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Oklahoma tennis: Lady Sooners win regular-season Big 12 title

By Chip Rouse

Mar 20, 2022; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Iga Swiatek (ITA) hits a shot during women’s final defeating Maria Sakkari (GRE) at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 20, 2022; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Iga Swiatek (ITA) hits a shot during women’s final defeating Maria Sakkari (GRE) at the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
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Not to be outdone in a spring season that has a lot going on at elite levels in Sooner sports, the women’s Oklahoma tennis team registered its 24th win of the season on Friday and along with it the regular-season Big 12 championship.

The No. 2-ranked Sooners downed their in-state rivals and No. 12 Oklahoma State Cowboys 4-3 in Stillwater and in the process captured it first outright regular-season conference crown.

Oklahoma opened the competition by winning two of the three doubles matches to win the doubles point. OU’s doubles pair of Ivana and Carmen Corley won their match 6-2 and Layne Sleeth and Alexandra Pisareva defeated their Oklahoma State opponent by the same score.

Trailing 3-2 in the team score during back-and-forth single matches, OU freshman Anchisa Chanta defeated OSU’s Martina Zerulo in straight sets (6-1, 7-6 [7-2], tying the overall match at three wins apiece.

It all came down to the final singles match on the No. 1 court between Sleeth of OU, the 14th-ranked player in NCAA Women’s singles, and Lisa Marie Rioux of Oklahoma State, ranked 27th. Trailing 4-1 in the third set, Sleeth roared back, winning six of the next seven games to win the match 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.

The Bedlam victory over Oklahoma State gives the Sooners 12 consecutive wins and their first perfect 8-0 season in Big 12 regular-season action. OU is back in action on Sunday at home in a nonconference match with Pepperdine that will end the regular season.

Next weekend (April 21-24), the Oklahoma women will go after a Big 12 title sweep as the top seed in the Big 12 Women’s Tennis Championship, hosted by TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas.

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