Cowgirls Open Dual Slate with Trio of Home Matches

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STILLWATER – The fifth-ranked Oklahoma State women's tennis team opens its dual season this weekend, as it hosts a trio of opponents at the Greenwood Tennis Center on Friday and Saturday.

The weekend begins with a doubleheader against Oral Roberts and Louisiana Tech on Friday. The Cowgirls will take on Oral Roberts at 1 p.m., before their matchup with Louisiana Tech at 5 p.m.

Oklahoma State will wrap up the weekend on Saturday at 10 a.m. against North Texas. Admission to all matches is free.

Watch the Matches Live
Fans can catch all three matches online at okstate.com/watchtennis.

Oklahoma State from a Distance
Oklahoma State returns five contributing letterwinners from a 2015-16 campaign that saw the Cowgirls post the best finish in program history, earning the title of NCAA Runners-Up. Last season, OSU racked up a 29-5 record on the way to earning the program's first Big 12 Championship in 13 years, thanks in part to a 9-0 conference record.

The OSU roster is headlined by three standout seniors in Katarina Adamovic, Viktoriya Lushkova and Carla Tur Mari. Adamovic is coming off an impressive junior season that saw the Cacak, Serbia native earn her first ITA All-American honor by way of advancing to the NCAA individual quarterfinals last summer. A two-time All-American and the 2015 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year, Lushkova has been a key to the Cowgirls' unprecedented success as well, riding into the fall season on an 18-match win streak. Tur Mari provided a major boost to the back end of the OSU singles lineup in 2016, going 22-8 in the No. 6 spot.

Also returning for the Cowgirls are junior Vladica Babic and sophomore Katarina Stresnakova. Babic tallied six victories over ranked opponents in 2016, including a triumph over No. 28 Kennedy Shaffer of Georgia to help push the Cowgirls to a win over the Bulldogs in the NCAA Sweet 16. The highlight of Stresnakova's first season in Stillwater came in the NCAA Tournament, when the Slovakia product took down Ferny Angeles Paz of Ohio State in the NCAA quarterfinals to clinch the win over the Buckeyes and push the Cowgirls in to the national semifinals.

The Cowgirls boasted one of the most impressive doubles records in the country in 2016, winning all but one doubles point in 34 matches. With the level of talent set to return, that success figures to continue this upcoming season.

Head coach Chris Young enters his eighth season at the helm of the Cowgirl tennis program after earning his 100th win with the program last season. Young is assisted by second-year assistant coach Matt Manasse.

Notable Streaks and Trends
• The Cowgirls have spent 42 consecutive weeks in the ITA top 25. The last time OSU was outside the top 25 was
March 18, 2014.
• The Cowgirls have won 20 or more matches in each of the last two seasons.
• Oklahoma State has won 14-straight regular season conference matches dating back to March 29, 2015, when the Cowgirls came up short, 4-3, at Texas Tech.
• Since 2012, OSU has made five-straight NCAA Tournament appearances. That streak is the second-longest in program history behind a 10-year streak that saw the Cowgirls earn NCAA Tournament berths from 1982-91.
• OSU has won 22-straight matches at the Greenwood Tennis Center, dating back to March of 2015.
• The Cowgirls were impressive this fall, racking up a 65-16 (.802) overall singles record and a 28-14 (.667) overall mark in doubles.

Eyeing the Opponents
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles enter this weekend's matchups at 2-2 after defeating Arkansas-Pine Bluff twice and falling a pair of times to Tulsa in their opening weekend. The ORU roster boasts a handful of standouts, including sophomore Ceijenia Cornelius and freshman Jovana Antonijevic, who were both tabbed as Summit League Players to Watch leading up to the 2017 season. Head coach Beverly Dawson enters her fifth season at the helm of the Golden Eagles' program with a 21-43 record.

Coming off of one of the most successful seasons in program history in which it went 15-7 and advanced to the Conference USA quarterfinals, Louisiana Tech returns three all-conference selections in 2017 with Jazmin Britos, Marta Sramkova and Zoe Chen. Head coach Amanda Stone enters her first year in Ruston after four years as head coach at Northeastern State (Okla.) where she led the Riverhawks to an 86-20 record and four-straight Sweet 16 appearances.

The North Texas Mean Green looks to build off a 13-10 season in 2016 that saw the team advance to the Conference USA semifinals and finished at No. 73 in the final ITA team rankings. A young team, North Texas' roster includes three freshmen, four sophomores and senior Alexis Thoma. The Mean Green is led by head coach Jeff Hammond in his 11th season in Denton.

Last Time Out
The Oklahoma State women's tennis team opened the 2017 spring season last weekend at the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships in Las Vegas, Nev., and the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.

The weekend was a tough test, mentally and physically, for the Cowgirls, who were forced to wait through lengthy rain delays at both events during the weekend. The fields at both tournaments were unmatched, as the four Cowgirls in Las Vegas matched up against competitors from No. 1 Florida, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 3 Pepperdine, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 25 UCLA and host UNLV. Meanwhile, the National Collegiate Tennis Classic's field boasted teams such as Stanford and UCLA as well, along with No. 17 Texas, No. 18 USC, Baylor, Wichita State, San Diego and Arizona.

