Cowgirls Head West for First Spring Tests

Friday, January 13

Las Vegas, Nev

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Freeman Memorial Tournament

Photo by: OSU Athletics

January 11, 2017 | Cowgirl Tennis

PDF Notes
Watch NCTC - FloTennis ($$)
Freeman Memorial Draws

STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State women's tennis team will split up to compete at a couple of different events this weekend. Four Cowgirls will travel to Palm Springs, Calif., to participate in the National Collegiate Tennis Classic, while another four will make the trip to Las Vegas to compete at the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships.

Cowgirl Lineup & Tournament Fields
The Cowgirls will send Viktoriya Lushkova, Katarina Adamovic, Aliona Bolsova and Sofia Blanco to the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships. Vladica Babic, Carla Tur Mari, Katarina Stresnakova and Lena Ruppert will compete in Palm Springs.

The Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships field features players from some of the top teams in the nation, including No. 1 Florida, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 3 Pepperdine, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 25 UCLA and host UNLV.

The National Collegiate Tennis Classic will host competitors from OSU, Stanford and UCLA as well, along with No. 17 Texas, No. 18 USC, Baylor, Wichita State, San Diego and Arizona.

On the Air
Fans can catch all of the action at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic on FloTennis.com, which will be streaming the matches at the event beginning Friday.

Oklahoma State from a Distance
Oklahoma State returns five contributing letterwinners from a 2015-16 campaign that saw the Cowgirls post the best finish in program history, earning the title of NCAA Runners-Up. Last season, OSU racked up a 29-5 record on the way to earning the program's first Big 12 Championship in 13 years, thanks in part to a 9-0 conference record.

The OSU roster is headlined by three standout seniors in Katarina Adamovic, Viktoriya Lushkova and Carla Tur Mari. Adamovic is coming off an impressive junior season that saw the Cacak, Serbia native earn her first ITA All-American honor by way of advancing to the NCAA individual quarterfinals last summer. A two-time All-American and the 2015 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year, Lushkova has been a key to the Cowgirls' unprecedented success as well, riding into the fall season on an 18-match win streak. Tur Mari provided a major boost to the back end of the OSU singles lineup in 2016, going 22-8 in the No. 6 spot.

Also returning for the Cowgirls are junior Vladica Babic and sophomore Katarina Stresnakova. Babic tallied six victories over ranked opponents in 2016, including a triumph over No. 28 Kennedy Shaffer of Georgia to help push the Cowgirls to a win over the Bulldogs in the NCAA Sweet 16. The highlight of Stresnakova's first season in Stillwater came in the NCAA Tournament, when the Slovakia product took down Ferny Angeles Paz of Ohio State in the NCAA quarterfinals to clinch the win over the Buckeyes and push the Cowgirls in to the national semifinals.

The Cowgirls boasted one of the most impressive doubles records in the country in 2016, winning all but one doubles point in 34 matches. With the level of talent set to return, that success figures to continue this upcoming season.

Head coach Chris Young enters his eighth season at the helm of the Cowgirl tennis program after earning his 100th win with the program last season. Young is assisted by second-year assistant coach Matt Manasse.

Cowgirls Picked to Repeat as Big 12 Champs
The Oklahoma State women's tennis team was unanimously picked No. 1 in a preseason poll of Big 12 coaches, it was announced by the league office on Wednesday.

The Cowgirls received 81 points in the poll, putting them 11 points ahead of second-place Texas Tech. Texas is ranked third with 63 points, while Baylor (52) and Kansas (50) round out the top five.

Notable Streaks and Trends
•   The Cowgirls have spent 41 consecutive weeks in the ITA top 25. The last time OSU was outside the top 25 was
March 18, 2014.
•   The Cowgirls have won 20 or more matches in each of the last two seasons.
•   Oklahoma State has won 14-straight regular season conference matches dating back to March 29, 2015, when the Cowgirls came up short, 4-3, at Texas Tech.
•   Since 2012, OSU has made five-straight NCAA Tournament appearances. That streak is the second-longest in program history behind a 10-year streak that saw the Cowgirls earn NCAA Tournament berths from 1982-91.
•   The Cowgirls were impressive this fall, racking up a 65-16 (.802) overall singles record and a 28-14 (.667) overall mark in doubles.

