Tiger tennis opens Big 12 with win against Sooners
After falling behind initially, the team wrangled back the lead.
Published March 2, 2009
After the Tigers defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 5-2 in the Big 12 season opener Sunday at the Green Tennis Center, coach Blake Starkey had one thing to say:
"That scoreboard looks awesome."
The Sooners defeated the Tigers seven years in a row before Missouri's win Sunday night. The win bumped Missouri's record up to 5-4 overall, with its first conference game.
Missouri staged a gritty, come-from-behind win after yet again narrowly dropping the doubles point. The Tigers lost their first singles match of the day, but the next five singles matches were winners. Freshman Danielle Day locked up the win for the Tigers by topping Oklahoma's No. 5 singles player sophomore Tara Eckel.
That would not have been possible if not for the incredible play of sophomore Kaitlyn Ritchie and senior Jessica Giuggioli. The pair lost their doubles match earlier in the day to help contribute to an early deficit, but individually, they won their singles matches in three sets to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
Ritchie, who lost the first set 6-1, came back and won the next two sets 6-4.
"The first set I was rushing," Ritchie said after her match. "I knew that if I could get into a rhythm I could come back."
Giuggioli blanked her opponent, Sooners' No. 2 sophomore Maria Kalashnikova, in the first set, but lost a tight second set. She captured a win in the third by defeating Kalashnikova 6-4.
The singles wins by Ritchie and Giuggioli gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead, and with Day and senior Sofia Ayala winning their matches, the supportive home crowd could sense a victory.
Freshman Jamie Mera gave the Tigers their first point of the match, defeating Oklahoma's No. 3 singles player Kristina Radan in three sets. Day and Ayala's victories took just two sets, but every other match lasted three, including Missouri's only singles loss by No. 1 sophomore Mallory Weber.
Both Mera and Day, a duo of freshmen from Tampa, Florida, earned their tenth wins of the season, good for tops on the team.
The doubles round was all too familiar, as the Tigers came close to earning the point, but they let it slip away in an eerie repeat of their last two matches.
"It's frustrating to watch that that many times," Starkey said.
The same thing happened in Friday night's match against Wisconsin, a match the Tigers lost 5-2. Ritchie and Giuggioli were forced into a tiebreaker and lost, which is exactly what happened Sunday. The only two Missouri points Friday came from singles victories by Mera and Ayala. It sent the Tigers to a 0-4 mark against the Big Ten this season.
"It was kind of poetic justice to drop the doubles point again and then come back and did what we did," Starkey said of Sunday's win.
Sunday's other doubles matches included a loss by Weber and Mera and a win by Ayala and Day.