Can Big 12 Slate Help Cowgirl Tennis Turn Season Around?

Oklahoma State has struggled to find its success from last season but could turn things around in conference play.

This past weekend, OSU women’s tennis fell in a couple of high-profile matchups at Michigan and Ohio State. Against two of the best teams in the country, the Cowgirls struggled to meet their level of play.

In the Friday loss to Michigan, OSU looked poised to get an impressive victory. The Cowgirls began the match by winning the doubles point and needed only three of the singles matches to go their way to get the win.

After Anastasiya Komar’s loss went final on Court 1, the Cowgirls responded and took a 2-1 lead after Rose Marie Nijkamp beat Emily Sartz-Lunde on Court 4 6-2, 6-3. However, that would be the final good news of the day for OSU.

The Cowgirls lost three more singles matches consecutively to lose, with one unfinished match also looking in favor of the Wolverines.

Following the loss in the 2024 ITA Indoor National Championship rematch, the Cowgirls had far less success against Ohio State. OSU started out rough by narrowly losing the doubles point, and things only got worse. The Cowgirls won only one set across the six singles matches and fell 4-0 while trailing in two of the three unfinished matches.

Those losses dropped the Cowgirls to 6-5 and placed them at No. 25 in the ITA rankings, making them the fourth-highest-ranked team in the Big 12 after going undefeated in conference play and winning the conference title in 2024. Although they haven’t had an ideal start to the season, the Cowgirls’ hopes of winning the Big 12 are still well within reach over the next couple of months.

OSU will begin its Big 12 slate with a couple of matches in Stillwater at the Greenwood Tennis Center. OSU will face Houston on Friday at 6 p.m. before matching up against UCF on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Those two matches could go a long way in determining where OSU truly sits in the Big 12 this season. With most of their early losses coming against the top teams in the country, it has been difficult to pinpoint exactly how far below those teams OSU may be and if it can find its way back into the national title conversation later in the year.

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