The University of Tulsa men's tennis team has a busy weekend with two matches against Big 12 foes. TU opens the weekend with a Friday tilt at No. 8 Oklahoma, with first serve scheduled in Norman at 5:30 p.m. The Golden Hurricane will wrap up the weekend on Sunday with a home match against No. 68 TCU. First serve from the Michael D. Case Tennis center is scheduled for noon.

 

TREACHEROUS SLATE AWAITS GOLDEN HURRICANE

 

The Hurricane will be tested by one of the toughest schedules in the nation. TU faces a top-35  team in each of its first eight matches of the season, and faces 15 ranked foes during the spring campaign. Tulsa will have two tough road tests against top-10 foes as it faces No. 8 Oklahoma on Feb. 8 and No. 3 UCLA on March 14.

 

LAST TIME OUT:

 

Minnesota (February 1, 2013)

 

In a tightly contested match, it came down to a three-set decision at flight one with Tulsa's Clifford Marsland defeating Minnesota's 49th-ranked Rok Bonin that gave the No. 22-ranked Golden Hurricane a 4-3 victory over the #37 Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday night at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.

 

Marsland trailed 5-4 in the first set, but battled back to even the score at 6-6, losing the tie-breaker 7-4. However, the Tulsa senior forced a final set with his 6-2 victory in the second and clinched the team victory for the Hurricane with another 6-2 win in the third.

 

The Hurricane swept the doubles point with victories at the No.1 and No. 2 spots. Grant Ive and Tristan Jackson claimed the first doubles victory with an 8-5 win over Minnesota's Leandro Toledo and Mathieu Froment at the No. 2 position. Tulsa's No. 1 doubles team of Clifford Marsland and Japie De Klerk also registered an 8-5 win against Rok Bonin and Mathieu Froment to claim a 1-0 lead entering singles competition.

 

Tulsa went into singles play without the No. 39-ranked Japie DeKlerk at the No. 2 slot for the Hurricane. Minnesota grabbed two-set victories at the No. 2, 3 and 4 singles positions, while Tulsa;s singles wins came at No. 1, 5 and 6.

 

The Gophers evened the score at 1-1 when the nation's 69th-ranked Leandro Toledo took a straight set victory over Tulsa's Grant Ive 6-3, 6-1 to win the first singles point of the night at flight 2.

 

Tulsa freshman Carlos Bautista claimed Tulsa's first singles win at the No. 5 slot to put the Hurricane ahead 2-1. After trailing 5-4 in the first set, Bautista came back for a 7-5 victory and then cruised to a 6-1 second set win over Brendan Ruddock. Minnesota tied the scored at two apiece when Mathieu Froment captured a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 3 position over Hurricane freshman Lucas Vaz.

 

Tristan Jackson's victory at the No. 6 position put the Hurricane ahead 3-2. Jackson won by identical 6-4, 6-4 scores over the Gophers' Juan Pablo Ramirez. Just seconds later, Minnesota tied the match 3-3 when flight 4 was decided with a 7-6, 6-4 victory by Jack Hamburg over Tulsa's #69-ranked Alejandro Espejo. Trailing 5-4 in the first set, Espejo battled back to even the score at 6-6, but failed to grab the first set victory, losing the tiebreaker 7-3.

 

Tied at 3-3, it came down to the flight one match between Tulsa's Marsland and Minnesota's Bonin that would clinch the victory.

 

Tulsa senior Grant Ive's three-set win at flight No. 3 gave the Hurricane its fourth point to clinch an upset victory for the 22nd-ranked Golden Hurricane over 14th-ranked Baylor on Sunday afternoon at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Tulsa went on to win the match 5-2.

 

Tulsa, playing its fifth top-25 opponent this year, moved to 3-3 on the season, while the Baylor Bears dropped to 2-1. It was the second win over a top-16 team for the Hurricane in the early part of the 2013 season, as Tulsa defeated No. 16 Illinois last week.

 

The visiting Bears went ahead 1-0 by winning the doubles point, but the Hurricane jumped out to a strong start in singles taking the first set in five of the six matches.

 

Tulsa's Tristan Jackson tied the score at 1-1 with his singles victory at the No. 6 position with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Roberto Maytin. Clifford Marsland put the Hurricane ahead 2-1 when he upset 60th-ranked Mate Zsiga in straight sets 6-4 and 6-3 at flight one.

 

At the No. 2 singles position, Tulsa's 34th-ranked Japie De Klerk was in trouble early in his first set against Baylor's 50th-ranked Marko Krickovic, trailing 4-1, but De Klerk regrouped to take the next five points and claim a first-set 6-4 victory. He took a 5-1 lead in the second set and held on to take the straight set victory with a 6-3 win in the second and put the Hurricane ahead by a score of 3-1.

 

With a 3-1 Tulsa lead, it was a pressure-cooker at the No. 3 position between Grant Ive and Baylor's Patrick Pradella. Ive suffered Tulsa's lone loss in the first set, losing 6-3, but bounced back strong in the second set when he grabbed a 6-1 victory over Pradella to force a final set. In the third, Ive jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but Pradella battled back to tie it at 5-5 and take the lead at 6-5. Ive would then force the tiebreaker by winning the next point. Ive took out the suspense early in the tiebreaker when he jumped out to a 2-0 lead, then after a point by Pradella, closed the match with five straight points to win the tiebreaker 7-1. Bautista fought hard in his tilt at No. 5 singles, but ultimately fell to No. 98 ranked Nick Naumann 7-5, 6-1, which tied the match at two.

 

Ive's victory gave the Hurricane its fourth point to clinch the team win.

 

At flight six, Tulsa freshman Carlos Bautista took a 6-3 victory in the first set, dropped the tiebreaker in the second and lost in the third set 6-2 against Diego Galeano as the Bears scored its first singles point after claiming the doubles to open the match, making the score 4-2.

 

Tulsa's Alejandro Espejo's victory at the No. 4 slot increased Tulsa's margin of victory to 5-2. After trailing 1-3 in the first set, Espejo battled back to tie the score 3-3 and again at 4-4 before winning the last two points of the first set for a 6-4 win. Espejo lost the second set in a 7-4 tiebreaker, but closed things out for the Hurricane with a 6-2 final set win.

 

The Bears began the match by claiming the doubles point. Baylor's No. 3 doubles team of Pradella and Julian Lenz began the match 2-0 and increased the lead to 6-1 before winning 8-2 to get the Bears off to a solid start in doubles play. Tulsa's Ive and Jackson handed the Baylor pair of Krickovic and Maytin an 8-5 defeat at flight two, but Baylor gained the point with an 8-5 victory at the No. 1 position behind the play of Zsiga and Lupieri defeating Tulsa's tandem of Marsland and Especjo.