Cowboys Begin Big 12 Homestand vs. Tech & Baylor

Notes vs. Tech & Baylor

The Basics
OSU men's tennis squad begins its Big 12 home slate to end the year as they take on No. 10 Texas Tech on Friday at 6 p.m. CT at the Greenwood Tennis Center. On Sunday, College MatchDay returns to Stillwater as the Cowboys conclude the weekend with a matchup against No. 37 Baylor at 3:30 p.m. CT. The match will be televised on Fox Sports 2.

Follow the Match Live
Live scoring for both matches this weekend will be provided on okstate.com. Match-by-match updates will also be available on the OSU men's tennis Twitter page (@CowboyTennis).

Sunday's match against Baylor will be televised on Fox Sports 2. Coverage starts at 3:30 p.m. CT. Channel listings (Stillwater): 410 (Suddenlink), 618 (DirecTV), 313 (Cox)

In the ITA Rankings
Oklahoma State checked in at No. 14 in the latest Oracle/ITA Rankings, which were released on Tuesday. The Cowboys have now been inside the top 15 for nine-consecutive weeks.

All-American Julian Cash remains in the top 60 in the new singles poll at No. 59, while two-time All-American Arjun Kadhe jumped two spots to No. 119. Cowboy Jurence Mendoza made his way back into the singles rankings as well as he sits at No. 125.

In the doubles rankings, Kadhe/Cash continue their historic run as they moved up two spots to No. 5, which marks the 14th-straight week the All-American duo has been inside the top 10. Pokes Lucas Gerch/Temur Ismailov keep a spot in the rankings at No. 65.

Coach Udwadia Records 200th Career Victory
Oklahoma State's victory against No. 32 Harvard was a special one for Cowboy head coach Jay Udwadia as he collected his 200th career win. Udwadia becomes only the second coach in Cowboy history to record his 200th win with OSU, the only other coach was Cowboy legend James Wadley.

Cowgirl Tennis head coach Chris Young honored Udwadia in the Cowboys' home match against Georgia State. Young presented a celebratory plaque to Udwadia during the intermission between doubles and singles play.

When he arrived at OSU, Udwadia had 145 career wins with stops at Drake and Fresno State where he turned both programs into yearly conference title contenders. At Fresno State, Udwadia reached the conference finals six of his eight years, winning the title in 2011 and 2012.

The New York native is also only the second coach in Cowboy Tennis history to collect more than 50 wins in his first three seasons, as he won 51 games before entering this season.

After back-to-back NCAA Second Round appearances, the future looks bright for coach Udwadia and the Oklahoma State men's tennis program.

Cowboys vs. Opponent
The Cowboys will enter their match against Texas Tech with a four match all-time series lead, but the Red Raiders have gotten the better of the Pokes recently by winning seven of the last eight matches.

Baylor owns the all-time series lead against OSU by a wide margin, 25-6. OSU will look to get its first victory over the Bears since 2008.

Series History vs. Texas, TCU
                             Texas Tech                             Baylor
   Overall series:     OSU leads 18-14             BU leads 25-6
   First meeting:      Tech won 4-2 (1965)           OSU won 9-0 (1980)
   Last meeting:       Tech won 4-3 (2015)         BU won 4-0 (2015)
   Last OSU win:     2014                                  2008

Big 12: Strongest in the Nation
The Big 12 conference continues to be one of the most talented leagues in the nation with five of six teams staying in the top 25. Four teams (TCU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma & OSU) remain in the top 15.

Spring Season Is Gerch's Time To Shine
OSU's Lucas Gerch continues to dominate this spring as he is currently riding a 10-match winning streak in singles.

A hot start in the spring isn't uncommon for the German as he won 14 of 15 singles matches to begin the spring last season and is off to another great start this spring, sitting at 13-2 in singles.

Gerch has also played well in doubles with partners Temur Ismailov and Tristan Meraut. Ismailov/Gerch, ranked No. 65, have compiled a 12-3 record this season and reached the round of 16 at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla, California.

