College Tennis News - Oklahoma Hosts Big 12 Championships

No. 14 OU will face the winner of No. 19 Texas and Oklahoma State on Saturd...

NORMAN, Okla. -- The No. 14 University of Oklahoma men's tennis team hosts the 2013 Big 12 Championships Friday, April 26, to Sunday, April 28.

After securing the No. 2 seed, OU will have a bye on Friday. They begin tournament play Saturday, April 27, against the winner of No. 19 Texas and Oklahoma State, at 12 p.m.

"It's pretty cool because some student-athletes might not get the chance to host," senior Costin Paval said. "It's definitely an advantage with home court and your own crowd. We just need to focus on the way we're playing. They're still tough matches. Even if you have a little bit of extra edge, it doesn't really count as much."

Texas and OSU play Friday at 12 p.m. The Longhorns (15-7, 5-2 Big 12) bring four ranked singles players and two ranked doubles tandems. The OSU Cowboys (12-13, 0-5 Big 12) have no ranked players.

If OU wins its match Saturday, the Sooners would advance to the finals on Sunday, where there is a possibility they will face No. 13 Baylor again. Baylor handed OU its only Big 12 loss of the season Friday, April 12, in Waco, Texas.

"I'm glad the guys want to play Baylor again. We all do," OU head coach John Roddick said. "Having said that, it means we have to get through a team on Saturday. We don't really want to look ahead. My concern is what we have to do on Saturday because we're going to be playing a good team on Saturday. Whoever gets through there is someone who is playing well. There's not any guarantee that we do move on."

The Sooners enter the Big 12 Championships with a number of accolades. They have three ranked singles players: No. 19 Paval, No. 58 Guillermo Alcorta and No. 61 Dane Webb. OU also has two ranked doubles teams: No. 36 Paval and Webb, and No. 74 Alcorta and Axel Alvarez Llamas.

OU also boasts four regular season individual champions. Paval and Alvarez Llamas are the No. 1 and No. 4 singles positions champions, respectively. Alvarez Llamas and Alcorta partner as the No. 2 doubles position champion. Paval and Webb finished in a three-way tie with No. 1 tandems from Baylor and TCU.

Webb was named Big 12 Player of the Week April 9.

The Sooners won their first Big 12 Championship last year. After winning the Big 12 regular season title, OU beat Baylor 4-3 in College Station, Texas, in the Big 12 Championships.

Ticket information for the Big 12 Championship can be found here.

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