(STILLWATER, Oklahoma / September 13, 2018) — Head coach Chris Young released the Oklahoma State women’s tennis schedule for the 2018-19 season on Thursday. The schedule features a number of quality matchups for the Cowgirls including a contest with Duke in the Bahamas and home matches with multiple 2018 top-25 finishers, such as UCLA and UCF.
“It’s another exciting schedule this year that will feature visits from top nationally-ranked opponents out of conference and will give our loyal fans a chance to see some of the best in college tennis throughout the year as the Big 12 continues to be as deep as any conference in the country,” Young said.
The Cowgirls look to improve upon their 20-5 record from the 2017-18 season and advance to their eighth straight NCAA Tournament. OSU has advanced to the second round of the tournament in each of the last six seasons, making the NCAA finals in 2016 and the quarterfinals in 2017.
OSU opens its fall schedule for the second consecutive season at the Lubbock 25k in Lubbock, Texas, this weekend. The team travels to Pacific Palisades, Calif. (Sept. 29 – Oct. 12) for the ITA All-American Championships and to Iowa City, Iowa (Oct. 12-15) for ITA Regional Championships before heading to Lawrence, Kan. (Nov. 4) for the Lawrence 25k. The Cowgirls wrap up fall play in Surprise, Ariz. (Nov. 7-11) at the ITA Fall National Championships.
The spring season begins in the Bahamas when OSU squares off with Duke (Jan. 12) with a match at Tulsa the following week (Jan. 19). The Cowgirls open home match play on Jan. 20 when Wyoming visits the Greenwood Tennis Center. The match marks the first of a three-date homestand as Young and OSU host ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Cowgirls face Virginia on Jan. 25 and, pending outcomes, will play Illinois or Kansas the following day.
The Cowgirls are back on the road again to start the month of February with a match against Arkansas in Fayetteville (Feb. 2). They return home to take on perennial powerhouse UCLA (Feb. 3) before back-to-back tournaments, the first being ITA Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash. (Feb. 7-10) followed by the Blue-Gray Championships in Montgomery, Ala. (Feb. 22-23).
“We are excited to head back to the Blue-Gray again this year. In 2016 we were able to win the title and it started our roll toward the NCAA Finals,” Young said.
OSU hosts Gonzaga (March 8) at home, heads to Wichita to face the Shockers (March 10) and returns home to kick off conference play against Kansas (March 15) and Kansas State (March 17). After a trip to Morgantown (March 24) the Cowgirls have four matches at the Greenwood Tennis Center when they face Baylor (March 29), Texas (April 1), UCF (April 5) and wrap up the homestand with Bedlam (April 7).
Conference play concludes when OSU takes on TCU (April 12) and Texas Tech (April 14) on the road before Big 12 Championships (April 18-21) in Lawrence, Kan.
“We are excited to get started this weekend and build momentum toward a great spring,” Young said.
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