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Oklahoma tennis: OU women living the dream, advance to NCAA Championship final

By Chip Rouse

NEW HAVEN, CT - AUGUST 25: Aryna Sabaleka of Belarus returns a shot to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during the Singles Final during Day 6 of the Connecticut Open at Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale on August 25, 2018 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
NEW HAVEN, CT - AUGUST 25: Aryna Sabaleka of Belarus returns a shot to Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain during the Singles Final during Day 6 of the Connecticut Open at Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale on August 25, 2018 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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The dream season for the women’s Oklahoma tennis team has reached the summit with just one match separating the Sooners from their first ever NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship.

Standing in the way of the Sooners’ history-making run, however, is a formidable opponent in No. 4 seed Texas. So, it all comes down to a classic rematch between the No. 2 Sooners and the Big 12 champion Longhorns, a 4-2 winner over top-seeded North Carolina.

Oklahoma and Texas have met three times already this season, with Oklahoma winning two of the three, but Texas defeated the Sooners in the Big 12 Women’s Tennis Championship. OU defeated the Longhorns earlier in the season in the ITA Indoor National Championship when the Horns were ranked No. 1 in the country OU advanced to the championship match in that tournament before losing to then-No. 2 North Carolina.

The Sooners also won a regular-season Big 12 match with Texas, prevailing 4-2

The OU women fell to UNC in the ITA Championship, one of just two defeats they have suffered in an historic 32-win season thus far, but it was at that point that the Sooners realized they had “the tennis level and the energy to take down the top teams in the country,” said head coach Audra Cohen.

As they did in the quarterfinal win on Friday over No. 7 Texas A&M, the Sooners secured the doubles point with wins by the Corley sisters (Ivana and Carmen) and Layne Sleeth and Alexandra Pisareva to go up 1-0 in semifinal match with Duke.

Duke fought back with victories in three of five singles matches, and it all came down to the singles match between OU freshman Emma Staker and fifth-year senior Eliza Omirou on court six to determine which team was moving on to the championship final on Sunday.

Staker stormed to a 6-0 victory in the first set but dropped the second set 5-7. Staker then showed her poise and resilience by shutting out Omirou 6-0 in the winner-take-all third set and securing the winning point for championship-bound Oklahoma.

So the NCAA Women’s Championship comes down to a Red River Showdown between two Big 12 juggernauts. The title match is set for 7 p.m. CT in Champaign, Illinois.

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