Senior Viktoriya Lushkova advanced to the quarterfinals in Vegas, knocking off North Carolina's Cassandra Vazquez and UCLA's Alaina Miller.

Another highlight at the Freeman Memorial Tennis Championships was the play of freshman Aliona Bolsova. Bolsova went 2-1 in singles and 3-1 in doubles on the weekend. The freshman the round of 16 in singles and paired up with teammate Sofia Blanco to go 3-1 in doubles and take home the backdraw doubles title. Bolsova's only two losses on the weekend were narrow defeats at the hands of top-four opponents, including a three-set loss to No. 4 Ena Shibahara of UCLA in which all three sets were decided by tiebreaker. Her only doubles loss came in a 7-5 defeat to No. 2 Hayley Carter and Jessie Aney of North Carolina.

Home Court Advantage
Since it opened for the 2013-14 season, the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center has proven a tough place to play for Cowgirl opponents. After an undefeated 18-0 mark at home last year, OSU has racked up a 37-2 overall record in the facility over the last three seasons.

Super Seniors
The experienced Cowgirl roster includes three seniors this season, all of which have been major contributors to the growth of the OSU women's tennis program. Katarina Adamovic, Carla Tur Mari and Viktoriya Lushkova have combined for 225 singles wins, 230 doubles wins, three All-America honors and 10 All-Big 12 accolades while helping the Cowgirls to a 68-20 record.

Record Watch
• Viktoriya Lushkova's .810 career win percentage in singles ranks second all-time in program history. She is the first player since Kate Vasylyeva in 2003 to break onto that list.
• With 83 career singles wins, Viktoriya Lushkova is currently third on the Big 12 era career list, and only 12 wins away from sealing the No. 1 spot. She is seventh on the doubles Big 12 era list with 75 career wins.
• With 75 career doubles wins, Katarina Adamovic sits in seventh on the program Big 12 era career doubles wins list. With a .791 win percentage in doubles, Adamovic's doubles win percentage leads the Big 12 era list in that category as well, along with Vladica Babic.
• With 81 career doubles wins, Carla Tur Mari is currently the program's active leader in that category, while also sitting in fourth in the Big 12 era program record book. She is also fourth in singles with 81 career wins.

Cowgirls Picked to Repeat as Big 12 Champs
The Oklahoma State women's tennis team was unanimously picked No. 1 in a preseason poll of Big 12 coaches, it was announced by the league office last week.

The Cowgirls received 81 points in the poll, putting them 11 points ahead of second-place Texas Tech. Texas is ranked third with 63 points, while Baylor (52) and Kansas (50) round out the top five.

Cowgirls in the ITA Rankings
The Oklahoma State women's tennis team remained at No. 5 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings released on Wednesday. With this week's rankings, the Cowgirls have been represented in the ITA top 25 for 42 consecutive weeks.

With no updated individual rankings released this week, the Cowgirls will enter the first dual of the season with five ranked singles players and three ranked doubles teams.

Viktoriya Lushkova (No. 11), Vladica Babic (No. 29), Carla Tur Mari (No. 32), Katarina Adamovic (No. 68) and Sofia Blanco (No. 106) represented the Cowgirls the latest singles rankings released earlier this month. Babic is ranked with Tur Mari at No. 11 in doubles, and with Adamovic at No. 19. Blanco and freshman Aliona Bolsova are slotted at No. 58 in doubles.

Young Guns
While the 2016-17 Cowgirl roster boasts plenty of experience, the young talent that head Coach Chris Young has brought on board over the last couple of seasons is evident as well, especially with a pair of newcomers.

Freshman Aliona Bolsova (Spain) joined the Cowgirls this fall after finishing one of the most decorated junior careers of any signee in Cowgirl history, having been been ranked as high as No. 4 in the ITF world junior rankings with a number of impressive wins under her belt.

Freshman Lena Ruppert (Germany) has been ranked as high as the No. 70 player in Germany, while recording five wins against players in the top-50. Ruppert came to OSU this fall rated as one of the top-10 players under the age of 18.

Impressively, the Cowgirl underclassmen (Bolsova, Ruppert, and sophomores Sofia Blanco and Katarina Stresnakova) have combined for a 40-13 record so far this season.

Home, Sweet Home
The Cowgirls are scheduled to play 11 matches at the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center this upcoming season. Fans won't have to wait long to see OSU either, with the team's first six dual matches set in Stillwater.

Among the Elite
As if the Oklahoma State women's tennis program needed further proof of its arrival on the national stage after last season's NCAA Runner-Up finish, the numbers back up the Cowgirls as well. OSU is one of only 12 NCAA Division I teams to win 20 or more matches in both of the last two seasons.

Adding to that stat, OSU has won 52 matches over the last two seasons, making it the second-winningest program in the country over that span behind only North Carolina.

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Players Mentioned

Katarina Adamovic

Vladica Babic

Sofia Blanco

Aliona Bolsova

Viktoriya Lushkova

Lena Ruppert

Katarina Stresnakova

Carla Tur Mari

Oklahoma State University Athletics