A Big 12 tennis title. A prom dress. Oklahoma State's Chris Young, family enjoyed it all.

STILLWATER — With her curled blonde hair dangling down onto her beaded blue gown, Kelsy Young’s prom night anticipation was peaking.

Yet her mind kept drifting somewhere else.

Throughout the pre-prom dinner, Young kept wondering how the Oklahoma State women’s tennis team was doing in its quest for a Big 12 Tournament championship. Checking the scores, she saw the Cowgirls were closing in on the title.

“We have to go,” she immediately told her friends.

So Young, one of her close friends and their prom dates left dinner to drive over to OSU’s Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center, arriving just in time to see the final moments as the Cowgirls clinched the title.

Just before the winning points were scored, OSU coach Chris Young glanced up into the crowd where his wife, Sarah was seated. And he saw his daughter’s sparkling blue dress.

More: Oklahoma State women's tennis wins Big 12 title, turns focus to NCAA Championships

“I had no idea she was gonna do that,” Chris said. “I had run home earlier and we took some pictures, just our family, before the match. They were planning to do group photos at about 4 or 4:30, and we needed to be warming up by that time.”

So Chris didn’t expect to see his daughter, but there she was, in her dress and heels, ready to celebrate with the Cowgirls.

“I got a couple stares walking in,” Kelsy said with a laugh. “Everyone was like, you’re wearing the wrong color, and why are you in a prom dress? But we had to make it work.”

And that led to some even more special prom-night family photos of the Youngs posing with the Big 12 Championship trophy and signs.

The magnitude of this two-month stretch for OSU women’s tennis and the Young family is impossible to measure.

The Cowgirls are the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championships as they prepare to host regionals at the Greenwood Center. The three-day event begins Friday, initiating OSU’s pursuit of its first NCAA championship in any female sport.

Should the Cowgirls advance, they’ll also host the super-regional round a week later.

And by pure chance, OSU also will serve as host for the final rounds of the NCAA team and individual championships for men and women May 16-26.

The Greenwood Center was initially scheduled to host the event in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the season, so the NCAA slotted OSU into the next opening — which just happened to be this year.

More: Why ITA indoor national title is just the start for Oklahoma State women’s tennis

And that’s where the Youngs’ good fortune comes in.

Not only was Kelsy close enough to stop by and share the prom night/Big 12 Championship moment with her parents, but Chris will be in Stillwater on the day of Kelsy’s high school graduation ceremony later this month, which is on the same day as the NCAA’s Elite Eight round.

“There’s a lot of big moments that otherwise I would miss if we weren’t hosting this year,” Chris said. “It’s just God’s timing of everything working out. You make a lot of sacrifices and you miss a lot of things when you’re a coach, so it’s nice for us to be able to do these things at OSU, and she can still do all these things that are important for her senior year and still be part of the team.”

Chris is in his 15th season leading the Cowgirls tennis program, so Kelsy has essentially grown up as part of the team. Not only getting to celebrate with her father, but also with the team that has meant so much to her was thrilling.

So thrilling, in fact, that Kelsy was immune to the chill of a 45-degree night

“The adrenaline when they won, I wasn’t cold,” Kelsy said with a laugh. “The girls are like my sisters. Just getting to support them in their big victories, and they support me for my prom and everything else, it’s really special.

“Being down there with everyone, it was so exciting.”

Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Prom, Big 12 title collided for OSU tennis coach Chris Young's family