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The University of Oklahoma men's tennis team has soared to historic heights over the past several seasons. The Sooners have finished as the NCAA National Runner-Up in each of the last three years, won Big 12 titles in four of the last five years, claimed the program's first ever No. 1 ranking and No. 1 overall seed at the NCAA Championships and in 2015 they claimed their first ever ITA National Indoor Championship.

That run of success is thanks in large part to the efforts of Oklahoma's four returning starters. Senior Florin Bragusi, Alex Ghilea and Andrew Harris as well as junior Spencer Papa have helped push the Sooners to the top of the collegiate tennis world. OU's four horsemen have played in 63 matches together, winning 49 of them (.777), while the three seniors have seen Oklahoma go 77-18 during their tenure. They have done all this while navigating one of the nation's toughest schedules. Of OU's 95 matches over the last three years, 60 have been against ITA top-20 opponents and 30 have been against top-10 foes.

The Sooners' returners have been battle tested. They have played on the biggest stages college tennis has to offer and have consistently come out on top. They have seen magical comebacks, monumental upsets, hostile crowds and have been no strangers to late dramatic finishes.

Take a look as OU's fantastic four relive their favorite moments.

SENIOR ANDREW HARRIS (Melbourne, Australia)

Harris burst onto the scene immediately as a freshman in 2014. In his first season of collegiate action, Harris racked up a singles record of 20-5, including marks of 9-4 at No. 3 single and 11-1 at No. 4 singles. The young Aussie made his impact on the team felt immediately, playing at No. 1 doubles with teammate and All-American Dane Webb. The duo finished the year ranked as the No. 24 pair in the nation.

"Every time I think about that moment, emotion comes flooding back and I wish I could have that experience again.”
- Senior Andrew Harris

For his efforts, Harris was named the 2014 ITA Rookie Player of the Year, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, was named to the All-Big 12 team and claimed the 2014 Big 12 Championship at No. 4 singles. With Harris showing out as a freshman the Sooners advanced to the final at the Big 12 Championships, narrowly falling to Baylor 4-3, and then made an historic run through the NCAA Championships. Oklahoma, which had earlier in the year seen its first ever No. 1 ITA ranking, won five straight matches, including three against top-15 opponents, to make its first ever NCAA final appearance.

As a sophomore, Harris upped his game even more. He racked up records of 25-8 in singles and 23-13 in doubles. Harris spent much of the dual play season at the No. 1 singles position and steadily climbed the ITA singles rankings, reaching a career-high mark of fifth. He earned the No. 4 overall seed for the 2015 NCAA Singles Championship and was named to the 2015 ITA All-America Team in singles. At season's end Harris was named the ITA Nation Player to Watch, an award given annually to collegiate tennis's top returning player.

Harris celebrates a point during the 2015 Big 12 Championship. The Sooners, ranked No. 1, won the title over No. 2 Baylor, 4-3.

With Harris firing on all cylinders, OU was nearly unbeatable in 2015. The Sooners won a program-record 29 matches and lost just twice, all while navigating the nation's most difficult schedule. OU spent much of the year ranked No. 1 in the nation and in early spring claimed the school's first ITA National Indoor Championship. Eager to back up that title in the outdoor season, OU tore through Big 12 play, capturing a share of the Big 12 regular season title and then completing a dramatic comeback in the Big 12 Championship final against No. 2 Baylor to take the tournament crown as well. The Sooners rolled that momentum right into NCAA play where they ran to a second NCAA final appearance before falling to Virginia.

Having battled injury for much of the 2015 season, Harris played in fewer matches in 2016, but his level was not diminished. Harris went 7-3 after returning late in the spring season. His return powered Oklahoma from the No. 11 overall seed all the way to a third consecutive NCAA final appearance. The Sooners run was an inspired one with upsets in three of OU's four matches at the championship site.

With such a storied and illustrious career to this point, Harris has seen a lifetime of great matches and memories, but two in particular stand out.

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“The first one was during my freshman year when we beat UCLA in the semifinals,” Harris said. “That was our best performance I think ever for Oklahoma, so beating such a good team in the semis like UCLA was a feeling I've never felt before with a team. We were a really close bunch of guys.”

