Papa Finishes Runner-Up at Southern Intercollegiate

ATHENS, Ga. -- The first tournament of the year came to a close Monday for the Oklahoma men's tennis team, as junior Spencer Papa fell to Michael Redlicki of Arkansas 6-4, 6-4, in the championship match of the Southern Intercollegiate Championship in Athens, Georgia.

“Today's match came down to a few points,” Papa said. “I gave it my best effort and he just came out on top. He's a 6-foot-7 lefty and you don't face that every day.”

“I'm really happy with the way it went. It was a great start for me mentally and really tested me physically."
- Junior Spencer Papa

The No. 1 seed Redlicki, ranked the No. 11 singles player in the nation in the Oracle/ITA preseason rankings, finished the tournament without dropping a single set.

Papa defeated the tournament's No. 2 seed (Wayne Montgomery of Georgia), No. 3 seed (Daniel Valent of Vanderbilt) and No. 9 seed (Jose Salazar of Arkanas) en route to the championship match. On Sunday, he took down Salazar, 6-3, 6-2, and Montgomery, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, to earn himself a bid in the final match. It was a successful start to the year for the returning starter.

Oklahoma head coach Nick Crowell was pleased to see his junior perform so well in the year's opening tournament.

“Spencer was really impressive all week long both mentally and physically,” Crowell said. “He handled a lot of adversity in his matches and is really settling into his game in the fall season and as we move closer to the spring.”

Overall, the Sooners brought four players to compete at the Southern Intercollegiate Championship: Papa, senior Alex Ghilea, senior Florin Bragusi and redshirt sophomore John Milstead. In singles play, the group combined for a total of 11 wins, and in doubles play, Ghilea/Papa went 2-1 to reach the quarterfinals while Bragusi/Milstead went 1-1.

Ghilea, the No. 7 seed, was strong all weekend before falling to the eventual champion, Redlicki. Ghilea's tournament included a three-set victory, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, over No. 7-seed Cameron Klinger of Virginia in the round of 16. He also had to overcome a second-set defeat in the opening round against Alex Dominguez of Kentucky before powering through in set three to win the match 6-1, 6-7, 6-2.

Junior Spencer Papa and head coach Nick Crowell at the 2016 Southern Intercollegiate Championship. Papa finished as the runner-up in singles after racking up five wins, including three over seeded opponents.

Bragusi made it three Sooners to make it to the round of 16 in singles play on Saturday. He topped Georgia Tech's Andrew Li in a close three-set match in the round of 64, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, then handled Big 12 conference foe Ronit Bisht of Texas Tech 6-2, 6-2, in the round of 32. Bragusi continued his success with a 6-1 first-set win versus 5^th-seed Piotr Lomacki of Miami before dropping the final two sets.

Milstead also gathered his first win of the fall season in singles play, topping Eastern Kentucky's Colin Hart 6-1, 6-1. Milstead fell in the round of 16 to Victor Chaw of Lipscomb 4-6, 3-6.

Ghilea and Papa's run to the quarterfinals in doubles included victories over Jolan Cailleau and Bisht of Texas Tech, 6-2, and a round of 32 win over East Tennessee State's David Biosca/Miguel Este, 6-4. Oklahoma's duo fell to Georgia's pairing of Jan Zielinski and Walker Duncan, 6-4.

Bragusi and Milstead earned a win over Trey Yates/Enzo Wallert of Kentucky (WD) before a 6-1 loss to Mississippi State's 8^th-seeded pair of Trevor Foshey/Vaughn Hunter.

Oklahoma's last appearance at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships - two years ago in the fall 2014 season – also featured three Sooners playing their way to the quarterfinals in singles, including Ghilea.

“Overall, it was a great week for the Sooners,” Crowell said. “We got a lot of matches in against quality opponents and got to test our conditioning and preparation.”

With a new coaching staff in place, Papa was encouraged that he found so much success to begin a new era of Oklahoma tennis.

“I'm really happy with the way it went,” Papa said. “It was a great start for me mentally and really tested me physically. I want to give a lot of credit to the coaches for getting me prepared and to our strength and conditioning staff for all the hard work they've put in the last three weeks. Everything has been really organized and I feel like that's why we all had good results.”

For more on OU Men's Tennis, follow the team at @OU_MTennis on Twitter and Instagram.