match as one of the best teams in the country, sporting a record of 22-3. The Frogs earned a bye in the first round after sharing the regular season conference title with Texas Tech. TCU's lone losses this season have come against top-seed Texas Tech, Virginia and California. The Sooners are 11-10 all-time against TCU and had won nine straight against the Horned Frogs before their regular season meeting this season.

SINGLES
No. 6 - Cameron Norrie
No. 24 - Alex Rybakov
No. 87 - Guillermo Nunez

DOUBLES
No. 60 - Reese Stadler/Hudson Blake

SOONERS RANKED

Four Sooners find themselves in the ITA singles rankings this week as junior Andrew Harris makes his 2016 debut in the poll. He joins Axel Alvarez, Alex Ghilea and Spencer Papa in the top 100. Alvarez and Harris, OU's top doubles pair, also made a jump this week, climbing from No. 36 to No. 21 after taking down OSU's Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe last week.

SINGLES
No. 25 - Axel Alvarez
No. 51 - Alex Ghilea
No. 81 - Spencer Papa
No. 91 - Andrew Harris

DOUBLES
No. 21 - Axel Alvarez/Andrew Harris
No. 38 - Axel Alvarez/Spencer Papa
No. 62 - Alex Ghilea/Andrew Harris

Axel Alvarez celebrates the clinching point in the Sooners' win over TCU in their 2015 NCAA semifinal. Alvarez tied the OU program records for career wins (212) and career singles wins (115) last week against Oklahoma State. He can take the records outright this weekend.

AN ALL-TIMER

Senior Axel Alvarez won both his doubles and singles matches last week against Oklahoma State. In doing so the senior tied Dane Webb's program record for career wins (212) and Oliver Lorin's record for career singles wins (115). With his next wins he can take both records outright.

Alvarez will leave OU as perhaps the best Sooner tennis player in history. In addition to his records, a year ago he became the first Sooner ever to be named ITA National College Player of the year, collegiate tennis's highest individual award, was named Big 12 Player of the Year, became the first Sooner ever to be ranked No. 1 in singles and also the first ever to earn the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Singles Championship.

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP DOMINANCE

Oklahoma has won three of the last four Big 12 Championships (2012, 2013, 2015) dating back to 2012. OU has advanced to the championship match in every year since 2011, falling to Texas A&M and Baylor in the final in 2011 and 2014, respectively. OU won the regular season conference title in 2014.

In 2015 the Sooners drew the No. 1 overall seed for the championship. They bested No. 4 seed Texas 4-3 in the semifinals round to advance to the final. Playing second-seeded and second-ranked Baylor on its home courts in the final, Oklahoma outlasted the Bears 4-3 in a match that saw multiple weather delays. With the dual square at 3-all, then-sophomore Florin Bragusi delivered the clinching point with a three-set win over Felipe Rios at the No. 6 spot. Axel Alvarez was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

EARLY IMPACT

One reason for OU's success this season has been the singles play of its talent duo of freshmen, Andre Biro and Maxime Mora. Both players have recorded 12 wins in singles play so far this year, tying for the team lead. Biro sits at 12-5 while Mora's record is 12-6. The duo also pairs in doubles, seeing action as OU's No. 3 team for much of the year.

RETURN TO FORM

Junior Andrew Harris has returned to singles play for Oklahoma and has done so in convincing fashion. Harris had been sidelined with a knee injury since the conclusion of the 2015 season. Since reentering the OU lineup, Harris has jumped out to a 4-1 record, including wins in each of his last four matches. His last win came at the No. 1 singles position against No. 45 Julian Cash of Oklahoma State.

Harris made his debut in the ITA singles rankings this week, appearing at No. 91. The Melbourne, Australia, native is well on his way to recapturing his 2015 form. A year ago he rose as high as No. 5 in the ITA singles rankings and earned All-America honors in singles as well as being name the ITA National Player to Watch.

Andrew Harris hits a forehand in his singles match against Baylor. Harris is 4-1 since returning to singles play and has won four straight matches.

BIG 12 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Sophomore Spencer Papa picked up his first career Big 12 Player of the Week honor on April 7. The Edmond, Okla., native won five total matches in a span of three duals, including two ranked wins in singles to push OU to a perfect 3-0 week. Alvarez was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Feb. 24. The Asturias, Spain, native picked up a dominant, straight-sets win over No. 97 Carlos Bautista of No. 22 Tulsa to help propel the Sooners to a 4-1, road win.

BNP PARIBAS OPEN

The Sooners earned a split against a pair of ranked teams at the 2016 BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Challenge presented by Oracle in Indian Wells, Calif. Oklahoma fell 4-1 to No. 12 USC on the first day of play, but rebounded the following day with a 4-3 win over No. 14 California. Against the Golden Bears, OU won the doubles point, but with one match left the dual was knotted at 3-all. Ghilea delivered the clinching win by upsetting No. 10 Andre Goransonn at No. 3 singles to clinch the win for OU.

PLAYING IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Oklahoma will continue to lead collegiate tennis in televised matches this season, as the Sooners have already played four matches on live TV this season. OU could see even more televised action if it makes a deep run in the postseason. In addition to its early-season match with Wake Forest, Oklahoma also played live on Fox against No. 4 Ohio State and Baylor. The Sooners also played live on ESPN3 in its win over No. 22 Florida State. The Sooners played a total of seven televised matches in 2015.