Cowgirls Tennis Rebounds from First Loss to Whip Arkansas and Tulsa
(This story originated with Oklahoma State University athletic media relations and was primarily written by Jimmy Crowther.)
STILLWATER -- The 16th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls faced off against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Saturday afternoon in Stillwater, Okla. and picked up a 6-1 victory. This was the second match in two days for the Cowgirls after defeating Arkansas on Friday night.
In the match with the Razorbacks, doubles got off to a rocky start for the Cowgirls as Alana Wolfberg and Dariya Detkovskaya fell to Laura Rijkers and Thea Rice, 6-3, on court three. OSU would bounce back with two straight wins beginning with Bunyawi Thamchaiwat and Lenka Stara's 6-3 victory over Martina Zerulo and Jackie Carr. The doubles point was clinched by No. 17 Ayumi Miyamoto and Lisa Marie Rioux as they took down No. 34 Lauren Alter and Tatum Rice, 7-5.
The Cowgirls came out of the gates hot in singles, which was a goal going into this match after dropping every first set in last Sunday's match against Ohio State. Alana Wolfberg got the first win of the day for OSU over Lauren Alter on court four, 6-2, 6-1. The top court finished second with No. 29 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat defeating No. 122 Martina Zerulo, 6-0, 6-1. No. 92 Ayumi Miyamoto clinched the match for the Cowgirls with a straight-set victory over No. 109 Jackie Carr, 6-1, 6-3.
"I think the team energy was so much better than it was on Sunday," said Thamchaiwat. "We took it upon ourselves to work on it, like what we missed on Sunday. We did good with all of that."
Singles continued, although OSU had already won the match. No. 16 Lisa Marie Rioux, who played on court two for the first time this season, defeated Tatum Rice, 6-0, 7-5. Freshman Cowgirl Lenka Stara took down Laura Rijkers on court six in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, to give OSU its sixth point of the night. Arkansas' only victory came on court five as Dariya Detkovskaya fell to Kelly Keller, 4-6, 7-5, 10-7.
"Today wasn't about our opponent, it was just about us and responding from Sunday," said head coach Christ Young. "I thought we had a good week of practice. You could tell that the girls wished we could have played a match on Monday. The one thing you want to see with a young team is how they respond to adversity."
Tulsa won the doubles point from the Cowgirls to start the day off. Megan Hopton and Laia Conde Monfort won the first match of the day on court two over Bunyawi Thamchaiwat and Lenka Stara, 6-3. No. 17 Lisa Marie Rioux and Ayumi Miyamoto picked up a win over another ranked duo in No. 40 Martina Okalova and Vera Ploner, 6-4. Unfortunately for Oklahoma State, Tulsa would respond quickly with a 7-5 win on court three from Shura Poppe and Elodie Foster over Dariya Detkovskaya and Alana Wolfberg.
Oklahoma State's first point of the day came from No. 92 Ayumi Miyamoto when she defeated Vera Ploner in singles on court three, 6-2, 6-0. Dariya Detkovskaya would put OSU on top, 2-1, with a win over Lisa Benedejcic on court five, 6-3, 6-2.
"The most important thing for me was what was in my head," said Detkovskaya. "[Benedejcic] started to play so fast, so I changed my rhythm to confuse her. That's really why I won by so much."
The Cowgirls' third and fourth points of the match would happen nearly simultaneously. No. 16 Lisa Marie Rioux picked up a straight-set victory over Shura Poppe, 6-2, 6-2. The match would be clinched by the freshman Lenka Stara, as she would go on to defeat Marina Davtyan on court six, 6-3, 6-2.
Although it only took four singles victories, Tulsa and Oklahoma State opted to play out the remaining matches. No. 29 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat played on court one for the second consecutive day and needed a third set to take down No. 52 Martina Okalova, 6-0, 2-6, 12-10. Alana Wolfberg was the final Cowgirl to finish as she came back in her match to defeat Laia Conde Monfort, 4-6, 7-5, 10-3, to finalize the 6-1 victory for OSU.
"We have such a great group of kids," said assistant coach Jaime Sanchez. "It's not easy to play for a program like this. We have a lot of support and a lot of people behind us. When you're 17 or 18 years old, you take a lot of that responsibility, and you forget what you do well, which is playing tennis. When they focus on that, everything is good."
Saturday's victory moves the Cowgirls to 7-1 on the year, with their only loss coming at the hands of Ohio State last weekend in the ITA Kickoff. Ohio State, who came in at No. 12 in the latest ITA rankings, defeated No. 5 Duke in their match on Friday, 4-1. Saturday was only Tulsa's second loss of the season, and the Golden Hurricane now moves to 6-2 on the year.
