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The TCU Horned Frogs, back-to-back Big 12 regular season champs and defending tournament champs, advanced to tomorrow’s championship game by dominating singles play en route to a 4-1 victory over 5th-seeded Oklahoma today.
Things did not start off well for the Frogs as they dropped the doubles point to fall behind 1-0 in the match. First, Jerry Lopez and Reese Stalder, ranked #33 as a pair, fell 6-4 on Court 1 to Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa, ranked #15 in doubles. TCU then lost the doubles point on Court 3, where Jochen Bertsch and Adrian Oetzbach of Oklahoma took down Trevor Johnson and Cam Norrie 7-5.
On Court 2, the Frogs’ pair, Alex Rybakov and Guillermo Nuñez, also trailed 6-5, but it was unfinished because the doubles point had already been decided. This was the first time TCU dropped the doubles point since their March 11 match at Stanford, which the Frogs went on to win 4-3.
Going into singles, the Frogs needed 4 victories to win the match and most of the guys fell behind early in their first sets. However, they would overcome this and TCU would go 4-2 in first sets. Cam Norrie, the #1 player in the nation, would get TCU on the board first, taking down #30 Andrew Harris 6-4, 6-4 on Court 1 to tie the match at 1-1. Soon after, Jerry Lopez defeated #105 Florin Bragusi 6-4, 6-4 on Court 4 to give the Frogs a 2-1 lead in the match.
TCU continued its momentum on Court 2 as #20 Alex Rybakov took down #18 Spencer Papa 7-5, 6-4 to push the Frogs lead to 3-1. The Frogs finished the Sooners off on Court 6, where Reese Stalder defeated the Sooners’ Adrian Oetzbach 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 to win the match 4-1.
The Frogs, winners of 13 consecutive matches and ranked #4 nationally, will now be looking to repeat as Big 12 Tournament champs tomorrow at 11 am against 6th-seeded Texas Tech, who defeated 2nd-seeded Oklahoma State 4-3 in a tightly contested match today.