Women's tennis: Horned Frogs serve Sooners first home loss
After a dominating 5-2 victory over Iowa on Saturday to move to 4-0 at home, the OU women’s tennis team suffered its first home loss, 4-3, at the hands of the TCU Horned Frogs Sunday.
Erika Philbrick, The Oklahoma Daily
Freshman Abbi Melrose Jan. 21 v. University of Arkansas Little Rock.
The Sooners’ biggest weakness this season, according to coach David Mullins, is their doubles play. The Horned Frogs exploited that weakness and won both the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles spots to take the 1-0 advantage heading into singles play.
OU found itself facing a 3-0 deficit after TCU’s Gaby Mastromarino and Stefanie Tan defeated OU freshman Abbi Melrose and sophomore Mia Lancaster in the No. 4 and No. 3 singles matches.
Senior Marie-Pier Huet quickly put Oklahoma on the board, though, finishing off her opponent on the two doubles court to make the score 3-1 in favor of TCU.
Sophomore Whitney Wofford found herself down early in the third set with the match tied at a set a piece.
“My coach talked to me and told me just to work one point at a time,” Wofford said. “And I just kind of flipped a switch in my head and told myself not to miss anymore.”
Wofford closed out her final set, 6-3, and suddenly Oklahoma was down only one with two matches still in play.
Freshman Nicole Long at No. 5 singles and sophomore Whitney Ritchie at No. 1 singles both were in the third set of their matches. Ritchie went the distance with her opponent, gaining the Sooners’ third point in a tie-breaker. However, it did not matter as Long lost her third set just minutes before.
With TCU missing their usual No. 4 singles player and OU, a better outdoor team, finally able to play outdoors in nice weather, coach David Mullins said he was disappointed his team did not seize the opportunity for a victory.
“You don’t always get opportunities like that where you get the conditions and things align,” Mullins said. “That doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, you have to take advantage of it, and we didn’t.”
The team will try to get back in the win column next Sunday when they travel to Houston to take on Rice.
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