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Oklahoma State
No. 2 Men's Tennis tops No. 18 Oklahoma State, 4-1, in Big 12 Championship semifinals
04.25.2021 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns head to Monday’s finals against No. 3 Baylor looking for their second tournament title in the last three.
Waco, Texas – No. 2 Texas Men's Tennis advanced to the Big 12 Championship finals for the third straight time with a 4-1 win over No. 18 Oklahoma State at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco on Sunday. The Longhorns will play 2 seed and host No. 3 Baylor on Monday at 2 p.m. to attempt to win their second title in that span after doing so in 2018.
Texas fell in a tiebreaker in the third match of the doubles point, but rebounded for three straight-set singles wins and one in three sets, including sophomore No. 85 Siem Woldeab at No. 3, freshman No. 39 Micah Braswell at No. 2, sophomore No. 109 Cleeve Harper at No. 4 and sophomore Evin McDonald at No. 6, respectively.
Trailing, 1-0, after doubles, Woldeab was first off the court in singles and evened the score with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Henrik Korsgaard. It was the second time Woldeab defeated Korsgaard in the last two weeks after also doing so on April 11 in Austin. Woldeab found himself trailing early after Korsgaard took the opening game on a deuce point on serve and then broke and held for 3-0. Each player held in the next two games with Korsgaard's coming on a deuce point, but that's when Woldeab turned it on with a 5-0 run to take the set. Korsgaard broke the streak with hold in the opening game of the second set, but Woldeab started another run, this time 6-0 to complete the match with 11 of the last 12 games.
Shortly after that, Braswell grabbed the lead for Texas with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Emile Hudd. It was also Braswell's second win over Hudd in the last two meetings after providing the clinching point of Texas' 4-3 win on April 11. Braswell won the first two games of the match with a hold and break, but Hudd returned the favor to even it at 2-2 and put it back on serve. That's where it stayed for the next three games up to a 4-3 lead for Braswell, however the last of those was the beginning of a 5-0 run for Braswell, including a deuce point to take the set, and set him up with a 2-0 lead in the second. Hudd got a game back on serve, but Braswell went on a 3-0 run after that to give him eight out of nine for a commanding 5-1 lead. Hudd picked up one final game on a deuce point hold that was also a match point for Braswell, but Braswell closed in on serve in the next game.
Next up was Harper, who avenged a loss to Mathieu Scaglia in their last meeting with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win. Scaglia secured a break in the opening game of the match and then held for 2-0, but much like Woldeab and Braswell, Harper put together a run to take control of the set. Harper's was 5-0, which he capped with a deuce point win, and he then closed the frame on serve after Scaglia held for one game that had snapped the streak. The first four games of the second set stayed on serve starting with Scaglia, but the next three were all breaks, leaving Harper with a 4-3 lead that he expanded to 5-3 on serve. Scaglia was able to fend off a match point at deuce in the next game, and then another again on deuce in the following game to tie it at 5-5. He then grabbed the lead on serve before Harper also held to send it to a tiebreaker. There, Harper was able to reestablish himself, using a pair of 3-0 runs for leads of 3-0 and 6-1 before finishing it at 7-2.
That left three matches on the court that had all gone to third sets. The deciding one was the clinch for McDonald, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 over Matisse Bobichon, which like Harper also avenged a loss for McDonald from the last meeting. Bobichon bookended the first set with the only breaks of the frame with the last coming on a deuce point. He held and broke in the first two games of the second set, but McDonald used the example set by his teammates and generated a 5-0 run that included two deuce point wins. Bobichon got back within one at 5-4 with a break and a hold, but McDonald sent it to a third set with a hold of his own in the next game. The third stayed on serve up to 3-3 as McDonald fended off a break point on deuce in the last of those. However in the next game, McDonald claimed a break point on deuce to take the lead, which he then advanced to 5-3 on serve. Bobichon was able to hold after that to cut the lead to one, but McDonald responded on serve to give the Longhorns the 4-1 overall win.
In the two remaining matches, sophomore No. 21 Eliot Spizzirri was trying for his second-straight win over No. 47 Matej Vocel at No. 1, but was trailing in the third set, 4-6, 6-3, 3-5, when play stopped. Both of the first two sets saw only one break in the next to last game of each, and the third set was in a similar position with the lone break not coming until a 5-3 lead for Vocel. Junior Chih Chi Huang was also trailing, 4-6, 7-5, 1-2, in his match against Etienne Donnet at No. 5 when the overall match concluded. There was only one break in each set of that match, as well, with Donnet going up 4-3 in the first on one of his, Huang ending the second set at 7-5 on his, and Donnet taking the 2-1 lead in the third on his other.
Earlier in doubles, the Longhorns had fallen in close fashion. Each team won a match, first Korsgaard and Dominik Kellovsky over No. 78 Harper and Huang, 6-2, at No. 2, then Braswell and senior Payton Holden over Scaglia and Luke Hammond, 6-4, at No. 3. That left it to No. 1 where No. 8 Spizzirri and Woldeab faced off against No. 66 Hudd and Vocel for the third time this season with the Longhorns winning the previous two meetings. This time, despite three deuce-point wins by the Cowboys, the match stayed on serve up to 4-4. The teams then traded breaks before each closed on serve to go to a tiebreaker. Oklahoma State took the first two points there before Texas answered with the next three to take the lead. A string of three 2-0 runs followed starting with Hudd and Vocel to put them up 6-5. Spizzirri and Woldeab evened it on the next point, but one final 2-0 run gave Oklahoma State the win and overall 1-0 lead.
Texas (20-4) will now face No. 3 Baylor for the fourth time this season. The Bears took the first two matches, 4-1 in a non-conference match in Austin on Jan. 30, and 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Indoors on Feb. 12, while the Longhorns won, 5-2, in Waco on April 15 in a match that was played indoors due to weather.
#2 Texas 4, #18 Oklahoma State 1
Singles – Order of Finish (3,2,4,6)
1. #21 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) vs. #47 Matej Vocel (OSU) 4-6, 6-3, 3-5, unf.
2. #39 Micah Braswell (UT) def. Emile Hudd (OSU) 6-3, 6-2
3. #85 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Henrik Korsgaard (OSU) 6-4, 6-1
4. #109 Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Mathieu Scaglia (OSU) 6-3, 7-6 (2)
5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Etienne Donnet (OSU) 4-6, 7-5, 1-2, unf.
6. Evin McDonald (UT) def. Matisse Bobichon (OSU) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3,1)
1. #66 Matej Vocel/Emile Hudd (OSU) def. #8 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) 7-6 (6)
2. Henrik Korsgaard/Dominik Kellovsky (OSU) def. #78 Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-2
3. Micah Braswell/Payton Holden (UT) def. Luke Hammond/Mathieu Scaglia (OSU) 6-4
Players Mentioned
