NORMAN — The Oklahoma men's tennis team is set to open the 2021 tennis season with UIW on Wednesday at the Headington Family Tennis Center. First serve is set for 5 p.m. CT.
Matchday Basics
The Sooners open the season with UIW at home. OU Athletics has announced that fans will not be admitted for 2021 matches at the Headington Family Tennis Center due to limited seating capacity related to COVID-19 precautions. Home and visitor student-athletes will receive a limited number of complimentary tickets on a pass-list basis.
More information on the policy can be found
here.
Fans can keep up with
live stats for the match or watch on
Playsight.
The 2021 Sooners
Oklahoma returns seniors
Max Stewart and
Jake Van Emburgh; juniors
Mason Beiler and
Matt Rodriguez; and sophomore
Mark Mandlik,
Alex Martinez and
Justin Schlageter.
The Sooners are joined by freshmen
Nathan Han (Tulsa, Okla.) and
Welsh Hotard (New Orleans, La.) as well as graduate transfer
Jonathan Sheehy (Abilene Christian). The trio made their debuts during the fall tournament season.
Head coach
Nick Crowell enters his fifth season at the helm for OU, where he has amassed a 65-32 record. Assistant coach and Oklahoma alum
Nick Papac is in his third season.
2020 in Review
The Sooners were rolling when the 2020 season came to an early end due to concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic. The squad was 11-4 on the year and just a week out from opening Big 12 play. OU had picked up two road wins over top-25 teams, downing No. 24 Kentucky 5-2 in Lexington and upsetting No. 15 Florida State 4-3 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., when the season was ended.
The Sooners racked up five straight victories to go undefeated during the month of February. OU recorded six sweeps during the 2020 season, all at home.
Additionally, the freshman class of Mandlik, Martinez and Schlageter combined for 27 singles victories. Mandlik opened the year with six straight victories and
Schlageter closed the season on a six-match run.
It took freshman
Schlageter just seven matches to earn his first career ranking after joining the team in January. Schlageter entered the ITA singles rankings at No. 92 as the third- ranked freshman in the Big 12 and the 13th highest player in the league after just a month of collegiate competition.
The Last Time They Met
The Sooners faced UIW last season in Norman, shutting out the Cardinals 7-0.
In doubles, Beiler and
Schlageter were the first to finish for the Sooners with a 6-1 win over UIW's Omar El Kadi and Dennis Boisseau on the second court.
Stewart and Martinez clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 defeat of Marco Galic and Luka Stojanovic at the No. 1 line. When play was halted, Rodriguez and
Jochen Bertsch led Cardinals Oliver Valentinsson and Marwin Kralemann 5-4 on court three.
The momentum carried into singles action. Bertsch was the first Sooner off the court when he swept Stojanovic 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 spot. ITA No. 100 Beiler shut out El Kadi 6-0, 6-0 on the second court.
Stewart defeated Galic 6-2, 6-2 on court six to clinch the match. Play continued as Martinez took out Kralemann 6-3, 6-4 on court four.
Van Emburgh and Schlageter finished their matches within seconds of each other to complete the sweep. No. 107 Van Emburgh beat Boisseau 6-3, 6-3 at the top spot and Schlageter defeated Valentinsson 6-2, 7-5 on court three.
Up Next
The Sooners will have an early road test as they head to Tennessee on Saturday. The match in Knoxville is set for a 9 a.m. CT start.
For updates, follow
@OU_MTennis on Twitter or like
Oklahoma Men's Tennis on Facebook.