Cowgirls Host ITA Kickoff Weekend

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STILLWATER – The fifth-ranked Oklahoma State women's tennis team looks to qualify for its third-straight National Team Indoor Championships this weekend as it hosts Cornell, Wichita State and TCU for the annual ITA Kickoff Weekend at the Greenwood Tennis Center.

Competition begins this Saturday at 9 a.m., as TCU and Wichita State will battle it out in their first round match before the Cowgirls and Cornell Big Red take the court at 3 p.m.

Sunday's action begins at 10 a.m. with a consolation match before the winners of the two first round matches face off at 1 p.m. in the championship.

Watch the Matches Live
Fans can catch all of the ITA Kickoff matches online at FloTennis.com for a subscription fee.

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 43 consecutive weeks in the ITA top 25, and four-straight in the top 10. 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 25-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.
• That success has continued this spring, as OSU opened the 2017 dual season with three sweeps. The Cowgirls have combined to win their last 18 individual singles matches and six individual doubles matches.

Last Time Out
The fifth-ranked Oklahoma State women's tennis team picked up its third sweep of the opening weekend on Saturday morning, dropping North Texas, 7-0, to move to 3-0 on the dual season.

No. 5 Oklahoma State 7, North Texas 0
Jan. 21, 2017 | Greenwood Tennis Center | Stillwater, Okla.

Doubles | Order of finish: 3, 2
No. 1: No. 11 Babic/Tur Mari (OKST) vs. Heczey/Kononova (UNT) 3-4, unf.
No. 2: No. 58 Blanco/Bolsova (OKST) def. Babic/Thoma (UNT) 6-2
No. 3: Adamovic/Lushkova (OKST) def. Arciniegas/Sasaki (UNT) 6-0

Singles | Order of finish: 5, 3, 6, 1, 4, 2
No. 1: No. 29 Babic (OKST) def. Kononova (UNT) 7-5, 6-1
No. 2: No. 68 Adamovic (OKST) def. Thoma (UNT) 6-1, 6-4
No. 3: Bolsova (OKST) def. Liang (UNT) 6-1, 6-1
No. 4: No. 32 Tur Mari (OKST) def. Arciniegas (UNT) 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (10-2)
No. 5: Ruppert (OKST) def. Sasaki (UNT) 6-0, 6-0
No. 6: Stresnakova (OKST) def. Heczey (UNT) 6-2, 6-2

Eyeing the Opponents
The Cornell Big Red enter Saturday's contest with the Cowgirls boasting a 1-0 record after sweeping Army West Point, 7-0, last weekend in Ithaca, N.Y. Seventh-year head coach Mike Stevens returns six players from his 2016 team that finished 15-8 with a second-place finish in the Ivy League conference standings. The 15 overall victories marked a Big Red single-season record under Stevens.

Coming off a couple of victories over UTEP and Abilene Christian in a season-opening doubleheader, TCU enters ITA Kickoff Weekend at 2-0 overall. Seda Arantekin is the highest ranked player for TCU as she checks in at No. 75 after posting seven singles wins during the fall season. After going 7-3 in the fall and advancing to the quarterfinals of the ITA Texas Regional Championships, Marie Norris is ranked No. 115 in singles. On the doubles side, Donika Bashota and Olaya Garrido-Rivas picked up the lone doubles nationally ranking as the duo sit at No. 16 after posting three straight wins during the fall and winning the Rice Invitational. TCU head coach Lee Taylor Walker enters his third season at the helm of the Horned Frog Tennis program.

Wichita State will open its 2017 campaign on Thursday afternoon against Missouri State before heading to Stillwater for ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Shockers are led by 2016 MVC Player of the Year Gabriela Porubin and Giulia Guidetti, an All-Missouri Valley selection last year who is also currently ranked No. 93 in the ITA singles rankings. Shocker head coach Collin Foster is in his eighth season as head coach in Wichita.

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 40-2 overall record in the facility over the last three seasons. A look at the numbers:

Season                 OSU Record at GTC
2013-14                6-1
2014-15                13-1
2015-16                18-0
2016-17                3-0
Total                     40-2

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 230 singles wins, 236 doubles wins, three All-America honors and 10 All-Big 12 accolades while helping the Cowgirls to a 71-20 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 84 career singles wins, Viktoriya Lushkova is currently third on the Big 12 era career list, and only 11 wins away from sealing the No. 1 spot. She is sixth on the doubles Big 12 era list with 77 career wins.
• With 77 career doubles wins, Katarina Adamovic sits in sixth 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 83 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 83 career wins.

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 43 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, had an impressive opening dual weekend for the Pokes, not surrendering a single game to win all three of her matches, 6-0, 6-0.

Impressively, the Cowgirl underclassmen (Bolsova, Ruppert, and sophomores Sofia Blanco and Katarina Stresnakova) have combined for a 50-13 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 55 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