Sooner Women's Tennis: Set for Two Top 25 Matchups on Fri & Sun!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners have to matches this weekend at Headington Family Tennis Center. The first match for the #13 Oklahoma Sooners is with Ohio State at 5 PM on Friday afternoon/early evening. Ohio State is ranked #14. Then on Sunday, the Sooner Women host Michigan at Noon. Michigan is the #5 ranked team in the country.

The tennis at Headington should be a high caliber of play in these two matches. Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the two matchups for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/18 ... 5-matchups

Good luck to the Sooners in their to matches this weekend.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

[OUBeliever56A]

I think the new bling is about their co-Big 12 Championship in 2023

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[OUBeliever56A]

The Friday afternoon/early evening crowd at the OU Women's Tennis Match vs Ohio State was large. Headington was full of excitement for the match. It was a disappointing ending to a great start of the match. But it was worth being in attendance to see the women play.

[OUBeliever56A]

The #13 Oklahoma Women's Tennis Team hosted the #14 Ohio State team on Friday evening/late afternoon in the 5 PM match. The crowd was large and tried to 'will' the team to victory. Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the match.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/19 ... ohio-state

I thought that the Sooner Doubles teams of Chloe Noel/Julia Garcia Ruiz (#2 Team) and Romana Cisovska/Roisin Gilheany (#3 team) played very well against their Ohio State opponents as both teams won their matches 6-3 as they were in control of the matches throughout. The Sooner #1 Team of Dana Guzman/Alina Shcherbinina was in a dogfight with the Ohio State #1 team as Ohio State took the early lead with Guzman and Shcherbina battling back to be at 4-4 when the doubles play ended with the Sooners picking up the two wins at #2 and #3 to take the Doubles point for Oklahoma as they led 1-0 in the match.

In the singles matches, Julia Garcia Ruiz (#5 singles) won the first single match to finish with a 6-2, 6-2 win. From when I saw Garcia Ruiz play last season as a freshman to this season, I would say she is a more dynamic player this season this year and has improved. Dana Guzman (#4 singles) was the second singles player to win a match for OU as she started a bit slow but finished very strong to win 7-5, 6-0. Guzman is a human rebound wall on her side of the court. If you hit the ball to her, she is going to return the ball 99 times out of 100 and make you keep hitting good shots or she will win the point as she just makes very few mistakes. She will test the stamina of any player that she plays.

As OU took the lead 3-0 with the Double point and the first two single match wins, things looked good for OU as in two of the other four singles matches OU did well in the first set as they won two of the four first sets. Chloe Noel (#3 singles) won the first set 6-2 for OU as Florencia Urrutia (#2 singles) sprinted to a 6-1 win the the first set.

Alina Shcherbinina (#1 singles) and Ava Catanzarite (#6 singles) both dropped their first sets to Ohio State 6-2 and 6-4 respectively. At this point the Sooners needed one more set win by either Noel or Urrutia to win the match over Ohio State.

But Ohio State reasserted themselves in the #3 and the #2 matches as Ohio State won the second sets over Noel 6-2 and over Urrutia 7-6 (7-5) to even those two matches. Urrutia battle back to tie her second set at 6-6 before dropping the tie-breaker. For OU, Catanzarite rallied in the #6 singles match and even her match with a 3-6 win for OU in her second set. In the #1 single match, Shcherbinina was defeated in the second set 6-4 as Ohio State won their first point of the day. The match score was OU 3 - Ohio State 1. OU needed one win out of the last three matches to win the Top 15 matchup.

Ohio State took the early control of the third sets in all three matches, however. For Oklahoma, Urrutia and Catanzarite both battled back to even their matches by mid-way through their third sets. In the other match, Noel was unable to make a comeback as Ohio State won the #3 singles by the score of 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 for the Buckeyes 2nd point of the day.

With the score tied at 5-all in the #6 singles match, Catanzarite suffered a service break in the 11th game of the 3rd set to fall behind 5-6. Then Ohio State served out the set to win the match 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 and tie the match at 3-3 all between OU and Ohio State. The #2 single match became very competitive as Urrutia battled back to tie the 3rd set at 4-4. There were many long rallies between the two players in the match with the points won often by mistakes rather than winners being hit. In the end the final point was by Ohio State as the final shot was just long over the baseline to give Ohio State the #2 singles match at 1-6, 7-6 (7-5) and 6-4. The win at #2 also gave the overall Match to Ohio State 4-3 in a very difficult loss for the Sooners and a great comeback win by the Buckeyes.

In the end, it is interesting to notice that the in each match won by the Sooners there was a veteran Sooner on the court for OU. Garcia Ruiz and Romana Cisovska were on the two winning doubles teams and Guzman and Garcia Ruiz won their singles matches. In each of the singles matches that were dropped by OU had players that this is their first spring representing the Sooners. It takes a bit of time to earn those tough wins against a good opponent. The Sooners are talented and deep in talent and the many pieces are not yet put into place. The Buckeyes played well down the stretch also. It was a very close match between the #13 and #14 ranked teams in the country.

