The women’s tennis team lost to No. 17, in-state rival Oklahoma State on Tuesday, 0–4, snapping their four-match winning streak, but bounced back with a 4–0 victory over Tulane on Saturday afternoon, their final home match of the regular season.
After their loss to Wichita State on March 9, snapping their season-high six match win streak, the women’s team beat Oklahoma, Charleston Southern, Charleston and Kansas, and none of the games were even that close. The Jayhawks put up the biggest fight, but the Golden Hurricane still beat them 4–2.
Tulsa was ranked No. 21 in the country heading into Stillwater, but the Cowboys jumped out to the early 1–0 lead in doubles play, and kept up the pressure with three-straight singles victories, all of them in straight sets, preventing the other three matches from even finishing. The loss hasn’t affected their ranking yet, so the women stayed No. 21 going into their regular season home-finale against the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday.
This time, Tulsa jumped out to the early 1–0 lead, and kept their momentum up, winning the singles points, and similar to the Oklahoma State match, in straight sets. Rongrong Leenabanchong, Martha Matoula and Renata Kuricova won their matches early, and Tulsa took the win in their final home match, unless they make the NCAA Tournament, which Tulsa is histing this year.
The women’s team only has two more matches left in the regular season, at Houston and at Rice, before heading to Memphis for the American Athletic Conference Tournament, which the Golden Hurricane are defending champions of, on April 20.
The men’s team recovered from their loss to No. 19 Texas last week with an upset victory against Oklahoma State on Friday afternoon. The Cowboys, who are the No. 8 team in the country, have an overall record of 16–3, but the Golden Hurricane, who were 9–9 at the time of the match beat them 4–1.
The deciving part of the men’s record is that of the twenty matches they have played so far this season, 16 of them have been against top-40 ranked opponents, which is why they still maintain the No. 24 ranking.
TU took the doubles point after all three matches went the distance, and Francois Kellerman made the lead 2–0 with a quick win over the Cowboys’ Mateo Ruiz Naranjo in the No. 5 match. Majed Kilani made it 3–0 Tulsa before Lucas Gerch beat Juan Matias Gonzalez to give the Cowboys’ their lone point of the match. Daniel Santos finished the No. 6 match, giving the Golden Hurricane a big upset going into the final stretch of the season.
Sunday’s match against No. 23 Tulane did not finish before this article was written. Their next match is at home against University of Arkansas – Pine Bluff on Tuesday, after which they will head to Texas Tech to take on the Red Raiders.
