No. 13 Women's Tennis defeats Oklahoma State, 4-1, advances to Big 12 semifinals
April 27, 2012
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Fourth-seeded Texas (15-7) claimed the doubles point and posted singles wins from Elizabeth Begley, Aeriel Ellis and Cierra Gaytan-Leach, as the Horns posted a 4-1 win over fifth-seeded Oklahoma State (11-9) Friday in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Big 12 Championship. Texas advances to Saturday's semifinals where it will meet top-seeded Texas Tech, whom the Horns defeated earlier this month in Austin by a 4-2 count. Texas took on the Cowgirls for the second time in five days, and unlike the previous match, Texas set the tone by taking the doubles point. At third doubles, UT's Begley and Ellis broke the serve of OSU's Isabela Miro and C.C. Sardinha in the match's opening game and never looked back, as the Horns cruised to an 8-1 win. At the second slot, Texas' Krista Damico and Gaytan-Leach broke OSU's Meghan Blevins and Mary Jeremiah to assume a 3-2 lead. The Horns claimed the next four games and sailed to an 8-3 victory to preserve the doubles point for Texas. Begley remained undefeated against conference foes this season, as she posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over OSU's Miro at sixth singles to push the Texas lead to 2-0. UT's 38th-ranked Ellis extended the Texas lead to 3-0 behind a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Cowgirls' Sardinha at first singles. OSU closed the deficit to 3-1, as Blevins topped UT's Scott at third singles, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Texas' Gaytan-Leach dropped the first set in a tiebreaker to OSU's Jeremiah at fifth singles but
overpowered Jeremiah in the second set, 6-2. Gaytan-Leach broke Jeremiah early in the third set, and it
proved to be the only break she needed, as she closed out the third set, 6-4 to finish off the 4-1 win for
the Longhorns. The remaining matches were suspended.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS Texas head coach Patty Fendick-McCain On the win "We played much better today. We had an unfortunate go against them last weekend. The conditions were very similar today as they were last weekend. We worked pretty hard this week. It was a big mental hurdle for us to get over today. We didn't play very well last weekend, but we played much better today. It was great to see the girls get a win." On playing Texas Tech on Saturday "They are a tough team. What we do best is we battle hard. We have got good strategy and we have got really good players. For us, it is about battling as hard as we can from the first point to the last point and never giving an inch. That's when good things happen for us."
2012 Big 12 Championship - Quarterfinals |
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