Record Watch
•   Viktoriya Lushkova's .810 career win percentage in singles ranks second all-time in program history. She is the first player since Kate Vasylyeva in 2003 to break onto that list.
•   With 81 career singles wins, Viktoriya Lushkova is currently third on the Big 12 era career list, and only 14 wins away from sealing the No. 1 spot. She is seventh on the doubles Big 12 era list with 74 career wins.
•   With 74 career doubles wins, Katarina Adamovic sits in seventh on the program Big 12 era career doubles wins list. With an .791 win percentage in doubles, Adamovic's doubles win percentage leads the Big 12 era list in that category as well, along with Vladica Babic
•   With 81 career doubles wins, Carla Tur Mari is currently the program's active leader in that category, while also sitting in fourth in the Big 12 era program record book. She is also fourth in singles with 80 career wins.

Home Court Advantage
Since it opened for the 2013-14 season, the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center has proven a tough place to play for Cowgirl opponents. After posting a perfect 18-0 mark in the building last season, the Cowgirls are now 37-2 all-time in the new facility.

Super Seniors
The experienced Cowgirl roster includes three seniors this season, all of which have been major contributors to the growth of the OSU women's tennis program. Katarina Adamovic, Carla Tur Mari and Viktoriya Lushkova have combined for 221 singles wins, 229 doubles wins, three All-America honors and 10 All-Big 12 accolades while helping the Cowgirls to a 68-20 record.

Cowgirls in the ITA Rankings
The Oklahoma State women's tennis team will open the 2017 campaign ranked fifth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings, it was announced Wednesday. The ranking is the team's highest recorded position in the poll in program history.

Individually, five Cowgirls appear in the dual season's first singles rankings, while three OSU doubles teams make appearances in the doubles poll.

Viktoriya Lushkova comes in at No. 11 in the preseason singles rankings. It ties as the second-highest ranking in Lushkova's career, as the Ukrainian product was slotted at No. 10 in the 2015 preseason rankings.

Vladica Babic will open her sophomore season as the 29th-ranked singles player in the country. Senior Carla Tur Mari is ranked No. 32 to reach the highest singles mark of her career. Following an All-American junior season in which she advanced to the national singles quarterfinals, Katarina Adamovic will open her senior campaign ranked No. 68. Sophomore Sofia Blanco makes her first appearance in the ITA singles rankings, coming in at No. 106.

In doubles, Vladica Babic is slotted at No. 11 with Carla Tur Mari and at No. 19 with Katarina Adamovic.

Making its first appearance in the doubles rankings is the tandem of Aliona Bolsova and Sofia Blanco. The OSU duo recorded 10 wins during the fall season for the Pokes, advancing to the quarterfinals of the regional championships and nearly advancing to the main draw at Riviera.

Young Guns
While the 2016-17 Cowgirl roster boasts plenty of experience, the young talent that head Coach Chris Young has brought on board over the last couple of seasons is evident as well, especially with a pair of newcomers.

Freshman Aliona Bolsova (Spain) joined the Cowgirls this fall after finishing one of the most decorated junior careers of any signee in Cowgirl history, having been been ranked as high as No. 4 in the ITF world junior rankings with a number of impressive wins under her belt.

Freshman Lena Ruppert (Germany) has been ranked as high as the No. 70 player in Germany, while recording five wins against players in the top-50. Ruppert came to OSU this fall rated as one of the top-10 players under the age of 18.

Impressively, the Cowgirl underclassmen (Bolsova, Ruppert, and sophomores Sofia Blanco and Katarina Stresnakova) have combined for a 36-7 record so far this season.

Home, Sweet Home
The Cowgirls are scheduled to play 11 matches at the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center this upcoming season. Fans won't have to wait long to see OSU either, with the team's first six dual matches set in Stillwater.

Among the Elite
As if the Oklahoma State women's tennis program needed further proof of its arrival on the national stage after last season's NCAA Runner-Up finish, the numbers back up the Cowgirls as well. OSU is one of only 12 NCAA Division I teams to win 20 or more matches in both of the last two seasons.

Adding to that stat, OSU has won 52 matches over the last two seasons, making it the second-winningest program in the country over that span behind only North Carolina.