Bains Earns Upset Win as OSU Falls

Sunday, March 27

Stillwater, Okla.

1:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Texas

March 27, 2011 | Cowboy Tennis

March 27, 2011

STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State men's tennis team moved to 3-8 (0-2) on the year Sunday as No. 4 Texas defeated the Cowboys, 6-1, at the DeBois Tennis Complex, but freshman Maniel Bains provided the highlight of the match with his upset win over No. 33 Ed Corrie at No. 1 singles.

“He's a close friend,” Bains said. “I think that helped me because I knew his game a lot before we played. The more matches I play the more comfortable I get. It's only my first semester and I've struggled a bit with the completely different style and different rules and different system.”

Bains, a freshman from Coventry, England, rolled to a 6-3 win in the first set before dropping the second set 6-1. Because the dual was already decided when the second set ended, the pair played a super tiebreaker to determine the winner.

“In the second set I knew I had lost my energy so what I tried to do was keep the points short,” Bains said. “I knew that when I went into the tiebreak I was just going to sit back and make lots of balls. For him, going from playing the second set with me being more aggressive to now all of a sudden he's in a tiebreak and I've completely changed my game to making every ball. I think it worked well.”

The strategy worked well enough for Bains, ranked No. 110 in the ITA singles rankings, to pick up the 10-6 tiebreaker win and give him his second victory over a ranked opponent this spring.

Bains also earned an upset win at the No. 2 doubles spot, where he and junior Eric West took down Texas' 28th-ranked duo of Kellen Damico and David Holiner, 9-8(2).

The Longhorns picked up wins at the remaining doubles and singles matches to earn the 6-1team victory, but coach James Wadley was optimistic about the progress his team has made and was impressed with the way the Cowboys played in nearly freezing temperatures.

“I thought we played a lot better as a team against Texas than we did against Texas A&M,” Wadley said. “I thought the guys handled the conditions well and tried hard and our doubles really fought hard at two and three. I'm especially pleased with the win at two. In singles we played them closer and of course Bains had a big upset over their All-American.”

The Cowboys resume play April 3 when they travel to Lubbock, Texas, to take on the Red Raiders of Texas Tech.

No. 4 Texas 6, Oklahoma State 1

DOUBLES
No. 1 – #5 Jean Andersen/Ed Corrie (UT) def. #13 Aleksey Bessonov/Rifat Biktyakov (OSU) 8-4
No. 2 – Maniel Bains/Eric West (OSU) def. #28 Kellen Damico/David Holiner (UT) 9-8(2)
No. 3 – Vasko Mladenov/Daniel Whitehead (UT) def. Vlad Bondarenko/Tomas Patiño (OSU) 9-7

SINGLES
No. 1 – #110 Maniel Bains (OSU) def. #33 Ed Corrie (UT) 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 2 – #90 Kellen Damico (UT) def. Vlad Bondarenko (OSU) 6-1, 6-2
No. 3 – #80 Jean Andersen (UT) def. Aleksey Bessonov (OSU) 6-1, 7-5
No. 4 – Vasko Mladenov (UT) def. Eric West (OSU) 6-4, 6-3
No. 5 – Daniel Whitehead (UT) def. Ilija Martinoski (OSU) 7-5, 2-1, retired-inj.
No. 6 – Sudanwa Sitaram (UT) def. Tomas Patiño (OSU) 6-4, 6-7(6), 1-0 (10-4)