Cowgirls Set for ITA Indoor National Championships

Friday, February 9

Seattle, WA

5:30 p.m.

Oklahoma State University

Auburn *

February 07, 2024 | Cowgirl Tennis

Match Notes (PDF)

The Basics
Oklahoma State's challenging non-conference schedule continues this weekend as the Cowgirls will travel to Seattle, Washington, for the ITA Indoor National Championships. The undefeated Cowgirls are the three seed in the tournament that features 15 of the top 16 ranked teams in the country and No. 21 Washington, and they'll open against No. 14 Auburn on Friday. OSU earned its spot in the 16-team draw by getting wins over No. 13 UCLA and Old Dominion at ITA Kickoff Weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 28-29. Oklahoma State's first-round match with the TIgers will be its fifth meeting with a top-15 ranked opponent in its first six matches to begin the season.

Following the Action
All tournament information, including live streaming, live scoring and updated brackets, will be available at the following link: https://wearecollegetennis.com/championships/ita-d1-womens-indoor-champs/. Additionally, Cracked Racquets will once against provide its CrossCourt Cast coverage of all four days of the event on its YouTube channel, which you can find at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/@CrackedRacquets/featured.

In the Rankings
This is the third consecutive week that Oklahoma State has resided at the No. 3 spot in the ITA rankings, holding wins over No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 Pepperdine, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 13 UCLA. New individual singles and doubles rankings were released on Wednesday by the ITA, and five Cowgirls along wtih two doubles pairings made appearances. Ange Oby Kajuru came in at No. 5, while Anastasiya Komar appeared at No. 17, Ayumi Miyamoto at No. 46, Lucia Peyre at No. 54 and Safiya Carrington at No. 122. In doubles, Komar and Kajuru slotted at No. 13 while Komar and Raquel Gonzalez ranked at No. 14.

Series History
Oklahoma State will make its first appearance at the ITA Indoor National Championships since 2021, when it hosted the event. The Cowgirls last advanced past the opening round in 2017, when they were also the three seed, beating Ole Miss in the first round before falling to Ohio State in the quarterfinals. Friday's match between No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 14 Auburn will be the fifth all time meeting between the programs, all of which coming since 2012. The teams split the first four meetings, which were all played on neutral courts, and Auburn won the most recent match in 2021.

ITA Indoor National Championships - The Rundown
Taking place in Seattle, Washington, 15 of the top 16 ranked teams in the country, along with host team No. 21 Washington, are set to compete at the ITA Indoor National Championships this weekend. Every team, besides Washington, earned their bid by advancing through ITA Kickoff Weekend, where Oklahoma State got wins against No. 13 UCLA and Old Dominion to punch its ticket. The No. 3 seeding matches the best in OSU program history in this event, joining the 2017 team, and the Cowgirls are one of just two Big 12 teams to appear in the field, joining six-seeded Texas. North Carolina earned the top overall seed, followed by Stanford at No. 2 as the only teams seeded ahead of OSU. Should Oklahoma State win its opening match against No. 14 Auburn, it will take on the winner of No. 10 Texas and No. 9 Texas A&M in the quarterfinals, and it would mark the Cowgirls' first advancement past the opening round since 2017. There are also three teams in the field that the Cowgirls already have wins over this season in No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 Pepperdine and No. 12 Ohio State.

Battle Tested
Five matches into the season, Oklahoma State has already collected four wins over top-15 ranked teams, matching its most in a season since 2017. Should the Cowgirls beat No. 14 Auburn in the opening round on Friday, or defeat a top-15 opponent in consolation play, it would be their fifth top-15 win of the season, tying a program record that was set by the 2016 NCAA runner-up team.

Oklahoma State Wins Would...
• Advance it to the second round of the ITA Indoor National Championships for the first time since 2017.
• Give it (at least) five wins over top-15 ranked opponents, tying a program record that was set in 2016.
• Improve it to 6-0, its best start since 2017.
• Improve it to 3-2 all-time against Auburn