No. 5 Texas prevailed 6-1 over No. 33 Oklahoma State Friday, thanks to excellent singles play at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
At the beginning of play, however, doubles proved to be a challenge once again for the Longhorns. Graduate student Alex Garcia and junior Francisco Pini beat Texas senior Eshan Talluri and junior Pierre-Yves Bailly 6-4, powered by a pair of overhead volleys at the net that won the Cowboys’ duo two different games.
Next to finish were Texas redshirt senior Cleeve Harper and senior Micah Braswell, who beat freshman Ty Wunderlich and senior Leighton Allen 6-3. Harper and Braswell each contributed emphatic kill shots in the final game of the set to win the first doubles match of the day for Texas.
With the coveted doubles point on the line, Texas’ 62nd-ranked pair of seniors Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab went to a tiebreaker against Oklahoma State’s 30th-ranked pairing of graduate student Tyler Zink and senior Isaac Becroft.
With the Cowboys up 6-3 for match point, Woldeab sent a powerful forehand at Becroft, deflecting off his body to win the point for Texas. However, that would be the last doubles point of the day for the Longhorns as Zink and Becroft prevailed 7-6 (7-4), giving Oklahoma State the doubles point.
In singles, Texas may have put together its most impressive team effort of the season, as all six Longhorns not only won but did so in straight sets.
It was smooth sailing for Harper against Allen, who dominated the Austin product in a timely fashion. On match point, Allen shanked a manageable return into the far left side of the net to bring a fitting end to this uncompetitive match that ended 6-1.
In the first set of his match against No. 78 Becroft on court two, No. 3 Braswell hit a powerful backhand return down the line leaving the New Zealander helplessly frozen after a rally to extend his lead to 3-0. Braswell would go on to make relatively easy work of his opponent, winning 6-3, 6-3 to extend his 28-match winning streak. The Sarasota, Florida product has been on fire this season, having only lost four singles sets dating back to the fall.
Pierre-Yves Bailly was down 3-1 in the first set of his match against Pini when he went on a 9-0 run to claim the set 6-3 and give himself a 4-0 lead in the second. Pini would break the run, winning a game in which he was serving, but Bailly responded, winning four points in a row in the next game, halting any momentum for a comeback. Bailly prevailed 6-2 in the second set, putting Texas on the precipice of victory with a 3-1 lead.
Texas’ Lucas Brown would seal the win for the Longhorns, defeating Wunderlich 6-3, 6-4 in a battle of freshmen. On the final two courts, No. 1 Spizzirri and No. 40 Gilles-Arnaud Bailly fended off No. 23 Zink and No. 71 Garcia, respectively, with the second set of the match between Bailly and Garcia being decided in a lengthy tiebreaker that ended 10-8 in favor of the Belgian.
Texas will look to extend its winning streak to nine on the last stop of its final Big 12 road trip on Sunday afternoon when the Longhorns visit No. 11 Oklahoma in Norman.
