Big XII Men’s Weekend Preview

Tagged with: Big XII

The Big XII conference matches finally get underway this weekend. With only six mens teams in the conference, it will be a fast and furious finish to the season. All the teams are ranked in the top 30, and we will see several impressive matches this weekend.

The hottest team in the conference remains TCU after their 7-0 win Tuesday against UT Arlington. They were dominant, playing their full lineup, except for resting Alex Rybakov at #1 doubles and at #1 singles. They travel to Austin to take on the Longhorns in the only Big XII match on Saturday (2:00). Last years TCU-Texas match was a top-ten match-up to close out the regular season. TCU won 4-1. This year is sure to be another big time showdown.

Texas will look to rebound after its loss to #31 Tulane last Thursday, with a surprising score line of 4-0. Last year, Texas saved match points against Tulane in the second round of the NCAA tournament but this time was unable to win those big points and get on the scoreboard.

Oklahoma State might be the second hottest team in the conference, having won 4 matches in a row. Their last match was a 4-0 sweep of UCF. They are now the second highest ranked Big XII team, moving up from last week to #14. OSU will host Texas Tech Friday (5:30), and Baylor Sunday (1:00). The last time OSU hosted Texas Tech and Baylor, OSU won 4-1 and 4-2 respectively.

Oklahoma picked up the only road win last weekend in the conference, beating #41 Cornell 4-2. They are back home in Norman, playing host to Baylor Friday (6:00) and Texas Tech Sunday (11:30). OU lost their conference home opener last year to Texas 4-3. The last time OU won their opening match of conference play was in 2014-15 against TCU when OU was the top ranked team in the country. This years OU team is solid top to bottom, but is really anchored by the undefeated team of Davis/Stewart at #3 doubles (4-0), and Bertsch at #5 singles (9-0).

The Sooners will look to get a solid win against Baylor, who come in having won 4 matches in a row. Baylor starts off their conference play with a road trip to Oklahoma. Last year the Baylor Bears beat OU in Waco 4-3. Baylor won easily in doubles, but it came down to #5 singles match, a 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 7-5 win for Baylor. This years Baylor squad will have a different look; they have 4 underclassmen (2 sophomores, 2 freshmen) playing in their top 6.

Texas Tech also makes the trip to the Sooner State. Last time Texas Tech played in Norman, it was #10 Texas Tech defeating #8 OU by a score of 4-1. Texas Tech won the doubles point with 2 tiebreak wins. They will look to get off to another good start against OU (Sunday 11:30) and hope to pull off a bigger upset this year. But first Texas Tech will play Friday in Stillwater against OSU. The last time Tech won on the road against OSU was in 2014.