No. 11 OSU Avoids Upset, Rallies Past No. 43 Buffs, 4-3

BOULDER ? On the day when the new national Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) men’s tennis rankings were released, the University of Colorado men’s tennis team almost made good on their highest ranking of the season at No. 43, narrowly missing the greatest win in school history and falling to No. 11 Oklahoma State, 4-3, Tuesday afternoon at the South Campus Tennis Courts.

The Buffaloes flirted with an upset with a 3-0 lead, however the Cowboys used their experience to win their 11th win in 15 outings (2-1 Big 12) this season. CU falls to 6-7 and 0-2 in the conference.

CU jumped ahead early taking a 1-0 lead and securing two of three doubles points. Chad Tsuda and Marcos Digliodo halted a six-match losing streak winning 8-5 at No. 1, and at No. 2, Marko Bundalo and Peter Bjork won their third straight, taking an exciting 9-8 decision.

The home team continued the momentum in the singles portion taking the No. 5 and No. 6 positions in straight sets for a 3-0 advantage. Digliodo was victorious 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5 for his team-best 16^th victory, while Tsuda kept rolling at the No. 6 position with an easy 6-1, 6-2 decision for his fifth straight, and eighth win in his last 10 matches.

After that, the Cowboys narrowed its deficit to 3-1 taking the No. 1 slot over an injured Jan Zelezny. OSU fought back to even the team score at three with three-set winners at No. 2 and No. 4 and subsequently won the match at the No. 3 slot in an exciting third set tie-breaker. OSU’s Boris Kuharic used his senior expertise rallying from a set down and a 5-3 deficit in the final set to defeat Bjork in three.

“We put ourselves in a great position and when you play a really good team, they’re not going to just let you beat them,” said CU head coach Sam Winterbotham. “OSU came and took the matches, all three third sets. They were the ones who were finishing points at the net; they were the aggressors and that hadn’t been the case the whole match. That’s the just the next step, it’s a learning process. The process of a team, that’s starting to believe in itself.”

CU is idle until March 29 when they travel to conference rival Nebraska for a 2 p.m. match.

No. 11 Oklahoma State 4, No. 43 Colorado 3

OSU (11-4, 2-1), CU (6-7, 0-2)

March 22, South Campus Tennis Courts

Doubles

1) Tsuda/Digliodo (CU) def. Kuharic/Diaz 8-5

2) Bundalo/Bjork (CU) def. Van Elden/Byrnes 9-8(5)

3) Bohunicky/Burmistrau (OSU) def. Dvorak/Zelezny 8-4

Singles

1) (50) Mark Van Elden (OSU) def. Jan Zelezny 6-2, 7-6(3)

2) Tomas Bohunicky (OSU) def. Marko Bundalo 6-4, 3-6, 6-4

3) Boris Kuharic (OSU) def. Peter Bjork 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(1)