College Tennis News - Sooners Defeats California

NORMAN, Okla. -- The No. 8 University of Oklahoma men's tennis team (7-2) closed its weekend at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships with a win over No. 13 California, 4-3, Sunday, Feb. 17, in Seattle, Wash.

"It was a great effort by our guys in singles today," OU head coach John Roddick said. "Costin [Paval] was a rock all week for us. [California] has a very good team and we did well to get a victory tonight."

The Golden Bears (4-4) snatched the first team point, winning doubles on courts two and three.

Gregory Bayane stretched California's lead to 2-0 after he beat Leonard Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-3.

After that, the Sooners started battling.

ITA No. 68 Paval defeated No. 82 Ben McLachlan 6-4, 6-1.

The Sooners then upset their opponents on courts two and three. First, No. 119 Dane Webb topped No. 61 Campbell Johnson 6-2, 7-5. Next, No. 65 Guillermo Alcorta beat No. 48 Chris Konigsfeldt 6-1, 7-6. With this, OU took the lead, 3-2.

California came back to tie the match after Mads Engsted defeated Peerakit Siributwong 6-4, 7-6.

The determining match fell to Nick Papac and Nikhil Jayashankar at the No. 6 position, in the only match that went to three sets. Papac, playing for his first time in the weekend, topped Jayashankar 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, claiming the win for OU.

"Nick came up huge at the end, which was not easy considering he hasn't had much playing time," Roddick said.

The Sooners stay on the road when they travel to College Station, Texas, to face the No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies Sunday, Feb. 24, at 12 p.m.

Follow @OU_Tennis on Twitter and like Oklahoma Men's Tennis on Facebook for more information on the men's tennis program.

Oklahoma 4, California 3

Doubles
    1. No. 19 Paval/Webb (OU) vs. Konigsfeldt/Johnson (Cal), 7-4 (dnf)
    2. Engsted/McLachlan (Cal) def. Alcorta/Formentera (OU), 8-3
    3. Bayane/Melton (Cal) def. Siributwong/Stakhovsky (OU), 8-4
        Order of finish: 2, 3

Singles
    1. No. 68 Costin Paval (OU) def. No. 82 Ben McLachlan (Cal), 6-4, 6-1
    2. No. 65 Guillermo Alcorta (OU) def. No. 48 Chris Konigsfeldt (Cal), 6-1, 7-6
    3. No. 119 Dane Webb (OU) def. No. 61 Campbell Johnson (Cal), 6-2, 7-5
    4. Gregory Bayane (Cal) def. Leonard Stakhovsky (OU), 6-3, 6-3
    5. Mads Engsted (Cal) def. Peerakit Siributwong (OU), 6-4, 7-6
    6. Nick Papac (OU) def. Nikhil Jayashankar (Cal), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4