Men's tennis: Sooners open season with sweep of Shockers
Donterio Ligons, The Oklahoma Daily
Guillermo Alcorta serves during a match verus Wichita State on Tuesday.
Oklahoma’s eighth-ranked men’s tennis team opened its spring season Tuesday night at Gregg Wadley Indoor Tennis Pavilion with a dominant 7-0 victory against Wichita State.
OU swept the Shockers in the doubles matches after shaking off a rough start. The Sooners then won all six singles matches, but not all of them came easily.
“The first match of the year is always hard,” coach John Roddick said. “These matches were absolute wars.”
Senior Costin Paval was magnificent for the Sooners in both the singles and doubles matches. In the No. 1 singles draw, Paval easily defeated Wichita State senior Matheus Pereira — 6-0, 6-3.
“Tonight was a good demonstration of doing the right things at the right times,” Paval said.
In his last season at OU, Paval realizes there may be added pressure as a result of the team’s high ranking.
“It’s the first time we’ve been ranked this high,” Paval said. “Of course, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, though. It’s all about execution and controlling the things we can control.”
Junior Guillermo Alcorta, ranked No. 36 nationally, also was at his best as he took down Ilija Cuic in straight sets — 6-3, 6-3.
“Seeing things that we need to focus on is always nice,” Roddick said. “It’s a great start to the season,”
Other notable performers were sophomore Dane Webb, freshman Axel Alvarez Llamas, junior Peerakit Siributwong and freshman Leonard Stakhovsky.
The Sooners will be back in action Saturday as they host Notre Dame, Memphis, and Harvard in the ITA Kick-Off Tournament.
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