Sooners Ranked No. 5 After Big Weekend

NORMAN -- The Oklahoma men's tennis team jumped nine spots in the Oracle/ITA Division I Collegiate Rankings released Tuesday, moving from No. 14 to No. 5 after a spectacular weekend at the 2017 ITA National Indoor Championships.

The Sooners dropped their first-round matchup with No. 3 Ohio State, but then picked up back-to-back top-10 wins by defeating No. 7 Northwestern and then No. 6 Florida.

Against the Wildcats, the Sooners won the doubles point to jump out to a 1-0 lead, but Northwestern bounced back to push the dual to the last match remaining. At court six, freshman Jochen Bertsch was locked in a three-set battle with Jason Seidman. The youngster from Mannheim, Germany, would clinch the match for Oklahoma with a win in a third-set tiebreaker.

.@OU_MTennis Freshman Jochen Bertsch clinches for @OU_Athletics! The Sooners defeat No. 7 Northwestern 4-3 at #ITAIndoors.

:Match Point?? pic.twitter.com/MXQ2yYayaO
?” ITA Tennis (@ITA_Tennis) February 18, 2017

Sunday against Gators the Sooners played without their top singles player Andrew Harris and then dropped the doubles point to dig an early hole, but Oklahoma rebounded to win four of the six singles matches completed to take a 4-2 win. Junior Spencer Papa won at the No. 1 position against No. 9-ranked Alfredo Perez, senior Alex Ghilea knocked off No. 24 Chase Perez-Blanco in straight-sets at No. 2, senior Florin Bragusi picked up a win over No. 60 Elliott Orkin at No. 3 and freshman Adrian Oetzbach earned his first career ranked win with a defeat of No. 109 Johannes Ingildsen in straight sets.

With wins over two top-10 teams and its only loss coming to runner-up Ohio State, few teams had a better weekend at National Indoors than Oklahoma. At No. 5, The Sooners are now the highest-ranked Big 12 team with Texas coming in at No. 7, Oklahoma State sitting at No. 8 and Baylor ranking No. 11.

OU's resilient play has resulted in improved individual rankings as well. Papa is the highest-rated Sooner at No. 24 in the latest Oracle/ITA poll. Harris dropped a couple spots to No. 33, while Bragusi catapulted from No. 105 to No. 65 this week. Ghilea made his 2017 singles ranking debut, appearing at No. 74. Oklahoma also has two doubles teams in the rankings. Papa and Harris, who have played at No. 1 doubles for the Sooners this year, rank No. 40 while Papa also ranks No. 43 when pairing with Ghilea.

Oklahoma returns home this weekend to host No. 41 Tulsa on Friday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. CT inside the Gregg Wadley Indoor Pavilion at the Headington Family Tennis Center. As always, admission for regular season home matches is free.

SOONERS RANKED

SINGLES

No. 24 Spencer Papa
No. 33 Andrew Harris
No. 65 Florin Bragusi
No. 74 Alex Ghilea

DOUBLES

No. 40 Spencer Papa/Andrew Harris
No. 43 Spencer Papa/Alex Ghilea