Cowgirls Wrap Fall Season at National Indoors, SMU Red and Blue Challenge

Thursday, November 3

Flushing, NY

All Day

Oklahoma State University

USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships

Photo by: OSU Athletics

Cowgirls Wrap Fall Season at National Indoors, SMU Red and Blue Challenge

November 01, 2016 | Cowgirl Tennis

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STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State women's tennis team will compete at a couple of different events this weekend as it wraps the fall tournament season. Viktoriya Lushkova and the doubles tandem of Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari will travel to Flushing, N.Y., to compete at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships, while the rest of the Cowgirl roster will be in Dallas, Texas, for the SMU Red and Blue Challenge.

National Indoors are set to begin Thursday, and the SMU tournament will get underway Friday. Both events will wrap up Sunday.

ON THE AIR
Fans can catch all of the main draw action at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships, and all other 2016 ITA Fall Championships, on FloTennis.com, which will be streaming the matches at the event beginning Thursday.

SMU TOURNEY FIELD
Aside from OSU, the Red and Blue Challenge field includes Tulsa, Wichita State, Loyola Marymount, Liberty and SMU.

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.

REGIONAL THREE-PEAT
The Oklahoma State women's tennis doubles team of junior Vladica Babic and senior Carla Tur Mari took home the regional doubles crown earlier this month at the ITA Central Region Championships, while Tur Mari also advanced to the singles finals. It marks the third consecutive year that a Cowgirl doubles team has won the event.

Matched up with Kansas' Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum and Nina Khmelnitckaia in the championship match, Babic and Tur Mari pulled away late in the first set to take the frame, 6-4. It was all Cowgirls in the second set, as the OSU tandem shut out the pair of Jayhawks, 6-0, to take the match. The win wrapped up a successful weekend for top-seeded Cowgirl duo, who won six matches against the region's best to take home the hardware.

After an impressive week at the event, Tur Mari attempted to earn a regional singles title as well, coming up short to fifth-seeded Lily Miyazaki of Oklahoma in the finals.

ADAMOVIC, LUSHKOVA COMPETE AT ORACLE/ITA MASTERS
While most of the Cowgirl roster was in Minnesota, Katarina Adamovic and Viktoriya Lushkova were in Malibu competing at the Oracle/ITA Masters.

Adamovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the event with wins over Ansley Speaks of Furman and No. 8 Jasmine Lee of Mississippi State. Lushkova advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over the College of Charleson's Liza Fieldsend.

LUSHKOVA EARNS WILD CARD BID TO NATIONAL INDOORS
Oklahoma State women's tennis senior Viktoriya Lushkova received a wild card selection to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced last Wednesday. Lushkova joins the Cowgirl doubles tandem of Carla Tur Mari and Vladica Babic in the event field after the duo received an automatic bid with its regional doubles championship last weekend.

Lushkova has turned in an impressive fall season thus far, going 6-2 overall. The Ukrainian product advanced to the round of 16 at the Oracle/ITA Masters earlier this month. She also advanced to the quarterfinals at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, knocking off top-25 opponents in No. 22 Taylor Davidson of Stanford and No. 23 Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky before being upended by No. 1 Hayley Carter of North Carolina.

NOTABLE STREAKS AND TRENDS
• The Cowgirls have spent 40 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.
• Fresh off an ITA Central Region Doubles title, the Oklahoma State doubles tandem of Carla Tur Mari and Vladica Babic enter this weekend's USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships on a six-match win streak.
• The Cowgirls have been impressive this fall, racking up a 48-15 (.762) overall singles record and a 22-10 (.688) overall mark in doubles.

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 216 singles wins, 224 doubles wins, three All-America honors and 10 All-Big 12 accolades while helping the Cowgirls to a 68-20 record.

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 an 24-7 record so far this season.

LUCKY NO. 80
Last week at the ITA Central Region Championships, senior Carla Tur Mari got singles win No. 80 of her career with a semifinal victory over No. 49 Anastasia Rychagova of Kansas. Tur Mari is only the fourth Cowgirl in the Big 12 era to reach the 80-win benchmark for her career, joining Linda Faltynkova (94), Maria Galoustova-Phiilips (89) and Marketa Chmelova (80).

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.

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 an undefeated 18-0 mark at home last year, OSU has racked up a 37-2 overall record in the facility over the last three seasons.

RECORD WATCH
• Viktoriya Lushkova's .821 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 79 career singles wins, Viktoriya Lushkova is currently fourth on the Big 12 era career list. She is sixth on the doubles Big 12 era list with 74 career wins.
• With 72 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.
• With 80 career singles wins and 78 career doubles wins, Carla Tur Mari is currently the program's active leader in both categories, while also sitting in third and fourth, respectively, in the Big 12 era program record book.

COWGIRLS IN THE RANKINGS
Oklahoma State women's tennis senior Katarina Adamovic is ranked No. 10 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason singles rankings, leading a slew of Cowgirls that appear in the preseason singles and doubles polls released last month. Adamovic's No. 10 ranking ties for the highest in program history, matching fellow senior Viktoriya Lushkova's No. 10 ranking in 2015.

Adamovic also appears in the ITA doubles rankings with teammate Vladica Babic, coming in at No. 32.

Babic lands in the singles rankings at No. 25 after a 2016 season that saw the Montenegro product turn in a 27-9 overall record in singles.

Senior Viktoriya Lushkova enters the 2016-17 season at No. 39 in the ITA singles rankings. Lushkova and senior Carla Tur Mari team up to rank No. 36 in the ITA doubles poll after a 34-7 season in 2016.

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.