Cowboy Tennis Primed for Big 12 Championships

The Basics
OSU's men's tennis team, ranked No. 29, will hit the road this weekend to Waco, Texas for the Big 12 Championship. The Cowboys will face No. 6 TCU for the first time in the Big 12 Championship on Friday at 12 p.m. OSU is 16-8 on the season and TCU holds a 20-6 record.

In the ITA Rankings
The Cowboys enter the weekend ranked No. 29 in this week's Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings. TCU holds the No. 6 ranking.
Three Cowboys are featured in the ITA singles rankings including Senior All-American Jakob Sude at No. 39, No. 119 Arjun Kadhe and No. 124 Lucas Gerch. The Horned Frogs are represented by No. 40 Cameron Norrie, No. 53 Nick Chappell and No. 59 Guillermo Nuñez.
Kadhe and Sude enter the weekend cemented as the 25th-ranked doubles team in the nation. TCU has two ranked doubles teams including No. 20 Nick Chappell and Will Stein and No. 29 Cameron Norrie Trevor Johnson.

Last Time Out
Oklahoma State faced No. 1 Oklahoma last Sunday in Norman. The Cowboys took the hard fought doubles point, but couldn't wrap it up in singles play as they fell to the Sooners, 4-1.No. 1 Oklahoma 4, No. 29 Oklahoma State 1

Doubles | Order of finish: 3,2,1
1. #33 Sude/Kadhe (OSU) def. #8 Webb/Alvarez (OU), 6-3
2. #70 Ghilea/Harris (OU) def. Ferrigno/Gerch (OSU), 6-3
3. Finzelberg/Mendoza (OSU) def. Salazar/Papac (OU), 6-3

Singles | Order of finish: 2,3,4,5
1. #40 Jakob Sude (OSU) vs. #1 Axel Alvarez (OU), 6-2, 2-6, 2-3
2. #6 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #114 Lucas Gerch (OSU), 6-3, 6-1
3. #34 Dane Webb (OU) def. Arjun Kadhe (OSU), 6-4, 6-3
4. #78 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. Tristan Meraut (OSU), 6-3, 6-4
5. Spencer Papa (OU) def. Lukas Finzelberg (OSU), 6-3, 6-4
6. Nicolai Ferrigno (OSU) vs. Florin Bragusi (OU), 6-7(5), 1-2

2014 Big 12 Championship Recap
The Cowboys made their way to the semifinals of the 2014 conference championships after storming back to beat Texas Tech in the first round, 4-3. The Pokes met up with Baylor in the semis but fell, 4-2. The Bears went on to win the Big 12 title.

#6 Baylor 4, #28 Oklahoma State 2
April 26, 2014 | Fort Worth, Texas | Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center

Doubles | Order of finish: 2,3
1. #16 Sude/Kadhe (OSU) vs. #36 Pradella/Zsiga (BU) 7-4, uf.
2. Lenz/Dornbusch (BU) def. Gerch/Sachs (OSU) 8-2
3. Galeano/Lupieri (BU) def. Bohrnstedt/Haworth (OSU) 8-4

Singles | Order of finish:
1. #2 Julian Lenz (BU) def. #70 Jakob Sude (OSU) 6-3, 7-6(3)
2. #16 Patrick Pradella (BU) vs. #88 Sebastian Sachs (OSU) 6-7(4), 6-2, 5-4 uf.
3. Arjun Kadhe (OSU) def. #29 Diego Galeano (BU) 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
4. Mate Zsiga (BU) def. Lucas Gerch (OSU) 6-7 (0), 6-2, 6-3
5. Brady Bohrnstedt (OSU) def. #107 Michel Dornbusch (BU) 7-5, 6-1
6. Tony Lupieri (BU) def. Chris Haworth (OSU) 6-1, 6-4

Cowboys vs. Opponents
Oklahoma State holds the series lead over TCU, 7-4. The Cowboys last defeated the Horned Frogs in 2014, 4-3. This will be the Cowboys and Horned Frogs first meeting at the Big 12 Championships.

Cowboy Head Coach Reaches Milestone
Oklahoma State head coach Jay Udwadia won his 50th match at OSU in early April against No. 57 Wichita State at the Greenwood Tennis Center. He follows former Cowboy head coaches James Wadley and Myron Roderick as only the third coach in Oklahoma State history to win 50 or more matches with the Cowboys.
Since taking over Udwadia has led the Cowboys to the most consecutive wins in school history, their best overall record in a decade and has produced All-Americans Jakob Sude andArjun Kadhe. In three years, he has transformed Oklahoma State tennis into one of the top-tennis programs in the country.