Oklahoma entered that match with the Bruins riding the wave of its best season in history to that point. The Sooners were making their first national semifinal appearance and UCLA, a tradition power, was a heavy favorite. OU won two third-set tiebreakers in singles and claimed a 4-2 win that sent it to the program's first ever national title match.

“I just remember that UCLA was the team to beat that tournament, and we had lost to them earlier in the year in the National Indoors,” Harris explained. “We just competed as hard as we could, and all the guys fought for each other. Once we won, the emotion was amazing and every time I think about that moment, emotion comes flooding back and I wish I could have that experience again.”

SENIOR ALEX GHILEA (NEAMT, ROMANIA)

Click the photo above for more photos of OU's 2016 NCAA Semifinal win over Georgia.

Ghilea made an impact as a freshman in 2014 as well. The Neamt, Romania, native was not expected to play but forced his way onto the court with great play. Ghilea finished the year 11-5 including a stellar 8-1 mark at No. 6 singles.

Ghilea's emergence was a driving force for Oklahoma's postseason run. The Sooner took the Big 12 Championship title and ran to the NCAA final thanks in part to Ghilea's 5-0 record in competed postseason matches.

"All of a sudden I had a lot of emotion running through my mind. When my opponent missed, the whole team ran towards me and I didn't know what to do with my body anymore.”
- Senior Alex Ghilea

He continued to up his game as a sophomore and became a winning machine for Oklahoma. He racked up 36 singles wins, the fourth most in Sooner history in a single season, to just 10 losses. Not only did Ghilea win, but he did it in clutch situations. Ghilea went 4-0 and was named the Most Outstanding Player at the 2015 ITA National Indoor Championship. In the Sooners' semifinal matchup against Baylor, Ghilea trailed his opponent by a set and 2-5 in the second before rattling off 11 games in a row to take the match in three sets and clinch OU's place in the final. Ghilea was also a force in doubles, being named to the All-Big 12 team with partner Harris.

A season ago, Ghilea played as high as No. 2 singles and helped carry the Sooners to their No. 11 overall seed for the NCAA Championship. OU's magical run produced Ghilea's favorite Sooner moment.

“If I had to choose one, it would probably when I clinched against Georgia last year because it was in front of so many people from Oklahoma and people who supported the team, so it was a special moment.”

OU's final four matchup with the Bulldogs was a back and forth affair from the start. The Sooners won the doubles point, but the match saw three ties and OU trailed by a point twice. It all came down to the last match where “The Machine” had rallied from dropping the first set in a tiebreaker to force a third set.

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“I knew I had to fight,” Ghilea said. “I saw the scoreboard and the overall match was close, so we were going to go to a clincher. I didn't know if it was my court, Floran's court or Alex's, I just knew I had to fight on. The coaches told me I had to prove myself again, and that's what I did. I focused, I fought and I never gave up.”

Ghilea dominated the extra frame, winning 6-2 to send OU to a third straight NCAA final.

“What I remember was that I was up and had match point, and all of a sudden I had a lot of emotion running through my mind,” Ghilea recalled. “When my opponent missed, the whole team ran toward me and I didn't know what to do with my body anymore.”

SENIOR FLORIN BRAGUSI (Ramnicu Valcea, Romania)

Bragusi made his mark for OU as a sophomore in 2015. After battling former Sooner and current Arkansas Razorback Jose Salazar for the No. 6 singles spot, Bragusi ripped off a season of 13-4 in singles. For much of Oklahoma's run to the Big 12 title and national championship match, Bragusi could be counted on to deliver a point at the back of the lineup.

Playing a grinding, defensive style, Bragusi is often the last match to finish in a dual. During Oklahoma's unrelenting 2015 schedule, in which the Sooners faced 11 top-10 opponents, the outcome of the match often fell to Bragusi's court. He earned a reputation as the Sooners' closer after going 4-0 in situations in which he was the last match on with the dual tied at 3-all. Not only was Bragusi perfect in those situations, they were also some of the Sooners' biggest matches, including the Big 12 Championship final, matches with then Ohio State and Virginia as well as the round-of-16 meeting with UCLA at the NCAA Championships.

