OU Set For Showdown at No. 2 Wake Forest

No. 12 Oklahoma vs. No. 2 Wake Forest

Jan. 21, 4 p.m. CT || Winston Salem, N.C.

Twitter

Live Scoring

NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR WEEK TWO

THE MATCHUP

The Oklahoma men's tennis team will travel to Winston Salem, N.C., to face off against No. 2 Wake Forest on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT. Both the Sooners, ranked No. 12 in ITA/Oracle's top 25 rankings, and Demon Deacons are off to 2-0 starts in their respective 2017 campaigns. The match can be followed via live scoring here.

BACK '4' MORE

Oklahoma men's tennis has been a model of consistency over the past three years, earning national runner-up finishes in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Four current Sooners – Florin Bragusi, Alex Ghilea, Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa – have been key components in Oklahoma's 2015 and 2016 runs. Ghilea and Harris have been on all three of Oklahoma's national runner-up squads. The four upperclassmen will have one more run at it as a group as they look to take it one step further in 2017.

COACH CROWELL

First-year head coach Nick Crowell took over the reigns for Oklahoma in the summer of 2016, following a 13-year stint in Tallahassee as an assistant and associate head coach for Florida State. Crowell, a native of Abilene, Texas, is familiar with Big 12 tennis having played collegiately at the Universtity of Texas. While with the Longhorns, Crowell earned All-American honors in doubles and won the 1998 ITA National Indoor Championship in doubles as well. Crowell coached a total of six All-Americans during his tenure at Florida State.

SCOUTING THE DEACS

Wake Forest is coming off of a 31-6 season and round-of-16 finish at the NCAA Championships in 2016. The Deacs have the No. 1-ranked doubles tandem in the country in redshirt junior Christian Seraphim and junior Skander Mansouri, along with the No. 2 singles player in the nation, sophomore Petros Chrysochos. Mansouri is also ranked No. 5 in the ITA's singles rankings. Wake comes into Saturday's showdown with the Sooners 2-0 following a 5-2 win over North Florida and 6-1 defeat of East Tennessee State

FAMILIAR FOES

Oklahoma and Wake Forest squared off three times in 2016. The Demon Deacons came away with victories in both regular season matchups, but the Sooners prevailed when it mattered most, earning a 4-0 victory over Wake in the NCAA Championships round of 16. Since 2013, Oklahoma is 4-2 against Wake. Both squads returned four singles starters from last year's postseason showdown.

LOADED SLATE

The showdown with the Demon Deacons is the first of many top-25 matchups for the Sooners this year. On the docket for Oklahoma this spring are eight teams currently ranked in ITA's top 25, not including the ITA Kickoff Weekend, National Indoor Championships and BNP Paribas Open, all of which have featured numerous top 25 opponents for OU in the past. As for non-conference play, Oklahoma will face No. 4 Ohio State, No. 19 Arkansas and No. 22 Michigan in addition to Wake Forest. All six Big 12 men's tennis programs began the 2017 season ranked in the top 25.

FRESH FACES

While Oklahoma has four heavily-relied upon veterans, coach Crowell brought four young, yet talented players with him to Norman. The group – Jochen Bertsch, A.J. Chamdani, Adrian Oetzbach and Arnaud Restifo – all earned at least one victory on the opening weekend versus Abilene Christian and Omaha.

QUOTING CROWELL

“We're excited for the opportunity to play a really good team this weekend. I think our guys are ready. Matches like this one are why guys come to play at Oklahoma”