Cowboys Home Wrap-Up
Oklahoma State completed its season at home with a 10-2 record. The mark not only gives the Cowboys back-to-back winning seasons at home, but also double-digits in the wins column. In 2014, Oklahoma State ended with an 11-4 record at the Greenwood Tennis Center. This season, the Cowboys improved their home win percentage from .733 to .833.

Scheduling Tough
The Cowboys have faced 10 ranked opponents within their last 11 matches. Against those opponents, Oklahoma State is 6-5. Most recently, the Cowboys took down No. 57 Wichita State, 4-0. The Cowboys also notched a win over No. 17 Tennessee earlier this season.

Big 12 Strongest in the Nation
The Big 12 conference is one of the most competitive men's tennis leagues in nation, with all six teams ranked in the top 30. Four teams sit in the top 10: Oklahoma (1), Baylor (2), TCU (6) and Texas (10). Texas Tech is ranked 17 and OSU rounds out the conference in the 29th spot.

Gerch and Ferrigno Win Doubles Championship
For the first time in the 126-year history of the Pacific Coast Men's Doubles Championship, an Oklahoma State doubles team has won the tournament.
In the semifinals, the two Cowboys faced the Bacharach/McKelvie team of Davis. With a dominant 6-3, 6-1 win over the Davis duo, Ferrigno and Gerch advanced to the finals, where they met up with top-seeded Thibault Forget and Roberto Quiroz of USC. In the finals, the OSU tandem produced another straight-set victory, taking the championship title with a 6-3, 6-4 win.
They join names like Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe and Peter Fleming as Pacific Coast Champions.

Fall Review
Oklahoma State is coming off a fall season, where several Cowboys gained experience, playing all over the country. The Pokes had a strong showing as three players picked up at least one win at the ITA All-American Championship, which is considered the most prestigious tournament of fall.
Arjun Kadhe produced a runner-up finish at the Cajun Classic early in the fall and finished out his fall advancing to the round of 16 at the ITA Central Region Championships.
Nicolai Ferrigno also made his way to the round of 16 of the ITA Central Regional, notching a dominant straight-set win over Amar Saletovic (ORU).
All-American Jakob Sude competed in only two events this fall: ITA All-American Championship and ITA Central Region Championship.

The Team
Coach Jay Udwadia enters the 2015 spring season with a full roster of 10 Cowboys. He returns two All-Americans in senior Jakob Sude and sophomore Arjun Kadhe as well as the team's Most Valuable Player for the 2014 season, Lucas Gerch. Denmark native and senior Nicolai Ferrigno returns for his second and final season with the Cowboys, while youngsters Nathan Roper and Lukas Finzelberg round out the returners for the Pokes.
New to the lineup is Jurence Mendoza, who enters his second semester as a Cowboy. Joining the squad in January was Trent Botha of South Africa, Leonard Gerch of Germany andTristan Meraut of France.

Feldman Joins the Coaching Staff
This summer, the Pokes welcomed Nate Feldman to the coaching staff as an assistant coach.
Feldman joins the Cowboys after spending the last three years at Norfolk State, where he coached both the men's and women's tennis squads.
Before taking over at Norfolk State, Feldman gained invaluable coaching experience as an assistant at multiple top-tier programs, including a role with the 2010 North Carolina women's team, which reached the NCAA Semifinals and spent four weeks as the nation's top-ranked team. He helped guide the Middle Tennessee State men's squad to a Sun Belt tournament title, earning him a nomination for the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Assistant Coach of the Year award.
Feldman also served as an ITF travel coach, which took him all over the US and South America.

ITA Introduces New Dual Match Format
In December, the ITA Division I Operating Committee made changes to the dual match format so that it shortens the length of the match. Changes include:
-No-ad scoring in singles and doubles.
-Three doubles matches played, each match one set to 6, with a tie-break at 6-all.
-Followed (after a 5-minute intermission) by six singles matches, each match 2 out of 3 sets, with tie-breaks at 6-all.
-No warm-up with opponents (in doubles and in singles)

Follow Cowboy Tennis
Stay up to date with the Oklahoma State men's tennis team on the following social media sites:
Twitter: @CowboyTennis
Facebook: Oklahoma State Cowboy Tennis
Snapchat: OSUathletics
YouTube: youtube.com/osuathletics

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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