Martinez Named Big 12 Player of the Week After Three Consecutive Ranked Wins

NORMAN - Oklahoma fifth-year senior and No. 54 Alex Martinez was named the Big 12 Player of the week for the second time this season, the conference announced Tuesday.

Martinez had a successful weekend at the one singles position, bringing home two wins over ranked opponents. The wins in singles led the Sooners to achieve two upsets over ranked teams last weekend.

The Sooners' one singles player took down the nation's No. 5 Oliver Tarvet of San Diego in three sets to clinch the match over the No. 14 team in the country on Friday night. Following a first-set win, Martinez then dropped the second set, sending the match into a third set. Martinez fell 2-4 in the third set but fought back in a tiebreak to seal the win for the Sooners.

Martinez had yet another dominant performance in Sunday's match against Virginia Commonwealth's No. 41 singles player, Mathis Bondaz. After the Sooners won the doubles point to start the dual, Martinez stretched the lead with a straight-set win over the No. 41 player and only dropped one game in the match. With wins by two other Sooners, Oklahoma topped No. 33 VCU, improving their record to 2-0 over ranked opponents on the weekend.

The wins from the weekend send Martinez's season singles record to 7-2. Martinez now has three consecutive wins over ranked opponents, with two of the wins being over top-20 players in the country.

The strong performances by Martinez and the rest of the Sooners resulted in a national team ranking of 21 this week, marking the highest team ranking for Oklahoma this season.

Martinez's Big 12 Player of the Week honor is the second for the Sooners this season and marks Martinez's fourth Big 12 Player of the Week award in his career.