Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Netters Head to Athens for ITA Kick-Off
January 28, 2011 | Cowboy Tennis
Jan. 28, 2011
STILLWATER – The No. 55 Oklahoma State men's tennis team travels to Athens, Ga., this weekend to compete in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, where the Cowboys face the top-seeded and 11th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the opening round Saturday at 2 p.m.
OSU is 0-1 this year after opening the season with a close 5-2 loss to No. 58 Memphis last weekend. The Cowboys' No. 1 doubles team of junior Aleksey Bessonov and freshman Rifat Biktyakov, ranked No. 9 nationally, moved to 1-0 with a win over Memphis' 52nd-ranked tandem of David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury, solidifying their top-10 rank. Biktyakov also joined sophomore Ilija Martinoski as the only Cowboys to earn singles wins in the match.
The Bulldogs enter the event with a 1-0 dual record after shutting out No. 53 Clemson, 7-0, in the their season-opening match. UGA has several athletes ranked by the ITA, including singles players Javier Garrapiz (No. 13), Wil Spencer (No. 53), Sadio Doumbia (No. 47) and Hernus Pieters (No. 119), as well as doubles teams Garrapiz and Pieters (No. 14) and Doumbia and Ignacio Taboada (No. 23).
The second and third seeds, No. 20 North Carolina and No. 23 Georgia Tech, also compete in Saturday's first round, with the losers playing each Sunday at 10 a.m. and the winners facing off Sunday at 2 p.m. for a spot in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
Ranked athletes competing for North Carolina are Jose Hernandez (No. 30 singles), Joey Burkhardt (No. 58 singles), Brennan Boyajian (No. 90 singles) and Stefan Hardy (No. 103 singles). Hernandez and Burkhardt are also the 31st-ranked doubles team. Georgia Tech's ranked athletes are Guillermo Gomez (No, 12 singles), Juan Spirc (No. 48 singles) and Dusan Miljevic (No. 93 singles), as well as Spirc and Kevin King (No. 8 doubles).
All matches will be played at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex with live stats available at .
