Cowgirls Rout Kansas State In Big 12 Quarterfinals

Friday, April 29

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Kansas State

Photo by: OSU Athletics

April 29, 2016 | Cowgirl Tennis

STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State's women's tennis team continued its domination of Big 12 opponents with a 4-0 victory in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Championship on Friday inside the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center.

"We're very thrilled to host this event and our fans have come out in good numbers and are doing a great job of supporting us, so we definitely want to take advantage of that and use it," coach Chris Young said.

The Cowgirls (22-4), the tournament's No. 1 seed, were forced to navigate between indoor and outdoor courts due to inclement weather, but controlled the match against the Wildcats regardless of the location.

"I thought Kansas State played great, it's dangerous to play a team that has nothing to lose and they have played us great the last two times," Young said. "For us, I'm really proud of our team I thought we handled the adversity of going in and out and all the starting and stopping is not easy to do, but our girls handled it and advanced to tomorrow."

All of Friday's matches began with singles action with doubles serving as a tiebreaker if needed, but the Cowgirls, ranked No. 15, took four-straight singles points to shutout the Wildcats.

All-American Viktoriya Lushkova continued to dominate at the No. 3 position. In her second match against Carolina Costamagna this season, Lushkova found herself down 2-0 in the first set, before surging back to win 12-straight games to put the match away, 6-2, 6-0.

"I think we played well and it was a good start to the tournament after winning the conference during the regular season," Lushkova said.

Senior Kelsey Laurente gave the Cowgirls a 2-0 lead with a victory at the No. 4 position. The Cowgirl had little trouble against Millie Stretton, as she put together a straight-set victory, 6-3, 6-1.

Carla Tur Mari earned her second-straight win against the Wildcats, as she defeated Livia Cirnu at the No. 6 position, 7-5, 6-1. The Ibiza, Spain native picked up win No. 14 in the spring with her victory on Friday.

"Once we moved inside I felt like we played even better," Tur Mari said. "This match was really fun because my parents were there and this a good team win for us because we want to win the Big 12 tournament."

Vladica Babic closed the match for the Cowgirls with a victory at the No. 2 position against Ana Garcia Navas, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), who she defeated last week in Manhattan, Kansas. Babic has strung three-straight victories together to improve to 13-5 in the spring.

"I was really happy to contribute to today's win," Babic said. "I think we have mental advantage because we haven't lost a home match yet this season."

The Cowgirls will return to action on Saturday, as they take on the Kansas Jayhawks at 3 p.m. at the Greenwood Tennis Center.

#15 Oklahoma State 4, Kansas State 0
Singles competition
1. #47 Katarina Adamovic (OSU) vs. Sara Castellano (KSU) 5-7, 5-2, unfinished
2. #45 Vladica Babic (OSU) def. Ana Garcia Navas (KSU) 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
3. #66 Viktoriya Lushkova (OSU) def. Carolina Costamagna (KSU) 6-2, 6-0
4. Kelsey Laurente (OSU) def. Millie Stretton (KSU) 6-3, 6-1
5. Katarina Stresnakova (OSU) vs. Iva Bago (KSU) 7-6, 2-3, unfinished
6. Carla Tur Mari (OSU) def. Livia Cirnu (KSU) 7-5, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. Millie Stretton/Ana Garcia Navas (KSU) vs. #42 Maria Alvarez/Kelsey Laurente (OSU) no result

2. Palma Juhasz/Sara Castellano (KSU) vs. #60 Viktoriya Lushkova/Carla Tur Mari (OSU) no result

3. Carolina Costamagna/Livia Cirnu (KSU) vs. #71 Katarina Adamovic/Vladica Babic (OSU) no result