OU Opens Big 12 Play With Duo Of Weekend Matches

No. 13 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 Texas

Friday, March 31 || 6 p.m. CT

Headington Family Tennis Center || Norman, Okla.

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No. 13 Oklahoma vs. No. 16 TCU

Sunday, April 2 || 2 p.m. CT

Headington Family Tennis Center || Norman, Okla.

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NOTES AND NUMBERS FOR BIG 12 OPENER

SEASON AT A GLANCE

Oklahoma returns to the Headington Family Tennis Center after a lengthy spell away from home in California, where the Sooners went 2-2. OU has earned four wins over top-30 opponents in non-conference play, defeating No. 18 Michigan and No. 28 Illinois in Norman, along with wins at national indoors over 12th-ranked Florida and No. 19 Northwestern. Five of Oklahoma's six losses came away from home against top-10 opponents.

THE FORECAST

THIS YEAR'S SOONERS

Led by four veterans, junior Spencer Papa and seniors Andrew Harris, Alex Ghilea, Florin Bragusi, the squad is looking to take one more step following three consecutive national runner-up finishes. First-year head coach Nick Crowell and his squad have received a boost from a trio of freshman - Jochen Bertsch, Adrian Oetzbach and Arnaud Restifo. Bertsch is 12-3 in singles in his first collegiate season, while Oetzbach and Restifo have both totaled nine wins in singles. Additionally, Oetzbach is 8-5 in doubles action. Junior walk-on Mason Bridegan has also provided a boost in the absense of the injured Harris, providing three wins in doubles.

MATCHUPS AT A GLANCE
	#13 Oklahoma	#6 Texas	#16 TCU
2017 Record	12-6	17-4	11-4
2016 Result	20-11 (NCAA Final)	19-12 (Rd. of 16)	26-4 (Rd. of 16)
Ranked Singles Players	#28, #33, #49, #97	#16, #29, #46, #112	#3, #27, #78, #81
Ranked Doubles Players	#32, #43, #59	X	#17, #21, #38
Doubles Point Record	9-9	13-8	10-5

SCOUTING TEXAS

Texas, ranked No. 6, enters the weekend at 17-4 with four straight wins. Led by head coach Michael Center, in his 17th season at the helm for the Longhorns, UT went 19-12 in the 2016 season, falling to Ohio State in the round-of-16 at the NCAA Championships. This year, Texas has racked up quality wins in non-conference action, defeating No. 2 Ohio State, No. 9 Cal, No. 12 Florida, No. 25 Columbia as well as a win over No. 7 Oklahoma State at National Indoors.

The freshman duo of Christian Sigsgaard and Yuya Ito has been instrumental in Texas' success this season, ranked No. 16 and No. 29 in singles, respectively. Ito is 10-3 in dual play at line two, three and four singles, while Sigsgaard is 6-9 at the No. 1 singles position. Additionally, sophomore Harrison Scott is 14-3 in dual play singles.

SCOUTING TCU

The Horned Frogs, 11-4 in the 2017 campaign, are riding a six-match win streak going into the weekend. They will first face Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., on Friday, March 31. Of their 11 wins, two came against top-10 foes in Texas A&M and Cal. Head coach David Roditi, in his 7th season leading TCU men's tennis, has taken the Horned Frogs to the round-of-16 at the NCAA Championships in back-to-back years.

Junior Cameron Norrie and sophomore Alex Rybakov have been phenomenal for the Frogs this year, as Norrie is the 3rd-ranked singles player in the country while Rybakov is No. 27. Norrie is 11-1 at the No. 1 singles spot, while Rybakov is 13-1 at the No. 2 position. TCU also boasts two highly-ranked doubles duos in Trevor Johnson/Reese Stadler (No. 17) and Guillermo Nunez/Rybakov (No. 27).

LOOKING BACK

The Sooners faced both Texas and TCU twice last season, going 2-0 against the Longhorns and 0-2 against the Horned Frogs. OU defeated UT 4-0 in Austin and 4-1 in Stillwater at the Big 12 tournament, with Harris and Papa earning wins in singles in Austin and Bragusi earning a win at No. 4 singles in Stillwater. In 2015, Harris defeated the then-No. 1 ranked singles player in the nation, Soren Hess-Olesen, at the Headington Family Tennis Center to help guide Oklahoma to the 4-1 win over Texas. OU has won nine of its past 11 against UT, including the last four in Norman. The Sooners have similar success against TCU in Norman, where they have won their last four.

