LONE STAR BOUND

⁹Oklahoma

²TCU

April 8 | 5:30 p.m. CT | Fort Worth, Texas

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⁹Oklahoma

¹⁷Texas

April 10 | 1 p.m. CT | Austin, Texas

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MATCHUPS AT A GLANCE
	Oklahoma	TCU	Texas
2016 Record	11-7	17-2	15-7
2015 Result	29-3 (NCAA Final)	25-8 (NCAA Semifinal)	21-7 (NCAA Quarterfinal)
Singles Ranks	#36, #51, #59	#3 #16, #61	#87
Doubles Ranks	#33, #40, #56, #85	#82	#68, #86

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR MATCHES 19 & 20

THE MATCHUPS

The 9th-ranked Oklahoma men's tennis team begins Big 12 conference play with a road trip to Fort Worth, Texas to take on the second-ranked Horned Frogs of TCU. The match, slated for Friday at 5:30 p.m. CT, is a rematch of the Sooners' national semifinal win over the Frogs at last year's NCAA Championship. Forecasts call for a high in the upper 70s on Friday with partly cloudy skies and winds at 15 mph out of the east.

Just two days later the Sooners will head deeper into the heart of Texas as they are set to take on No. 17 Texas on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Austin. This year's tennis version of the Red River Rivalry will see a high in the low 80s with cloudy skies, winds out of the south at 20 mph and a slight chance of rain.

LAST TIME VS. TCU

The last meeting between these two teams was one of the more dramatic matches in collegiate tennis in 2015. In the semifinal round of the 2015 NCAA Championship, the top-ranked, and top-seeded Sooners won the doubles point against the Frogs after all three doubles matches went to tiebreakers. That point proved crucial as TCU ran off three wins in singles to leave the dual tied at 3-all with just court one remaining in singles. At the top spot, the nation's No. 1 player Axel Alvarez was locked in a second-set tiebreaker with No. 49 Nick Chappell. Having won the first set, Alvarez could clinch the match with a win, but trailed 4-2 in the breaker. OU's ace stepped up in a big way, winning five of the next six points to take the breaker 7-5 and secure a position in the national championship match for OU.

The Sooners also saw TCU in the regular season a year ago when the Horned Frogs came to Norman. OU won the doubles point and then three singles matches, giving up just one, to take the win 4-1. Oklahoma went on to split the regular season Big 12 title with Baylor.

SCOUTING THE HORNED FROGS

TCU welcomes Oklahoma to Fort Worth ranked second nationally and boasting a 17-2 record. The Frogs have won their last 12 matches and are 9-0 at home. Of TCU's 17 wins this year, seven have come against top-25 opponents, with its two lone losses coming against then-No. 1 Virginia and then-No. 23 California in early February. The Horned Frogs are 13-6 in the doubles point.

SINGLES

No. 3 Cameron Norrie
No. 16 Alex Rybakov
No. 61 Guillermo Nunez

DOUBLES
No. 82 Hudson Blake/Reese Stalder

Axel Alvarez celebrates the clinching point in his match against TCU's Nick Chappell in the 2015 NCAA Semifinal. Alvarez's win gave the Sooners a 4-3 win and a place in the national championship.

LAST TIME VS. TEXAS

OU also took on UT twice a year ago. The Sooners hosted the Longhorns for the regular season meeting between the two squads. Roddick's bunch was dominant in winning 4-1 with a pair of wins in doubles and then wins at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 singles. Then a sophomore, Andrew Harris picked up the biggest win of the day, topping then-No. 1 Soren Hess-Olesen in straight sets at the top singles spot.

OU and Texas would meet again in the semifinals round at the conference tournament, this time with a more dramatic result. The Sooners again won the doubles point, but Texas would pick off three singles wins of its own to push Oklahoma. Singles wins from Axel Alvarez, Alex Ghilea and Harris finished off a 4-3 win and earned the Sooners a berth in the Big 12 final.

SCOUTING THE LONGHORNS

Texas boasts a record of 15-7 in 2016, including an 8-4 mark in Austin. Ranked No. 17 the Longhorns are coming off a 2-4 loss at Baylor, but prior to that had won 12 of their previous 13. UT's best win came in late February when it topped Wake Forest on the road, 4-3.

SINGLES
No. 87 George Goldhoff

DOUBLES
No. 68 Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz-Ruiz
No. 86 George Goldhoff/Julian Zlobinsky

RANKINGS JUMP

OU saw a big jump in the rankings in the latest ITA poll, moving from No. 18 to No. 9 with two ranked wins, and three total, last week. Papa's big week also helped boost the sophomore some 30 spots in the singles polls. Additionally, OU now boasts four different doubles pairings that are nationally ranked.

SINGLES
No. 36 - Axel Alvarez
No. 51 - Alex Ghilea
No. 59 – Spencer Papa

DOUBLES
No. 33 - Spencer Papa/Axel Alvarez
No. 40 – Axel Alvarez/Andrew Harris
No. 56 – Alex Ghilea/Andrew Harris
No. 85 – Alex Ghilea/Spencer Papa

BIG 12 DYNASTY

The Sooners are seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive conference title in 2016 as they begin conference play. Oklahoma earned a share of the regular season title in 2015 and then claimed its third Big 12 Tournament title in the last four years last four years (2012, 2013, 2015) with a pair of wins at the Big 12 Championships in Waco, Texas. After receiving a first-round bye, Oklahoma topped Texas 4-3 in the semifinal round to advance to the final where it would face Baylor for the fourth time on the year. In the final, the Sooners outlasted the Bears to win 4-3 and claim the Big 12 Championships title.

WINNING WEEK

The Sooners racked up three wins a week ago. OU swept Wichita State on Tuesday before traveling to Florida and grabbing a pair of ranked wins. On Friday, Oklahoma bested No. 17 South Florida 4-1, giving up only the doubles point. Sunday proved to be another winning day as OU knocked off No. 22 Florida State in dominant fashion, 4-0. Papa was particularly good over the week, winning all three of his singles competition, two of which were against ranked opponents, and teaming with Ghilea to pitch in a pair of doubles wins.

Spencer Papa picked up five total wins last week and was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the first time in his career.

BIG 12 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Papa's big week garnered him Big 12 Player of the Week honors the conference announced Thursday. The award is the first of Papa's career and the second this season for OU. 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 a week ago.

SPLIT AT BNP PARIBAS

The Sooners had the Easter weekend off, but last weekend OU 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.

CHASING HISTORY

Alvarez made history in the Sooners' leap day win over No. 28 Memphis. The senior picked up wins in singles and doubles to join 2015 graduate Dane Webb as just the second Sooner in program history to reach the 200-win mark for his career. Alvarez now boasts 207 total wins (94 doubles, 113 singles).The Sooners' top man is nearing a pair of OU records, needing just two wins in singles to tie Oliver Lorin's record for career singles wins (115) and just five total wins to tie Webb's record for career wins (212).

PLAYING IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Oklahoma will continue to lead collegiate tennis in televised matches this season, as the Sooners have already played three matches on live TV this season. Three of the Sooners' home matches will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and 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 on live TV against No. 4 Ohio State and will do so again against No. 5 Baylor on April 15 at 6 p.m. CT. OU also played live on ESPN3 in its win over No. 22 Florida State. The Sooners played a total of seven televised matches in 2015.