The Sooners have a chance to rebound on Sunday as the will play the #4 ranked team, Michigan on Sunday at Noon at Headington Family Tennis Center. I hope crowd is large again on Sunday. BTW, the Men's Tennis team plays today at 1 PM against Oral Roberts and on Sunday at 9 AM and 4 PM against UT-Arlington and Illinois State. Hopefully, the crowd will be large for these matches also.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

On Sunday at Noon, the #13 Oklahoma Sooners faced the #4 Michigan Wolverines in Headington Family Tennis Center and Headington we full of fans from both Michigan and Oklahoma. The Michigan fans traveled very well to support their team. Just like the match on Friday against #14 Ohio State, the match went right down to the final points of the match. In the end, Michigan prevailed with 4 points to 3 points to defeat the Sooners. Here is the staff writers article about the match.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/21 ... 4-michigan

In the Doubles, the #2 team for the Sooners won their second match of the weekend. Chloe Noel and Julia Garcia Ruiz played well and won over the Michigan team 6-2. IMO, watching both matches this weekend, Noel and Garcia Ruiz make up a very good team with their two styles of play. I think they will be very successful this season. The Sooner #3 team, Roisin Gilheany and Romana Cisovska dropped their match on Sunday to Michigan by the score of 2-6. Gilheany and Cisovska were defeated twice in double this weekend. Both Noel and Gilheany are freshman for the Sooners.

The Sooner #1 team of Alina Shcherbinina and Dana (pronounced Donna) Guzman were 'on serve' in the match against Ohio State on Friday when the Double point was won. On Sunday the double point came down to their match with Michigan. the match was very good match to watch as a fan with many long rallies and quick play at the net at times. The match boiled down to a 5-5 tie. Michigan won their sixth game on their serve and then broke the Sooners serve to win the match 7-5. With just a couple points changing the Sooners might have won the Doubles point. Shcherbinina/Guzman were very successful last fall in Doubles in ITA play. They will be a very good team this spring. I think the Sooners will win the Double point most of the time.

With Michigan up 1-0, the Singles matches started with a little wrinkle. OU flipped the #3 and #4 spots as Noel and Guzman swapped positions with Guzman moving up to the #3 spot.

Michigan earned their 2nd point of the match as their #1 player, Miller (who also played #1 singles) defeated Shcherbinina 6-1, 6-1. Shcherbinina had a tough weekend in singles as she dropped both of her matches. The Sooners won their first point of the match with Ava Catanzarite (a lefty) playing well and winning two straight sets over her Michigan opponent 6-2, 6-2 in the #6 match. Catanzarite split her two matches this weekend as she lost in three sets (5-7 in the third) on Friday night to Ohio State. Dana Guzman, playing up in the #3 spot, played well and defeated her Michigan opponent 6-3, 6-1 for her second straight set win this weekend. Guzman is very steady and just never gives up an easy point. She is very fun to watch play. Guzman's win evened the score at 2-2.

In the #2 match, Florencia Urrutia for the Sooners dropped the 1st set 2-6 to Michigan. But Urrutia battled back to win the 2nd set 6-3 to even her match. In the 3rd set the Michigan player, Fliegner, played very well I thought and won the 3rd set 6-1 for Michigan's 3rd point of the match. Over on the#5 court, Garcia Ruiz for the Sooners had dropped the first set 4-6 but she rebounded to win the 2nd set 6-4. In the third set, the play was back and fourth with breaks but Garcia Ruiz finished strong to win the 3rd 6-3. With the Garcia Ruiz win the match was now tied at 3-3. Garcia won both of her singles matches this weekend to be the only Sooner that was undefeated this weekend in both Singles and Doubles.

The match was left up to Chloe Noel on Court #4. That is a bit unfair actually. It is just that her match was still going on which happens to someone, it was Urrutia on Friday that was the last Sooner playing. I actually moved to the even court side of Headington to watch Noel play after the first set. She plays a serve, chip and go to the net game most of the time. If she get to the net, she can win lots of points. Yesterday, Noel won the first set 6-3. The second set was back and forth against Mesochoritou of Michigan who was a baseline player. If I remember correctly, Mesochoritou broke Noel at 6-5 to force the tie-breaker in the second set. Michigan won the tie breake 8-6 to force a 3rd set of play. Again the play was back and fourth between Noel and Mesochoritou. This time, Noel played well late to force another tie-breaker for the match and for the team result. that is a large dose of pressure for a freshman. Michigan's Mesochoritou is a senior. The tie-breaker was tied at 4-4 before Mesochoritou won three straight points to win the match and a Michigan win.

The match was very close as things hinged on a few points in both the Doubles and the Singles. The Sooners are rebuilding in a sense as only Guzman and Garcia Ruiz played regularly for the Sooner last spring. Cisovska did play at times last spring. Another returning player for OU, Emma Straker has only played one singles match this spring after playing a lot with winning records in doubles and singles in 2023. I do not think the Sooners lineup is set as of yet. There is a great deal of tennis to be played this spring.

The #13 Sooner Women played well this weekend against the #14 and #4 team in the country. The Sooners might drop a step in the rankings, but both matches were within a handful of points of being own by the Sooners. It took all 9 matches for both Ohio State and Michigan to earn their wins. Last spring, the Sooners traveled to both Michigan and Ohio State when they were ranked #20 and #17 and the Sooners were ranked #4 in the country. OU dropped both matches on the road by the score of 2-5. In 2023, the Sooners were very good as they won the Big 12 regular season crown.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]