The No. 19 Oklahoma women’s tennis team topped No. 75 TCU, 5-2, in Forth Worth, Texas, on Saturday to earn its sixth victory over a nationally ranked opponent this season.
With the win, OU (8-2) enters the Big 12 portion of its schedule on a two-match winning streak.
“We were a little fortunate at times today and did not play as well as we did last weekend,” OU coach David Mullins said. “We will learn from it and play a lot better next weekend. I’m looking forward to getting our Big 12 season underway.”
Oklahoma won the doubles point for the eighth time this season after winning at the No. 2 and 3 doubles positions.
Senior Tara Eckel and junior Marie-Pier Huet picked up the Sooners’ first doubles win at the No. 3 spot, beating TCU’s Maria Babanova and Idunn Hertzberg, 8-3.
Freshmen Mia Lancaster and Whitney Ritchie edged out the Horned Frogs’ Gaby Mastromarino and Olivia Smith, 9-8, to give Oklahoma the 1-0 lead.
The Sooners then took four-of-six singles matches to win the first game of a four-game road trip.
Freshman Alice Radu beat TCU’s Smith in straight sets at the No. 2 spot — 6-4, 6-3 — to stretch OU’s lead to 2-0. Lancaster added to Oklahoma’s lead with her straight-sets victory in No. 5 singles over the Horned Frogs’ Shalini Sahoo — 6-4, 6-3.
TCU won the next two singles matches to narrow the Oklahoma lead to 3-2.
Senior Ana-Maria Constantinescu, ranked No. 79 in the country, fell to TCU’s Katariina Tuohimaa in No. 1 singles — 6-2, 7-6 — while Huet lost to Hertzberg — 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 — in No. 4 singles.
Oklahoma secured the victory after senior Maria Kalashnikova won at the No. 6 position. She bested the Horned Frogs’ Babanova — 6-3, 6-2.
Ritchie, the No. 124th-ranked singles player, closed the match on a high note for OU, bringing the final tally to 5-2 after rallying to beat TCU’s Mastromarino. The freshmen out of Oklahoma City lost the first set but came back to win — 1-6, 6-4, 7-6.
The Sooners get Big 12 play underway when they travel to Boulder, Colo., to take on the Buffaloes at noon Sunday.
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