Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Men's Tennis Facing Off Against One Of The Nation's Best In No. 4 Michigan
February 19, 2020 | Cowboy Tennis
Logistics
No. 36 Oklahoma State (7-2, 0-0 Big 12)
vs.
No. 4 Michigan (10-2, 0-0 BIG 10)
Date/Time: Feb. 21, 2020/5 p.m.
Location: Greenwood Tennis Center
The Basics
-Â The No. 36 Oklahoma State Cowboys are going up against the No. 4 Michigan Wolverines inside the Greenwood Tennis Center on Friday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m. Michigan will be the highest-ranked team Oklahoma State has faced this season. Michigan is also the fourth ranked opponent OSU will face this year after going up against No. 18 Columbia, No. 22 Ole Miss and No. 25 Arizona State.
- The Cowboys are 7-2 after defeating San Diego and Northwestern two weeks ago when both teams travelled to Stillwater for the weekend. The Cowboys defeated San Diego 4-1, while defeating Northwestern in a sweep, 4-0.
- The Cowboys fell 15 spots in the latest ITA rankings to put themselves at No. 36 in the country. Multiple unranked and lower ranked teams jumped the Cowboys after competing at the ITA National Indoor Championship, which OSU did not play in.
-Â OSU is currently riding its second three-match win streak of the season with wins against Memphis, San Diego and Northwestern.Oklahoma State started the season with three consecutive wins against San Diego State, Lamar and Bryant.
- The Cowboys had a successful fall season starting with a win at the Silverado Invitational in Napa, Calif. in September. Mathieu Scaglia, Emile Hudd, Luke Hammond and Brady Draheim represented OSU in the tournament.Â
- The dynamic duo of No. 2 Matej Vocel and Dominik Kellovsky collected its first tournament win of the fall at the Arkansas Futures event in September. The most impressive win of the fall came when Vocel and Kellovsky defeated John McNally and Robert Cash of Ohio State in the finals of the 2019 ITA National Fall Championships, which earned them their No. 1 spot in the fall ITA rankings. The duo fell to No. 2 for one week but has jumped back into the No. 1 spot after McNally and Cash, the last No. 1 duo, dropped a match at the ITA National Indoor Championship.Â
A Look at No. 4 Michigan
- The last time Oklahoma State and the Michigan Wolverines faced off was in 2017 when the two premiere programs played each other in La Jolla, Calif. At the time, Michigan was ranked No. 9 in the country while OSU was sitting at No. 5. Oklahoma State won the match over the Wolverines, 4-1.
- The Wolverines have only dropped two of their 12 matches this season, and both of those losses came against top-ranked opponents. Their first match of the year resulted in a loss to No. 23 NC State, who is now No. 9 in the country. Their only other loss was to the top-ranked team, USC, in a competitive 4-3 finish.
- Michigan has defeated four ranked opponents this season: No. 4 Texas, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 TCU and No. 9 Columbia. Two of those wins over ranked opponents came just last week at the ITA National Indoor Championship, but they lost to No. 1 USC in the semifinals of the tournament.
- As a result of their impressive play at the ITA National Indoor Championship, Michigan's doubles team of Andrew Fenty and Mattias Siimar is ranked No. 2 in the country, behind only Oklahoma State's pairing of Dominik Kellovsky and Matej Vocel.Â
- Andrew Fenty is also Michigan's top-ranked singles player, as he comes in at No. 17 in the national rankings. Ondrej Styler jumped 11 spots in the latest rankings to come in at No. 32 in the country. Connor Johnson, who was previously unranked, is now No. 87 in singles for the Wolverines. The final individual ranked for Michigan is Mattias Siimar, who comes in at No. 112, despite also being previously unranked.Â
Cowboy Quick Hits
- OSU has won at least 15 matches in six consecutive seasons under head coach Jay Udwadia, which includes 16 wins in the 2018-19 season. Four times during that stretch, OSU has hit the 20-win mark, winning 21 in 2014, 20 in 2016, 22 in 2017 and 20 in 2018.
- The Cowboys logged their sixth-straight NCAA Championship appearance last season but fell in the second round to No. 11 UCLA.
- Head coach Jay Udwadia is second in OSU history in wins with 132. He trails just James Wadley, who has an unprecedented 662 total wins as head coach of the Cowboys. Udwadia also boasts a .653 winning percentage, which is good for fourth-best in OSU history.
- Head coach Jay Udwadia welcomes three new faces to the team this year in Dominik Kellovsky, Oscar Moraing and Etienne Donnet. The latter two were both added to the roster at the beginning of the spring semester.Â
Cowboys in the Rankings
- OSU is slated No. 36 in the lates 2020 ITA Division I men's rankings.Â
- Matej Vocel and Dominik Kellovsky jumped back into the top spot of the latest ITA doubles rankings after falling to No. 2 in last week's rankings after John McNally and Robert Cash, the last No. 1 duo, dropped a match at the ITA National Indoor Championship.Â
-Â Luke Hammond and Emile Hudd come in at No. 20, dropping just one spot from last week's rankings.
- OSU claims one more doubles team in the rankings in Matej Vocel and Emile Hudd, who come in at No. 48, just three spots lower than last week's rankings.
-Â The highest ranking in singles came from Matej Vocel, who comes in at No. 44. Dominik Kellovsky is the only other ranked individual, as he has jumped back into the top-100; he comes in at No. 66 in the latest ITA Rankings.Â
Match Updates
- For updates during matches, follow @CowboyTennis on Twitter and check okstate.com for post-match results and a recap from the days' action.
