Texas Tech Athletics
Oklahoma State
Red Raiders Fall Short Against No. 21 Cowboys
April 06, 2008 | Men's Tennis
April 6, 2008
STILLWATER, Okla. - The No. 18 men's tennis team suffered its first conference loss of the season today after coming up short against No. 21 Oklahoma State, losing 4-3 at the DeBois Tennis Center in Stillwater.
Tech dropped its fifth doubles point of the season after suffering back-to-back losses at the top two doubles spots. OSU's No. 20-ranked pair of Nathan Byrnes and Oleksandr Nedovyesov clinched the point over Tech's No. 4-ranked Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanski, 8-5. The senior duo of Ilya Babinciuc and Lenoir Ramos advanced to 3-0 in conference after winning in the No. 3 spot over Anton Bobytskyi and Igor Sobolta, 8-6.
Moving right into singles, Tech's Michael Breler improved his record to 14-1 at No. 6, 16-1 in dual matches, by dominating Sobolta in straight sets. The Cowboys quickly responded with three straight singles wins, ending any hopes for a repeat of last season's upset by the Red Raiders. No. 8 Nedovyesov slid passed No. 43 Szumanski, 6-3, 6-4, followed by Byrnes defeating Babinciuc in three sets on court four. Freshman Bobytskyi clinched the match for OSU at No. 5 after getting the best of Tech's Rojmar with two back-to-back tiebreaker wins.
Although the match had already been decided, Tech continued to pluck away at the Cowboys getting the last two wins of the day. Ramos improved to 10-7 after defeating No. 110 Dmytro Petrov, who retired in the third set. Tech's ace at No. 2 Sinisa Markovic ended the match with a hard fought win over No. 54-ranked Ivan Puchkarov, advancing to 16-3, 3-0 in Big 12.
"It was a real good, close college tennis match today as we won four first sets and had chances to win at both No. 4 and 5," said Head Coach Tim Siegel. "Overall, it was a great effort by both teams as it could have gone either way. We've got to give OSU credit for coming through in the end because we have won our share of close matches this season, but they are a good team and got the best of us today."
The Red Raiders return home to take on their highest ranked opponent of the season in No. 6 Texas on Saturday, April 12, at 1 p.m. For more information, log on to the men's tennis page at www.texastech.com.
#18 Texas Tech - 3
#21 Oklahoma State - 4
April 6, 2008
DeBois Tennis Complex
Doubles: 2, 1*, 3
1. #20 Byrnes/Nedovyesov (OSU) def. #4 Rojmar/Szumanski (TTU); 8-5
2. Petrov/Puchkarov (OSU) def. #28 Breler/Markovic (TTU); 8-1
3. Babinciuc/Ramos (TTU) def. Bobytwskyi/Sobolta (OSU); 8-6
Singles: 6, 1, 4, 5*, 3, 2
1. #8 Oleksandr Nedovyesov (OSU) def. #43 Bojan Szumanski (TTU); 6-3, 6-4
2. Sinisa Markovic (TTU) def. #54 Ivan Puchkarov (OSU); 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-5
3. Lenoir Ramos (TTU) def. #110 Dmytro Petrov (OSU); 6-4, 3-6, 4-1 (ret.)
4. Nathan Byrnes (OSU) def. Ilya Babinciuc (TTU); 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
5. Anton Bobytskyi (OSU) def. Christian Rojmar (TTU); 7-6(4), 7-6(5)
6. Michael Breler (TTU) def. Igor Sobolta (OSU); 6-3, 6-1
Players Mentioned