Spencer Papa (left) and Jochen Bertsch (right) get some tips from assistant coach Nate Feldman (center) during a doubles match.

CROWELL FACES ALMA MATER

Oklahoma head coach Nick Crowell was a star himself as a player at Texas from 1997 to 2000 under coach Dave Snyder. He will face his alma mater for the first time this weekend since being named head coach of the Sooners in the summer of 2016, following 13 years as an assistant and associate head coach at Florida State. Crowell finished his storied career at Texas with 98 career doubles wins, including 29 in his freshman season alone. Crowell also notched 35 singles wins in his freshman campaign. After being named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 1997, Crowell went on to notch all-conference honors in both singles and doubles each of his final three seasons in Austin, Texas. The Amarillo, Texas, native finished his collegiate career with two All-America honors in doubles (1997, 2000).

RALLYING FROM BEHIND

Although the Sooners are just 9-9 in doubles on the season, OU has rallied from down 1-0 four times to capture the match. The first was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where Oklahoma came back from dropping the doubles point to win 5-2. At the ITA National Indoors in Charlottesville, Va., the Sooners fell behind then-No. 6 Florida early on, but a clutch win in a third-set tiebreaker by Jochen Bertsch gave his squad a monumental 4-3 victory. OU rallied from 1-0 behind in back-to-back matches vs. Tulsa and at Pepperdine to win both matches 4-3.

SOONERS IN THE RANKS

Four Sooners are currently featured in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings. Papa leads the way at No. 28, with a 5-4 record at the No. 1 spot against some of the toughest competition in the country. He has wins over No. 7 Alfredo Perez of Florida and No. 25 Or-Ram Harel of Tulsa. Harris also remains among the nation's best at No. 33, with a 4-3 record at No. 1 singles which includes a win over Arkansas' No. 10 Mike Redlicki. Ghilea flew up last week's singles rankings from No. 101 to 49, and Bragusi remains in the top 100 as well at the 97th-position.

THE ROMANIAN DUO

Bragusi and Ghilea, OU's pair of seniors from Romania, have been key contributors for Oklahoma tennis since arriving on campus. Bragusi, a Ramnicu Valnea, Romania, native is 36-14 all-time in singles dual play since arriving in 2015 for his sophomore season. That 2015 season included Bragusi going 4-0 in situations where he was the last match on with the dual tied 3-3. Those situations included a home match vs. eventual national champion Virginia, the Big 12 championship match against No. 2 Baylor and the Sooners' round-of-16 match vs. UCLA. Ghilea, of Neamt, Romania, is 57-22 in his career at OU in dual play singles action and 45 total doubles victories. Ghilea has been a part of all three of Oklahoma's national runner-up teams, while Bragusi was a part of the 2015 and 2016 squads.

NEWCOMERS ADDING DEPTH

Early in the fall of 2016, Oklahoma's roster consisted of just four scholarship players, but Crowell snagged four fresh faces to join the Oklahoma men's tennis program. Junior Mason Bridegan walked-on to the squad in September, and the Broken Arrow, Okla., native has provided a boost for his team in doubles, notching three wins in six showings. Crowell's recruiting work paid off with the signings of Bertsch and Oetzbach from Mannheim, Germany, and Velbert, Germany, respectively. Bertsch's 12-3 singles record gives him a chance to be the first freshman with 15-plus singles wins since his teammate Andrew Harris did so in 2014 with 20.

Oetzbach has five wins in singles action, including a 3-3 mark at the No. 4 spot. He earned his first career win over a ranked opponent when he defeated No. 109 Johannes Ingildsen of Florida in Oklahoma's 4-2 victory. The Sooners got a French taste in their lineup as well with the addition of Arnaud Restifo of Nice, France. Restifo is 4-4 in 2017 and has been a big lift at the back end of the lineup in singles.

OU Opens Big 12 Play With Duo Of Weekend Matches