OU's closer knows perhaps better than anyone just how thrilling and pressure packed the last three years have been. Having been the last man on stage in so many dramatic wins, he of course has a favorite.

Click for more photos. Bragusi embrasses a coach after clinching the Sooners' 4-3 win over No. 2 Baylor at the 2015 Big 12 Championship final. Bragusi went 4-0 in matches in which he was the last match on with the dual tied at 3-all in 2015.

“My favorite memory was probably the match against Baylor in the [2015] Big 12 Championship final,” Bragusi said. “We were playing in front of probably 1,000 or 2,000 people, so I think that was my best moment here.”

The Sooners entered the Big 12 Championships that season ranked No. 1 in the nation. After beating No. 10 Texas in the semifinals round, OU faced No. 2 Baylor for the fourth time of the year. Oklahoma had beaten Baylor in all three previous meetings and playing on the Bears' home courts in Waco, the Sooners faced a tall task. Thousands of raucous fans turned out for the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown and because of a Big 12 rule regarding crowd noise, they made their presence felt.

Playing on national television, Oklahoma jumped out to a 3-0 lead with wins in doubles and at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, but the Sooners trailed on the remaining four courts and looked to be in trouble. Baylor tied the match at 3-all, leaving the fate of the championship in Bragusi's hands. The young Romanian dropped a break early in the third set but immediately broke back and got to 5-4. Bragusi broke his opponent's serve to win the third set 6-4 and give OU its fourth Big 12 Championship in as many years. His teammates and coaches rushed Baylor's courts and hoisted the trophy.

“I was cramping during the third set, but I had my teammates around me to help me get through the match and get the victory,” Bragusi remembered. “I was just going nuts with the crowd for like 20 seconds. I remember I went to my teammates too. Especially because that year they had that rule where the crowd could speak during the point, so that was a crazy match.”

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JUNIOR SPENCER PAPA (Edmond, Okla.)

Hailing from just up the interstate in Edmond, Okla., Papa arrived on campus widely considered the nation's No. 1 recruit. Papa had an elite junior career that saw him rise to the No. 1 junior ranking for American players and an ITF junior rank of No. 15. When he arrived in Norman in January of 2015, big things were expected. He did not disappoint.

Papa immediately found a place in the lineup at No. 5 and No. 6 singles and racked up 14 wins in his freshman campaign. With such a talent playing back in the lineup, the 2015 team was loaded.

That became evident when at the ITA National Indoor Championships. With just six collegiate matches under his belt, Papa and the Sooners went to the Downtown Athletic Club in Chicago with title aspirations and the No. 2 overall seed. Papa played at No. 5 singles in all four of OU's matches and went 3-1 playing against the nation's best. Within weeks of joining the team, Papa was lifting a trophy with his Sooner brothers.

The 2015 ITA National Indoor Champions pose with the trophy. Oklahoma won its first ever ITA Indoor title in 2015 by beating defending NCAA champion USC.

“My freshman year, winning the Indoor Championship right off the bat in January was pretty special,” Papa explained. “Everything was pretty new to me. That was kind of my first experience getting close to the team. I wasn't really used to that stuff and the celebration. I had always played outdoors, I hadn't played indoors in four or five years because I was living in Florida. It was new. It was something I'll never forget.”

The Sooners dropped just two points in their first two matches before facing No. 10 Baylor in the semifinals round. OU handled Baylor 4-2 in the first of what would end up being four meetings during the 2015 season (OU won all four). In the final Oklahoma faced No. 1 USC, the team it had lost to in the previous year's NCAA championship match. This time OU would have its revenge. The Sooners won doubles and controlled much of the singles matches to win 4-2 and claim the program's first ever national championship.

Papa made a big leap in 2016. He moved from the back of the lineup to the top, playing primarily at No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Papa won 11 matches a year ago and figures to be a dominant force for the Sooner again in 2017.

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