Cowgirls Tennis Knocks Off #11 Pepperdine with Clutch Finish

Oklahoma State gains confidence with a win over a ranked opponent and playing on the outdoor courts at the Greenwood Tennis Center.

(This story originated with Oklahoma State University athletic media relations and was written by Jimmy Crowther with contributions from Pokes Report publisher Robert Allen.)

 STILLWATER - The No. 14 Oklahoma State Cowgirl tennis team took down the No. 11 Pepperdine Waves in Stillwater, 4-3. It was the first match Oklahoma State has played outdoors this season.

Pepperdine is the first ranked opponent Oklahoma State has defeated this season, and it all started with the doubles point. No. 7 Lisa Marie Rioux and Ayumi Miyamoto defeated Ashley Lahey and Anastasia Iamachkine on court one, 6-1. The second match to finish was on court three as Dariya Detkovskaya and Catherine Gulihur teamed up to defeat Astrid Olsen and Lisa Zaar, 7-6(4).

There was another match earlier this season against a ranked opponent in Ohio State, but after winning the doubles point, the Cowgirls fell behind losing the first set in all of the singles matches. They battled and took it down to the final singles match at court one before losing to the Buckeyes, so this win was big.

"This was a confidence boost because we got put in some tough situations and persevered today," said head coach . "I'm just really proud of the girls. I said to them afterwards that this was a true team win. Four girls contributed in doubles, three different girls contributed in singles and it took all seven to win this match."

No. 80 Ayumi Miyamoto lost the first singles match of the day against No. 36 Anastasia Iamachkine on court three, 6-1, 6-2, to give Pepperdine its first point of the match. Oklahoma State fell behind in the match when No. 124 Lisa Zaar defeated Dariya Detkovskaya in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, which put the Waves up 2-1.

Pepperdine would jump out to a 3-1 lead with a win from the top player in the country, Ashley Lahey, as she defeated No. 45 Lisa Marie Rioux, 6-4, 6-3. Freshman Cowgirl Alana Wolfberg won the first singles point of the day for OSU with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Astrid Olsen on court four. No. 28 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat followed quickly behind with a win of her own over No. 37 Jessica Failla, 6-3, 6-1.

The final point would be decided by Lenka Stara on court six as she went up against Daria Kuczer. Stara won the first set with her dominant serve, 6-4. Kuczer would storm back to take the second set in the same fashion, 6-4. The women opted to play out the third set instead of the usual 10-point tiebreaker, which Stara would win in dominant fashion, 6-0.

Stara has a dominating serve, but has struggled with her return of serve and her confidence and body language has been down at times. This will have to be a big boost for her as she has only been playing for the Cowgirls since the start of the spring semester. 

"We need to be confident. We don't have to be scared, because everyone knows how to play tennis," said Stara. "We are something special. We had really good energy after doubles, and coached talked to us and gave us some really good supporting words, which was really good."

This is the first win of the season against a ranked opponent for the Cowgirls. OSU now moves to 8-1 on the season with its lone loss coming at the hands of Ohio State. Pepperdine is now .500 on the season with all three of its losses coming against ranked opponents.

The Cowgirls will now take on South Carolina in Columbia, SC on Feb. 23 before they return to Stillwater on March 6 for conference play against Texas Tech.