Texas Tech University Athletics
Red Raiders Open Big 12 Championships Friday
April 23, 2009 | Men's Tennis
April 23, 2009
NORMAN, Okla. - The 34th-ranked Texas Tech men's tennis team opens play at the Big 12 Championships, held at the Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Okla., at 9 a.m., Friday against No. 21 Oklahoma State.
The Red Raiders finished fifth in the seven-team conference at 2-4 in Big 12 play and 13-10 overall. The Cowboys completed the regular season 3-3 in conference for a fourth-place finish and 13-6 overall.
Baylor earned the top seed in the Big 12 Championships after an undefeated conference season. The Bears were trailed by Texas and Texas A&M as the second and third seed, while Oklahoma and Nebraska rounded out the bracket with the final two slots.
The winner of Friday's match will move on to a semifinal match with Baylor at noon Saturday. The championship match is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first serve on Sunday.
RED RAIDERS AT THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Red Raiders are 3-11 all-time at the Big 12 Championships, but have been bounced in the first round in each of the previous three trips. Tech and OSU have faced each other twice before in the conference tournament with the Cowboys taking a 4-3 victory in the 1997 quarterfinals and the Red Raiders posting a 4-0 win in 2002. Ironically, the two schools' previous matches both came with OSU as the No. 4 seed and Tech as the No. 5 seed, similar to this year's meeting. Tech has never advanced to the tournament finale in school history.
SCOUTING THE COWBOYS
Friday's match will be the third between Tech and OSU this season. The Red Raiders claimed a 4-1 victory in March at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, but the Cowboys returned the favor with a 4-3 win last weekend in Lubbock.
Tech opened both of the previous two matches taking the doubles point as Tech's bottom two duos of Sinisa Markovic and Michael Breler, and David Gonzalez and Gonzalo Escobar are a perfect 4-0 against the Cowboys' tandems. Tech's top duo of No. 14 Raony Carvalho and Christian Rojmar did not complete their first match against OSU after the doubles point was already decided, but the Cowboys' 13th-ranked tandem of Oleksandr Nedovyesov and Nathan Byrnes were able to top the duo, 8-7, in the conference match-up last week.
In singles, Markovic and Breler are undefeated against OSU at the No. 2 and 5 positions, respectively. At the top spot, Carvalho has dropped both his previous matches to the nations' second-ranked player in Nedovyesov. Tech's No. 3 and 4 players in Escobar and Rojmar have split the series so far this season, while Tech has lost both matches at the No. 6 slot with David Gonzalez.
Tech is 5-15 all-time against the Cowboys, and has lost four of its previous six meetings. OSU is ranked No. 21 in the recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
Players Mentioned
