Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboy Tennis Opens Big 12 Play At TCU
March 26, 2014 | Cowboy Tennis
March 26, 2014
STILLWATER, Okla. -
The No. 21 Oklahoma State men's tennis team will open conference play this weekend with a road match at 55th-ranked TCU on Friday and a Sunday matchup at No. 11 Texas.
The Cowboys (17-2) will open their Big 12 slate looking to extend their six-match winning streak, which was improved in last week's victories over San Francisco and Hawaii. A win over TCU or Texas would mark OSU's first conference victory since defeating Texas Tech in the 2009 Big 12 Tournament.
Friday's match in Fort Worth will kick off at 5:30 p.m., while Sunday's battle with the Longhorns will begin at 1 p.m. and will be televised on the Longhorn Network. The Cowboys will stay in Austin following Sunday's match for a 10:30 a.m. matchup against Texas A&M – Corpus Cristi on Monday.
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Eyeing the Opposition
No. 55 TCU has managed to maintain a steady ranking despite suffering seven defeats through 15 matches. TCU boasts multiple ranked individuals, including No. 46 Nick Chappell, No. 107 Facundo Lugones and No. 121 Arnau Dachs. After coming out victorious in six of the teams' nine meetings, the Cowboys will look to improve their head-to-head advantage over TCU after being swept by the Horned Frogs in 2013.
11th-ranked Texas has been one of the Big 12's most impressive teams of 2014, as the Longhorns have taken down four top-20 teams, including No. 7 Georgia. UT also holds a trio of ranked players, including No. 21 Soren Hess-Olesen, No. 34 Lloyd Glasspool and No. 74 George Goldhoff. With UT holding a 23-3 all-time series advantage over OSU, the Cowboys will look to end eight-match losing streak to the Longhorns that dates back to 2007.
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. 21.
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 Oklahoma (No. 3), Baylor (No. 6) and Texas (No. 11), while also holding ground on No. 29 Texas Tech and No. 55 TCU.
Three members of the 2014 Cowboy Tennis squad were inserted into the ITA National Rankings on Feb. 11, 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 on Feb. 11. Sude has compiled an 8-2 singles record in 15 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 currently sits at No. 61 as of March 23, which 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. Kadhe and Bohrnstedt are currently unranked after suffering their first two losses of the season against Arkansas and Tulsa.
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 32-12 though 19 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.
Shock And Awe
After defeating Georgia St. on Feb. 9, the Cowboys reached 8-0 for the first time in school history, setting a school record for the best start ever for Cowboy Tennis. The eight wins to begin the season surpassed the 1998 squad's six and the previous-high of seven from 1997. The Cowboys' loss at No. 32 Tulsa on Feb. 23 ended the team's record start.
Home Cooking
The 2014 season not only saw the Cowboys jump out to their best start in school history, but also helped OSU compile its longest home winning streak since a 12-match streak from 2006-08.
The Pokes are 10-1 at the Greenwood Tennis Center, and will look to increase that mark on April 6 when they welcome the SMU Mustangs to Stillwater.
Tenacious Ties
In do-or-die tiebreaker situations this year, the Cowboys have compiled an 18-7 advantage, signifying that the team has performed extremely well when under pressure. Jakob Sude is 4-1 in deciding singles set tiebreakers, and Lucas Gerch owns five tiebreaker victories of his own.
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.
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 7-2 against currently ranked opponents in 2014.
Bring Out The Brooms
OSU has shutout ten opponents in 19 matches this season, the most in as many matches since the 2006 squad that reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In 2014, the Cowboys have swept currently-ranked opponents San Diego State, Dartmouth and Alabama, as well as South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, New Orleans, Oral Roberts, Nebraska-Omaha, Lamar and San Francisco.
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.
