Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Tennis Continues Eight-Match Road Slate
February 12, 2014 | Cowboy Tennis
Feb. 12, 2014
STILLWATER, Okla. -
The No. 29 Oklahoma State men's tennis team will take its undefeated 8-0 record to Wichita, Kan., on Thursday to take on No. 61 Wichita State at the Genesis Health Club.
The Cowboys are coming off a record-setting weekend that saw the team record its best start in school history, reaching the 8-0 mark through wins over No. 36 Alabama and Georgia State. OSU will look to improve that mark against the Shockers, who have amassed a 2-4 record through a rigorous early-season nonconference schedule.
Thursday's match will begin at 2 p.m. CT and can be followed through live scoring, which will be posted with updates and information on Twitter at @CowboyTennis.
Eyeing the Opposition
Last year's Missouri Valley Conference champion has gotten off to a rough 2-4 start, but three of the Shockers' four losses have come at the hands of Top 25 squads (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USC).
Wichita St. boasts the Central Region's No. 20 singles player in Tin Ostojic, as well as the area's 10th-ranked doubles squad. Chris Haworth and Matt Campbell were both victorious over current members of the WSU squad in last year's 4-0 OSU sweep.
The Cowboys are 34-17 all-time against Wichita St., and are currently riding an eight-match win streak over the Shockers.
Welcome to the Rankings
After beginning the season unranked, the Cowboys jumped into the No. 51 spot of the ITA Rankings on Jan. 21, and currently sit at No. 29. It's the highest in-season rank for Cowboy Tennis since 2010 after sitting at No. 24 in the Jan. 26, 2010 rankings.
OSU now joins the rest of its conference opponents in the national rankings, and will look to continue its strong play to surpass Big 12 foes Baylor (No. 6), Oklahoma (No. 7) and Texas (No. 10), while also holding ground on TCU (No. 34) and No. 53 Texas Tech.
Three members of the 2014 Cowboy Tennis squad were inserted into this week's ITA National Rankings on Tuesday, marking the first time a Cowboy individual has been represented in the polls this season.
Junior Jakob Sude received the first individual ranking of his career, coming in at No. 70 in ITA's National Singles Rankings. Sude has compiled a 3-0 singles record in six appearances, highlighted by his straight sets victory over Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis, formerly the nation's 34th-ranked singles standout, as well as a strong performance in an unfinished match against No. 12 Daniil Proskura.
Sude's ranking is the highest in singles since former Cowboy Vlad Bondarenko's No. 60 position on Jan. 3, 2012.
In the ITA National Doubles Rankings, undefeated Arjun Kadhe and Brady Bohrnstedt premiered at the No. 38 spot after racking up six consecutive wins to open the 2014 season. The duo also boasts a win over a highly-ranked opponent in Tennessee's 28th-ranked Fickey/Chaplin doubles squad, and becomes the highest-ranked Cowboy Tennis tandem since Rifat Biktyakov and Aleksey Bessonov finished the 2011 season at No. 27.
Doubles Domination
The 2013 Cowboy Tennis squad saw its doubles team compile a 37-14 dual record, marking a massive improvement for the team and helping OSU begin to develop a reputation as one of the nation's up-and-coming doubles powers.
That success has passed on into 2014, as the Cowboys' doubles squads remain an impressive 15-3 though eight matches in dual play. The team also provided strong performances in the fall despite pairing with new partners, as Oklahoma State sent two doubles teams to the quarterfinal round of ITA's Central Region Championships.
Strength of Schedule
Coach Udwadia has given the Cowboys a challenging task for the spring by scheduling 16 ranked opponents, giving OSU the 33rd most difficult schedule in the country based on number of ranked opponents faced and quality of opponent.
The team's tough slate includes six matches against teams ranked in the top 25, as well as contests against top-10 opponents Baylor, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Seven of the Cowboys' ranked opponents will visit Stillwater, including three in the top ten. OSU is 4-0 against currently ranked opponents in 2014.
Home Cooking
The 2014 season has not only seen the Cowboys jump out to their best start in school history, but has also helped OSU compile its longest home winning streak since a 12-match run from 2006-08.
The Pokes are a perfect 6-0 at the Greenwood Tennis enter, and will look to increase that mark on March 7 when they welcome No. 20 Wake Forest to Stillwater, kicking off a five-match home stand.
Tenacious Ties
In do-or-die tiebreaker situations this year, the Cowboys have compiled a 15-3 advantage, signifying that the team has performed extremely well when under pressure. Lucas Gerch and Jakob Sude are both 4-0 in deciding singles set tiebreakers, and Arjun Kadhe owns two tiebreaker victories as well.
Oklahoma State's clutch tiebreaker wins have been instrumental in the team's two biggest wins of the year, as the Pokes won four out of five tiebreakers against No. 6 Tennessee and went a perfect 6-0 in tiebreaker play in the team's sweep over No. 36 Alabama.
Switching Things Up
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association has implemented a revised set of dual match rules that will run on a trial system from Jan. 1 to Feb. 17, affecting the Cowboys' first nine matches. The revisions, created to decrease match length time and engage fans, are highlighted by the following changes:
The three doubles matches will each consist of one set to 6, with no-ad scoring and a tie-breaker at 5-all. Once a team has won two doubles matches, the remaining doubles match shall not be completed.
Six singles matches will follow the doubles. Each singles match is two out of three sets, with each set using no-ad scoring and a tie-breaker at 5-all in each set.
All singles matches will be played to completion unless both coaches agree to do otherwise.
There will be no warm-up against opponents before the first point is played in doubles and singles: players will be expected to warm-up with their own team prior to the scheduled match time.
The Future Is Now
The Cowboys bring in the year with a bang by debuting the Greenwood Tennis Center, Oklahoma State's newest athletic facility that will give the tennis program its first new home in more than 30 years. The state-of-the-art complex houses six indoor courts and 12 future outdoor courts, as well as an electronic scoreboard and videoboard.
2014 will also mark the debut of new assistant coach Pepe Cabellero, who joins the Cowboys after serving two years as head coach of the Hong Kong Tennis Association. Caballero takes the team's position after former assistant Yevgen Bondarchuk held the spot for the last eight years.
Taking Their Talents to Stillwater
Head Coach Jay Udwadia's 2014 signing class brings five new members to the Cowboy Tennis squad and is highlighted by several international standouts, as well as last year's top high school player in Oklahoma.
- Sebastian Sachs (Ditzingen, Germany) – posted a 4-4 fall record that included a semifinal trip in the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational. Sachs has also made a name for himself on the international circuit by earning several ATP points and performing well against international competition.
- Arjun Kadhe (Pune, India) – has experience in each of the four Grand Slams at the junior level, including a quarterfinal doubles run at last year's French Open. He has also consistently held a No. 1 ranking in each of India's junior age groups.
- Lucas Gerch (Berlin, Germany) – combined with Vasili Caripi to reach the doubles quarterfinal at last fall's ITA Central Region Championships, finishing the season with a 6-1 doubles mark. Gerch also went 2-4 in singles play.
- Nathan Roper (Edmond, Okla.) – earned Oklahoma's Jim Thorpe Player of the Year award twice after winning three consecutive individual state champions at Edmond North HS. Roper was also named an Army National Reserve Scholar-Athlete, and led Edmond North to team state championships in each of his four varsity years.
- Nicolai Ferrigno (Hvidovre, Denmark) – joins the Cowboys after two successful years at Cameron University. Ferrigno compiled an impressive 22-2 singles mark last year at Cameron, and finished the season ranked No. 18 in ITA's Division II rankings.
