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No. 7 Men’s Tennis falls to No. 3 Oklahoma in Big 12 Championship semifinals
04.26.2014 | Men's Tennis
Sooners defeat Longhorns in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship.
#3 Oklahoma 4, #7 Texas 0
Big 12 Championship Semifinals
Fort Worth, Texas | Friedman Tennis Center
Results: HTML | PDF
Season Stats: HTML | PDF
FORT WORTH, Texas -- No. 7 Texas Men's Tennis lost to No. 3 Oklahoma, 4-0, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon at TCU's Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The 3rd-ranked and 3rd-seeded Sooners (23-2) evened the season series with 7th-ranked and 2nd-seeded Texas (20-5) to one match apiece. The Longhorns won a 4-3 decision against OU on March 28. Both teams earned a share of the Big 12 regular season title, along with No. 6 Baylor.
"We just didn't make plays today and we kept letting Oklahoma stay in sets," head coach Michael Center said. "Even though we lost 4-0, we were in all three of the last matches that didn't finish. Oklahoma is a great team -- I give them all the credit -- but we didn't take advantage of all our opportunities today."
Oklahoma clinched the doubles point after 29th-ranked Dane Webb and Andrew Harris defeated Adrien Berkowicz and George Goldhoff, 8-5, at the No. 1 position. OU's Axel Alvarez Llamas and Guillermo Alcorta defeated Søren Hess-Olesen and Sudanwa Sitaram, 8-3, at No. 2 doubles. It was just the third time that Hess-Olesen and Sitaram played as partners this season.
Junior No. 40 Lloyd Glasspool did not compete on Saturday due to illness, which shifted UT's singles lineup up one spot and moved senior David Holiner into the No. 6 position. Sitaram played No. 2 doubles with Hess-Olesen in place of Glasspool.
In singles action, the Sooners won on court Nos. 2 and 5 before clinching the team win at the No. 3 position with OU's No. 48 Andrew Harris defeating No. 94 George Goldhoff, 7-6, 6-1.
On the three courts that were left unfinished, Texas had either won the first set or was playing in a third set.
Junior All-American Søren Hess-Olesen was one game away from his sixth consecutive straight-set singles victory over a Big 12 opponent when the Sooners clinched and ended the dual match. The 15th-ranked Hess-Olesen was leading OU's 4th-ranked Guillermo Alcorta, 6-3, 5-4, in the second set at the No. 1 singles position.
Big 12 regular season co-champion Texas (20-5) will now await its seeding in the NCAA Championship, which will be announced on Tuesday, April 29 on NCAA.com. The top 16 seeds in the Championship field will host the first and second rounds beginning on Friday, May 9.
"After today, we are at the lose-and-go-home stage, so we have to be ready to sustain our energy better," Center said. "We know that we can do it, but we have to be ready to start stronger and sustain our level consistently throughout matches. If we do that, we've shown that we can compete with anyone."
RESULTS
#3 Oklahoma 4, #7 Texas 0
Singles
1. #15 Søren Hess-Olesen (UT) vs. #4 Guillermo Alcorta (OU) 6-3, 5-4, unfinished
2. #6 Axel Alvarez Llamas (OU) def. Adrien Berkowicz (UT) 6-2, 6-2
3. #48 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #94 George Goldhoff (UT) 7-6, 6-1
4. Nick Naumann (UT) vs. #38 Dane Webb (OU) 4-6, 6-3, 1-1, unfinished
6. David Holiner (UT) vs. Alex Ghilea (OU) 6-4, 4-4, unfinished
Doubles
1. #29 Dane Webb/Andrew Harris (OU) def. Adrien Berkowicz/George Goldhoff (UT) 8-5
2. Axel Alvarez Llamas/Guillermo Alcorta (OU) def. Søren Hess-Olesen/Sudanwa Sitaram (UT) 8-3
3. David Holiner/Jacoby Lewis (UT) vs. Peerakit Siributwong/Nick Papac (OU) 7-6, unfinished
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (2,5,3)
