The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Oklahoma
No. 10 Men’s Tennis edged by No. 1 Oklahoma in Big 12 semifinals
04.25.2015 | Men's Tennis
Big 12 Men’s Tennis Championship semifinals decided by a third-set tiebreaker.
#1 Oklahoma def. #10 TEXAS, 4-3
• Results
• Season Stats
• Big 12 Championship Central
WACO, Texas -- Top-ranked Oklahoma edged No. 10 Texas by the slimmest of margins in the Big 12 Men's Tennis Championship semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Hurd Tennis Center. The Sooners clinched a 4-3 victory over the Longhorns in a third set tiebreaker involving George Goldhoff and OU's Alex Ghilea.
Goldhoff and Ghilea split the first two sets, 6-2, 3-6, and battled to a 6-6 tie in the third set to force a tiebreaker. Meanwhile, the team scored was knotted at 3-3 -- Texas accounting for three singles wins and OU credited with the doubles point and a pair of singles wins.
Ghilea won the tiebreaker, 7-3, to clinch the match for the Sooners.
"George has nothing to hang his head about," Head Coach Michael Center said. "His level of play continues to go up with every match down the stretch. He just came up a little bit short against a great opponent today. I'm proud of him.
"I wanted us to compete at all nine spots today, and that's what we did," Center continued. "We are walking out of here feeling a lot different than the last time we played Oklahoma. We really played like a team today and had opportunities at every single spot. All the way up-and-down the line, we played with a will to win. I'm excited about taking this team to the NCAA tournament."
Texas returns to Austin to await its seeding in the NCAA Championship, which will be announced on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Central on NCAA.com.
MATCH SUMMARIES (sorted by order of finish)
Doubles
3. Nick Naumann/Michael Riechmann (UT) def. Axel Alvarez/Jose Salazar (OU) 6-4
Naumann/Riechmann gave UT some momentum as the first duo off the courts, defeating Alvarez/Salazar 6-4. An early break, which gave Naumann/Riechmann a 3-2 lead, proved to be the difference. The duo improves to 7-3 in their last 10 matches.
1. #69 Alex Ghilea/Andrew Harris (OU) def. #14 Soren Hess-Olesen/Lloyd Glasspool (UT) 6-4
Glasspool/Hess-Olesen went down a break in the opening game and held serve for the remainder of the set, but did not makeup for their slow start with a break of their own, losing 6-4. Oklahoma is the only Big 12 team to defeat UT's All-American duo this season.
2. Dane Webb/Spencer Papa (OU) def. Jacoby Lewis/George Goldhoff (UT) 6-4
Saturday marked the dual-match season debut for senior Jacoby Lewis, who has fully recovered from injury. The last match Lewis played in was Oct. 21, 2014 at the USTA/ITA Texas Regional Championship.
Singles
After dropping the doubles point, Texas swung momentum by winning four-of-six first sets in singles competition.
3. #51 Adrien Berkowicz (UT) def. #35 Dane Webb (OU) 6-3, 7-5
Berkowicz was the first to put UT on the team scoreboard with his straight-set victory over No. 35 Dane Webb, marking Berkowicz's seventh win over a ranked opponent. Berkowicz took a 4-1 lead in the second set and was able to fend off a late rally from Webb for the 7-5 second-set victory. Berkowicz improves to 28-11 overall and 16-5 in dual match play.
6. Clement Homs (UT) def. Florin Bragusi (OU) 6-2, 6-4
Homs held court all of his service points on the way to a straight-set victory over Bragusi, which gave the Longhorns a 2-1 team lead. Homs improves to 8-1 overall and 6-0 at No. 6 singles since returning from a knee injury in March.
1. #2 Axel Alvarez (OU) def. #4 Soren Hess-Olesen (UT) 6-4, 7-5
In a battle of top-5 nationally ranked singles opponents, UT's Hess-Olesen came up with a rare straight-set loss. Hess-Olesen now holds an 18-4 record during dual match play.
5. Nick Naumann (UT) def. Spencer Papa (OU) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5
Naumann gave the Longhorns a 3-2 lead with a hard-fought win over Papa at No. 5 singles. After winning a tiebreaker in the first set, Naumann clinched his win by breaking serve in the final game of the second set, which he won 7-5.
2. #5 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #41 Lloyd Glasspool (UT) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
After losing the first set, Glasspool recovered for a 7-5 second-set victory. In the third set, Harris took an early two-break lead to swing momentum and all but give Glasspool just his third loss at No. 2 singles this season (12-3).
4. #84 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. George Goldhoff (UT) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
With the team scored tied, 3-3, all eyes were on a match-deciding third set on court four. Facing a 5-6 deficit, Goldhoff broke serve to tie the third set, 6-6, and for a tiebreaker. Ghilea won the tiebreaker, 7-3, to clinch the team win for the Sooners. In seven career postseason matches (Big 12 and NCAA), Goldhoff has been apart of five clinching singles matches.
Players Mentioned