Last Time Out
After a 35 minute delay, the match began with a tight race for the doubles point as OSU duos on courts one and three were in battles. Unfortunately, TCU would claim the point with victories on two and three, giving them a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.

The Cowboys got off to a strong start in singles play as three of six Pokes took an early set lead, but TCU would end up taking five of six first set victories. Mateo Ruiz Naranjo struggled to find any rhythm on court six, falling in straight-sets, 6-2, 6-1. Oklahoma native Nathan Roper was the next Cowboy to fall in singles as he dropped his match to Jerry Lopez, 6-0, 6-4, giving TCU a 3-0 lead. Needing one more point to clinch the match, Guillermo Nunez defeated Poke Tristan Meraut on court three, 6-2, 6-4, to give TCU a 4-0 victory.

No. 2 TCU def. No. 12 Oklahoma State, 4-0

Doubles | Order of Finish: 3, 2
C1: No. 82 Stadler/Blake (TCU) vs. Gerch/Mendoza (OSU), 4-4 unf.
C2: Johnson/Nunez (TCU) def. Kadhe/Meraut (OSU), 6-3
C3: Norrie/Rybakov (TCU) def. Roper/Ruiz Naranjo (OSU), 6-1

Singles | Order of Finish: 6, 5, 3
C1: No. 3 Cameron Norrie (TCU) vs. No. 121 Arjun Kadhe (OSU), 6-3, 5-4 unf.
C2: No. 16 Alex Rybakov (TCU) vs. Lucas Gerch (OSU), 6-7(5), 3-2 unf.
C3: No. 61 Guillermo Nunez (TCU) def. Tristan Meraut (OSU), 6-2, 6-4
C4: Eduardo Nava (TCU) vs. Jurence Mendoza (OSU), 7-5, 3-1 unf.
C5: Jerry Lopez (TCU) def. Nathan Roper (OSU), 6-0, 6-4
C6: Trevor Johnson (TCU) def. Mateo Ruiz Naranjo (OSU), 6-2, 6-1

The Finz-isher
Cowboy Lukas Finzelberg has proven to be one of the key players for the Pokes thus far as he currently sits at 11-2 in singles.

The sophomore has finished off four matches for the Pokes this season, each one coming against a ranked opponent. Finzelberg closed out the Cowboys' biggest win of the year against No. 11 Wake Forest at the Greenwood Tennis Center in late January. He split the first two sets against Wake Forest's Christian Seraphim before grinding out a hard-earned three set victory to give the Cowboys their first win against a top 15 opponent since 2014.

The German native wouldn't wait long to clinch another match as he capped off the weekend by securing the win against No. 22 Minnesota just two days later.

All-American's Kadhe/Cash Win Pacific Coast Doubles Title
For the second consecutive year a Cowboy duo won the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship.

Arjun Kadhe/Julian Cash, ranked No. 5, joined the likes of Arthur Ashe and John McEnroe by winning the prestigious title. The All-American duo won seven doubles matches in three days, including a victory over Stanford's Fawcett/Romanwicz in the final.

Kadhe/Cash have now been crowned doubles champs twice this season with the other one coming in October at the ITA All-American Championships.

Kadhe Seeks Third-Straight All-American Honor
Last season, Kadhe and Jakob Sude were the first Cowboy doubles team in Oklahoma State history to earn back-to-back All-American honors.

Kadhe looks to become only the third Cowboy in OSU history to earn three All-American honors. The two Cowboys with three All-American honors are Oleksandr Nedovyesov (2008-2010) and Sude (2014-15).

He will have a good chance at completing the task, as Kadhe and his new doubles partner Julian Cash have developed a great connection on the court together, which helped them earn the third-highest doubles ranking in program history at No. 5.

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

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Players Mentioned

Julian Cash

Lukas Finzelberg

Lucas Gerch

Temur Ismailov

Arjun Kadhe

Jurence Mendoza

Tristan Meraut

Nathan Roper

Mateo Ruiz Naranjo

Jakob Sude

Oklahoma State University Athletics