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Cowboys Look To Make Something Special Happen At Big 12 Championship
April 28, 2016 | Cowboy Tennis
Big 12 Championship Notes
The Basics
Oklahoma State's men's tennis squad enters the Big 12 Tennis Championships as the 4-seed in the men's bracket and will take on 5-seeded Baylor in the first round at noon on Friday at the Greenwood Tennis Center.Â
The time of the match will be subject to change on Friday if inclement weather forces play to be moved indoors. For updates regarding time changes, follow @CowboyTennis on Twitter or like Oklahoma State Cowboy Tennis on Facebook.
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Follow the Match Live
Live stats for the match against the Baylor Bears will be available at okstate.statbroadcast.com.Â
For live updates on each match, make sure to follow @CowboyTennis on Twitter.
In the ITA Rankings
Oklahoma State's men's tennis squad closed out the regular season at No. 15 in the latest Oracle/ITA Rankings, released on Tuesday.
The Pokes finished the regular season with an 18-6 record, which is the highest win percentage (.750) in coach Jay Udwadia's four years with the program.
Also, the Cowboys defeated 12 ranked opponents during the regular season and have victories over three conference champions (No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 16 South Florida) and one conference runner-up (No. 12 California).Â
A new set of singles rankings was released as well and All-American Julian Cash represents the Cowboys in the latest poll as he remains in the top 60 at No. 52.
In the doubles rankings, All-American duo Arjun Kadhe/Cash finish the regular season at No. 8, which puts them at 16-straight weeks inside the top 10. OSU's Lucas Gerch/Temur Ismailov also received a spot in the latest doubles poll as they check in at No. 87.
Spring Season Is Gerch's Time To Shine
OSU's Lucas Gerch continues to dominate this spring as he's currently riding an 11-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 14-2 in singles.
Gerch has also played well in doubles with partners Temur Ismailov and Tristan Meraut. Ismailov/Gerch, ranked No. 80, have compiled a 12-3 record this season and reached the round of 16 at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship in La Jolla, California.
Mendoza Named Big 12 Player of the Week
OSU's Jurence Mendoza became the fourth Cowboy this season to be named Big 12 Player of the Week, the league announced last Wednesday.
This is the first time Mendoza has received the weekly honor as he's coming off an incredible performance this past weekend against Texas Tech and Baylor.
The sophomore clinched the victory over the No. 10 Red Raiders with a three-set win on court five over Connor Curry. He also went undefeated in doubles play on the weekend with partner Lucas Gerch, which helped the Cowboys secure the doubles point in both matches.
Cowboys vs. Opponent
After snapping Baylor's 12-match win streak a couple weeks ago, the Cowboys will look to start a win streak of their own as they look to get consecutive victories against the Bears for the first time in 18 years.
Oklahoma State won the first five meetings between the two teams, but the Bears won 13-straight matches after that before the Cowboys snapped the Baylor streak with a win in 2008.
Series History vs. Baylor                                Â
  Overall series:    BU leads 25-7            Â
  First meeting:     OSU won 9-0 (1980)                         Â
  Last meeting:      OSU won 4-2 (2016)                         Â
  Last OSU win:    2016                     Â
Coach Udwadia Records 200th Career Victory     Â
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.
Last Time Out                                                                                    Â
Lucas Gerch/Jurence Mendoza got OSU started in doubles action by taking a quick 3-0 edge over Oklahoma's Maxime Mora/Andre Biro on court three. The dominant Cowboy duo went on to win their match, 6-2, putting the Pokes one win away from the point.
With the first two matches done, court three featured the deciding match as Cowboys Tristan Meraut/Lukas Finzelberg faced Oklahoma's Spencer Papa/Alex Ghilea. Meraut/Finzelberg took a quick 3-0 lead in the match, but the Sooner duo climbed its way back and forced a tiebreak. After exchanging numerous points, Papa/Ghilea took the tiebreak 7-5 and won the doubles point to give Oklahoma a 1-0 advantage going into singles.
After losing the doubles point, the Cowboys had a strong start in singles play as four Cowboys led early in the first set. However, Oklahoma continued to battle and ended up taking four first sets in singles.
Meraut and Kadhe would fall on courts two and four to give the Sooners a 3-0 edge, before Andrew Harris defeated Julian Cash on court one to clinch the 4-0 victory for Oklahoma.
No. 10 Oklahoma def. No. 12 Oklahoma State, 4-0
Doubles | Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
C1: #36 Harris/Alvarez Llamas (OU) def. #6 Cash/Kadhe (OSU) 6-4
C2: Gerch/Mendoza (OSU) def. Papa/Ghilea (OU) 6-2
C3: Mora/Biro (OU) def. Finzelberg/Meraut (OSU) 7-6 (7-5)
Singles | Order of Finish: 4, 2, 1
C1: Andrew Harris (OU) def. #45 Julian Cash (OSU) 7-6 (10-8), 6-3
C2: #26 Axel Alvarez Llamas (OU) def. #115 Arjun Kadhe (OSU) 6-2, 7-5
C3: Lucas Gerch (OSU) vs. #71 Spencer Papa (OU) 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), unfinished
C4: #57 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. Tristan Meraut (OSU) 6-3, 6-2
C5: Lukas Finzelberg (OSU) vs. Andre Biro (OU) 6-0, 4-6, 0-2, unfinished
C6: Jurence Mendoza (OSU) vs. Maxime Mora (OU) 6-4, 5-4, unfinished
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 12-2 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 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. 6, 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. Â
Follow Cowboy Tennis
Stay up to date with the Oklahoma State men's tennis team:
Twitter: @CowboyTennis
Instagram: @CowboyTennis
Facebook: Oklahoma State Cowboy Tennis
Snapchat: OSUathletics
YouTube: youtube.com/osuathletics
Players Mentioned
