Cowboy Tennis survives late push from UCF to advance to Big 12 semifinals on Saturday

Apr. 19—Through doubles and the first two singles match finishes, Oklahoma State head coach Dustin Taylor was living a coach's dream.

On court one, the Cowboys set the tone early by clinching the doubles point with the dynamic tandem of Tyler Zink and Isaac Becroft.

Zink and Becroft together are ranked as the No. 15 doubles pair by ITA, and the results speak for themselves — especially on Friday.

"The doubles point has been big with how critical it is to come out firing right from the start," Taylor said.

No. 5 Oklahoma State clinched its second consecutive appearance in the Big 12 semifinal round after a 4-2 victory over No. 4 Central Florida on Friday night at the Greenwood Tennis Center.

With the 1-0 lead in hand, it was Zink and Becroft once again making a statement to begin the singles matches. Zink swept the set with UCF's Lleyton Cronje for OSU's second point and Becroft did the same with Francisco Llanes less than two minutes later.

Just like that, the Cowboys held a commanding 3-0 lead.

Can't ask for a better start.

"Becroft and Zink set a huge tone today," Taylor said. "They were the more external ones. They competed harder than the guy across the net. And they put three points on the board and all we had to do was find one from there."

That's when things got interesting. Turns out finding that last point would be more difficult than hoped.

Central Florida's Santiago Giamichelle picked up the Golden Knights' first point, beating Oklahoma State's Alessio Basille in straight sets. Then, it was Mehdi Benchakroun defeating OSU's Francisco Pini to close the gap to 3-2.

Suddenly, the vibe felt different. OSU freshman Erik Schliessl felt the change and decided to do something about it. The German narrowly escaped with a massive set-breaker over Liam Branger in set one. His match was the last point Oklahoma State needed.

During the second set, Schiessl was close to clinching the victory but then surrendered two straight match points to Branger. That's when his mentality changed.

"My mind got free," Schiessl said. "I was a little nervous maybe losing that set and looking around on the other courts and seeing my guys going a little down."

His efforts were successful. Schiessl won the next match point to clinch the set, the match and the team victory.

"I felt like we needed this set," he said. "I put everything in there to get it."

It was his 12th singles win on the season, the most of any freshman. That's not where his recent trend was headed before Friday.

"He has struggled in the last couple of weeks dealing with an injury and still trying to play through it," Taylor said. "So today, I learned that he's got some good resilience behind him as well ... Just proud of him and how he regrouped there at the end because that's not an easy situation. Just showed his resilience and how bright his future really is."

The 4-2 victory avenges the close 4-3 loss at UCF on March 28 in a four-and-a-half hour contest. The message today was to get revenge, but more so to embrace the pressure of hosting the Big 12 Tournament.

"You only get to do it every six, seven years and it's great privilege, a great opportunity for us," Taylor said. "Great opportunity for Oklahoma State, the city of Stillwater."

With the win, the Cowboys now advance to face top-seeded Texas in their second consecutive Big 12 semifinal appearance. Oklahoma State has not appeared in the Big 12 title match since 2003 and have not won the conference title since 1991.

Here's the official results of Friday's match:

Doubles Competition:

No. 15 Becroft and Zink (OSU) def. Giamichelle and Cronje (UCF), 6-3

Allen and Basile (OSU) def. Colin and Branger (UCF), 6-3

Garcia and Pini (OSU) vs. Llanes and Sanches (UCF), unfinished

Singles Competition:

No. 23 Zink (OSU) def. No. 123 Cronje (UCF), 6-2, 6-4

No. 85 Becroft def. Llanes (UCF), 6-2, 6-2

Giamichelle (UCF) def. Basile (OSU), 6-3, 7-5

Benchakroun (UCF) def. Pini (OSU), 6-1, 1-6, 6-1

Schiessl (OSU) def. Branger (UCF), 7-6(3), 6-4

Garcia (OSU) vs. Colin (UCF), unfinished