We Are The Champions! Golden Hurricane Corrals Mustangs 4-0 to Win Title

Saturday, April 21

Dallas, Texas

4 pm

Tulsa

SMU (American Championship)

Photo by: Ron Jenkins/American Athletic Conference

We Are The Champions! Golden Hurricane Corrals Mustangs 4-0 to Win Title

4/21/2018 10:01:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

DALLAS, Texas – It's only fitting that Tulsa's lone senior, Ksenia Laskutova, is the one who clinched the 2018 American Athletic Conference Championship for the Golden Hurricane. This marks the third time in four years that the Hurricane has won The American title, with the other conference championships coming in 2015 and 2016. The 26th-ranked Tulsa women's tennis team (21-5) ended the SMU Mustangs (17-9) nine-match winning streak on Saturday, at the SMU Tennis Complex, with a 4-0 shutout victory.

"It was complete battle up and down and it never went away actually, even through the singles. I thought we were fortunate in the doubles. You have to give SMU a lot of credit. The score was 4-0, but it was obviously much tighter than that," said Tulsa head coach Dean Orford. The title gives Tulsa the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, as the Hurricane will be making their 12 straight trip to the NCAA regional.

Rouxanne Janse van Rensburg and Tamara Kupkova started the match off with a bang, as they swept Liza Buss and Ana Perez-Lopez, 6-0, in the No. 3 doubles match.

SMU's Tiffany Hollebeck and Anzhelika Shapovalova tied the doubles score at 1-1, as they knocked off Vera Ploner and Shura Poppe, 6-4, in the No. 2 spot.

Laskutova and Martha Matoula squared off with Sarai Monarrez Yesaki and Karina Traxler in the No. 1 doubles match. With the other matches completed, everything came down to this match. The two tandems battled each other in what was a tightly contested affair, which saw the duo of Laskutova and Matoula come out on top, 7-5. The win by Matoula and Laskutova gave the Hurricane the early 1-0 lead as the match went to singles play.

In the No. 6 singles match, Poppe ran away with a 6-3 first-set victory against Hollebeck. Poppe repeated the result in the second, 6-3, on her way to a straight set match win, extending the Tulsa lead to 2-0. The win for Poppe was her fourth straight and put her at 9-1 in duals this season and 14-4 overall.

Ploner was in a battle with Yesaki at the No. 5 position, but managed to take the first stanza, 7-5. She matched that 7-5 result in the second set for a 3-0 Tulsa lead, leaving the Hurricane just one win away from clinching the match. It was Ploner's second straight dual match win and gave her an 18-9 overall record on the season.

The No. 74 ranked Laskutova won the first set of the No. 1 singles match, 6-4, against Traxler. With the Golden Hurricane needing just one more match victory to win the conference title, Laskutova delivered with a 6-4 victory in the second set to seal Tulsa's third American Athletic Conference title in the last four years. It was Laskutova's third consecutive win and fifth in her last six matches. She improved to 17-4 in dual match play and 23-7 overall in singles.

"Ksenia has had a great, great year. I still think she's building upon this, and her clinching the doubles point and the singles was great for her," said Orford.

With the victory, the Golden Hurricane has secured a spot in the 2018 NCAA Tournament with an automatic bid for winning the American Championship. Tulsa will find out who it gets paired with on May 1, when the NCAA announces the field of 64. The first round of the NCAA Tournament will begin May 11.

#26 Tulsa 4, SMU 0
Singles competition
1. #74 Ksenia Laskutova (TU) def. Karina Traxler (SMU) 6-4, 6-4
2. Martina Okalova (TU) vs. Liza Buss (SMU) 6-4, 4-2, unfinished
3. Tamara Kupkova (TU) vs. Anzhelika Shapovalova (SMU) 6-4, 4-5, unfinished
4. Martha Matoula (TU) vs. Ana Perez-Lopez (SMU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 1-0, unfinished
5. Vera Ploner (TU) def. Sarai Monarrez Yesaki (SMU) 7-5, 7-5
6. Shura Poppe (TU) def. Tiffany Hollebeck (SMU) 6-3, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. Ksenia Laskutova/Martha Matoula (TU) def. Sarai Monarrez Yesaki/Karina Traxler (SMU) 7-5
2. Tiffany Hollebeck/Anzhelika Shapovalova (SMU) def. Vera Ploner/Shura Poppe (TU) 6-4
3. Rouxanne Janse van Rensburg/Tamara Kupkova (TU) def. Liza Buss/Ana Perez-Lopez (SMU) 6-0
Match Notes:
SMU 17-9
Tulsa 21-5; National ranking #26
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,5,1)