Cowgirls Fall In NCAA Title Match

Tuesday, May 24

Tulsa, Okla.

12:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Stanford

May 24, 2016 | Cowgirl Tennis

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TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma State's women's tennis team suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 defeat against Stanford in the final of the NCAA Tennis Championship on Tuesday afternoon at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

The Cowgirls put together the most successful season in school history by knocking off No. 5 Georgia, No. 4 Ohio State, and No. 1 California to advance to the title match.

"I'm just proud, I mean you guys all saw the crowd and the teams compete, it's unbelievable for college tennis," OSU head coach Chris Young said. "As a person who grew up in the state of Oklahoma, people don't think of tennis that much around here. I knew this day was coming and I envisioned it, I knew that Tulsa was going to be hosting and I wanted to have a team that was going to do something special here."

OSU (29-5) won 18-straight matches entering the NCAA Tennis Championship. The Cowgirls finished the season with the second-most wins in school history.

"It's honestly not surprising to me what these kids did because they're an unbelievable group and I think everybody got to witness it today," Young said. "Like I said after the match, I think there's two champions, Stanford deserves all the credit and I don't want to take anything away from them. That's who you would want to play in the finals because of their history, is Stanford."

The Cowgirls advanced further in the tournament than any team in program history by making it to Tuesday's championship match. OSU has made five-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament under Young.

"I'll remember this week for the rest of my life," Young said. "I'm not at all disappointed in the outcome, I'm just so proud of these kids because how could you not be?"

"I'm proud of Oklahoma State, I'm proud of our fans and I'm proud of tennis in the state of Oklahoma and what we could do," Young said.

The Cowgirls began the match by sweeping the doubles point against the Cardinal.

Katarina Adamovic and Vladica Babic once again recorded the first victory of the day at No. 3 doubles. The Cowgirl tandem took down Krista Hardebeck and Caroline Lampl, 6-1. Adamovic and Babic have only surrendered three games to opponents in Tulsa.

Cowgirl seniors Maria Alvarez and Kelsey Laurente secured the doubles point for OSU, as they defeated Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle at the No. 1 position, 6-3.

Stanford evened the match at one with a victory at the No. 4 position, as Hardebeck defeated Kelsey Laurente, 6-4, 6-4.

Adamovic willed the Cowgirls to a 2-1 lead by upsetting No. 25 Carol Zhao. The Cowgirl No. 1 took down Zhao in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5.

Adamovic defeated the No. 5, 7 and 25-ranked players in the nation during the Cowgirls' time in Tulsa.

"We played our hearts out throughout this week and I'm so proud to be part of this team," Adamovic said. "The crowd was unbelievable, that's the most people I've played in front of and that's what I love about Oklahoma State, it's like one big family and I cannot be more proud that I chose to come here and be part of this."

The Cowgirls took a 3-1 lead with a victory at the No. 3 position from All-American Viktoriya Lushkova.

After dropping the first set against Doyle 6-4, the Cowgirl battled back to split the match with a 6-4 win in the second set.

In the final set, Lushkova only surrendered a single game to No. 67 Doyle, winning 6-1.

Stanford came back to even the match at 3-3 lead with victories on courts five and six.

The match came down to No. 2 singles where Vladica Babic took on Taylor Davidson. Babic dominated Davidson in the first set, 6-3.

Babic fell in a tight second set against Davidson, 7-5, which forced a decisive final set for the second-straight match for the Cowgirls.

The Cowgirl battled back from a 4-2 deficit to tie the match at 5-all. Davidson would go on to take the next two games to win the match for Stanford.

"Vladi gave it all, she gave us all that she had and I'm proud of her," Young said. "The great thing is that she made Taylor [Davidson] earn it and that's what you want."?