Women's Tennis Preview: OSU & OU
3/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - The No. 20 TCU women's tennis team will host their first Big 12 Conference opponents of the season, as the team welcomes No. 11 Oklahoma State on March 27 and No. 31 Oklahoma on March 29 at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
The Horned Frogs (11-6, 3-1) will face the Cowgirls (14-3, 1-1) on Friday at 5:30 p.m., before welcoming the Sooners (11-4, 1-2) on Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission to both matches is free, with those in attendance also able to enjoy free pizza served in between the doubles and singles matches courtesy of Buffalo Bros.
TCU Notables
After dropping its Sunday match to No. 6 Baylor, TCU rebounded quickly on Monday at home with a 4-0 victory over UAB. The Frogs have shut out four opponents this season and have faced 13 ranked opponents going into this weekend.
No. 44 Simona Parajova leads TCU in the singles rankings this week and has a team-leading 19-4 record on the season, with 11 of the wins coming in dual matches. No. 108 Stefanie Tan has played all of her matches at No. 1 singles and has posted five wins in the position.
Two doubles tandems are riding eight-match winning streaks with the No. 42 ranked pair of Tan and Seda Arantekin leading the team with a 15-6 record and 10 of those wins in dual matches. Sofiko Kadzhaya and Parajova have also won their last eight matches, with the duo sitting undefeated on court three with an 8-0 record.
Scouting the Cowgirls
The Cowgirls check in at No. 11 in the ITA rankings, keeping them in the top-15 for the seventh week in a row. OSU traveled to San Diego, Calif., last weekend to face Ivy League opponent Princeton and shut out the Tigers, 6-0.
Three Cowgirls remain in the singles poll including sophomore All-American Viktoriya Lushkova at No. 15, No. 85 Katarina Adamovic and No. 110 Kelsey Laurente.
Lushkova and doubles partner Laurente, a transfer from the University of Miami, pair up as the nation's ninth-ranked doubles team. Adamovic and freshman doubles partner Vladica Babic remain in the national doubles rankings at No. 72.
Scouting the Sooners
The Sooners last saw action on March 13 and 15 with home losses to Texas, 4-2, and the Baylor, 4-0. From Feb. 7 to Feb. 28, Oklahoma strung together seven straight victories and moved up to No. 23 in the rankings.
Lily Miyazaki leads the team with an 11-2 record, with all the wins coming at No. 1 singles. Christiana Brigante and Zita Engbroks each have nine wins on the season, with Engbroks posting a 6-0 record at No. 5 singles and Brigante going 6-1 at No. 6 singles.
In doubles action, Brigante and Engbroks pair up for a 5-3 record at No. 3 doubles, while Miyazaki and Simran Sethi lead the team with a 6-3 record on court two.
All-Time Series
TCU and Oklahoma State will be facing off for the 18 th time in program history, with the Frogs holding the advantage in the series with a 10-7 record. Since joining the Big 12, the Cowgirls have won the last two meetings while the Frogs won the first-ever meeting in conference regular-season action. TCU is 5-3 against Oklahoma State in Fort Worth.
The Frogs and Oklahoma will be taking each other on for the 34 th time in program history, with TCU leading the series with a 19-14 record. The last three matches have taken place in Norman, with TCU taking the win in 2012 and the Sooners claiming the last two victories in 2013 and 2014. TCU is 7-8 against Oklahoma in Fort Worth.
Live Results
Fans who can't attend either match can watch live results at TCU.StatBroadcast.Com, while final recaps of the matched can be found at GoFrogs.com following the completion of the competitions on both days. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU women's tennis on twitter (@TCUWomensTennis).
Players Mentioned
