Published: May 12, 2008 11:11 am            

Monumental Sunday effort for OSU netters

• Cowboys beat No. 11 TU; advance to Sweet 16

TULSA — Finding the MVP in Oklahoma State’s thrilling 4-3 victory against No. 11 Tulsa in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship on Sunday might take some time.

The Cowboys, who advance to the Round of 16 for the second straight season, looked less than sharp in a down-to-the-wire win against No. 44 Denver on Saturday on the Michael D. Case Tennis Center courts.

But on Sunday, facing a team that beat them 6-1 during the regular season, No. 20 O-State was full of surprises.

“I can’t say enough about how much effort our guys played with (Sunday),” said OSU head coach James Wadley, whose squad faces No. 6 Southern California on Friday in Tulsa. “Everybody battled and we beat a really good team. A couple of points here or there, a break or two and Tulsa could have won this match.

“Ivan (Puchkarov) and Dmytro (Petrov) were outstanding in doubles and Ivan won a big match in singles for us. (Igor) Sobolta was huge for us in doubles and singles.”

Said TU coach Vince Westbrook, “Every time we play OSU, that’s the way these matches go. We had our chances.”

TU (22-5) had a match point in what turned out to be the deciding match at No. 4 singles.

When No. 18 Arnau Brugues closed out a three-set victory against the Cowboys’ third-ranked Oleksandr Nedovyesov at No. 1 singles, all eyes turned toward Will Gray, a senior from Tulsa, and Petrov, a sophomore from Ukraine.

Gray looked to be in control, leading 6-4, 5-3. But a double fault on match point started a meltdown that would eventually lead to Petrov winning the second set in a tiebreaker and the third set 6-2 to send OSU to the Sweet 16.

“I think I started to play a little better later in the second set,” said Petrov. “Watching the scoreboard, as time went by I thought it could come down to my match.”

In the April 9 meeting between the two rivals, the Golden Hurricane swept all three doubles matches.

On Sunday, Petrov and Puchkarov, the team’s lone senior, beat Brugues and Ricardo Soriano, 8-5, at No. 2.

And in perhaps the surprise of the day, Sobolta and Anton Bobytskyi, both freshman, hammered Gray and Alberto Sottocorno, 8-2, at No. 3. On April 9, the TU duo blasted Sobolta and Bobytskyi, 8-1.

“This was a different match, it is much bigger than the last time,” said Sobolta, from Ukraine. “I don’t know if I’ve ever played any better. I’m just happy to help the team get a big win.”

TU tied things at 1-1 with a straight-set victory at No. 5 singles, but Sobolta and Puchkarov put the Pokes (18-9) back up 3-1 with wins at Nos. 6 and 2, respectively.

Puchkarov has battled injuries all season, and including a loss on Saturday, had won just two of his last 10 singles matches before facing TU’s Victor Kolik.

“I felt like I got my game back a little bit (Sunday),” said Puchkarov, who won 6-4, 7-6. “We played well in doubles and I felt good on the court. There was a lot of looking at the scoreboard, which is good and bad I guess.

“But once I saw that Sobolta won, I really thought we were going to win the match.”

Brugues and Nedovyesov — a match that could easily be an NCAA final in two weeks — played a high-quality contest with the three-time Conference USA Player of the Year having just enough. It was Nedovyesov’s sixth loss in 31 matches this season.

Nathan Byrnes, Saturday’s hero, lost a tough three-setter at No. 4 singles to Soriano.

USC moved to 21-4 with a 4-0 win against California on Sunday. The Trojans, winners of 16 NCAA championships, boast the nation’s No. 2 doubles squad in Robert Farah and Kaes Van’t Hof. Farah is ranked sixth in singles.

O-State has now advanced to the Sweet 16 nine times, but never to the final eight.



NCAA Tennis Championship

Second Round

Tulsa • Michael D. Case Tennis Center

#20 Oklahoma State 4, #11 Tulsa 3

Singles

1. #18 Arnau Brugues (T) def. #3 Oleksandr Nedovyesov, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4

2. #71 Ivan Puchkarov (O) def. #82 Victor Kolik, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)

3. Dmytro Petrov (O) def. Will Gray, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2

4. #114 Ricardo Soriano (T) def. Nathan Byrnes, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

5. Alberto Sottocorno (T) def. Anton Bobytskyi, 6-1, 6-2

6. Igor Sobolta (O) def. Ross Cunningham, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2

Doubles

1. #27 Connelly/Cunningham (T) vs. #18 Byrnes/Nedovyesov, 4-7, DNF

2. Petrov/Puchkarov (O) def. #55 Brugues/Soriano, 8-4

3. Bobytskyi/Sobolta (O) def. Gray/Sottocorno, 8-2

        

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