Results

NORMAN, Okla. – After dropping the doubles point, the Oklahoma women's tennis team swept singles to defeat the University of South Alabama 4-1 Saturday afternoon at the Headington Family Tennis Center.

The Sooners improve to 6-2 while the Jaguars drop to 8-4.

"I'm proud of the way the girls fought and competed once again today," USA head coach Jaco Keyser said. "It's not the best break or stroke of luck to play indoors against two teams on this trip who play some pretty good indoor tennis. Having said that, as the coach, I need to do a better job in preparing the girls to play indoors and figure out what we need to do in order to break through against teams on a national scale even when playing indoors."

All four singles wins by OU were in straight sets. Julie Byrne dropped just one game in a 6-1, 6-0 victory over sophomore Patricia Martins (Lisbon, Portugal) at No. 5, and Malene Stripp gave the Sooners the lead with a 6-2, 6-3 win over senior Laura Valkova (Piestany, Slovakia) on court 3.

Ann Selim added to Oklahoma's lead at No. 6 when she defeated sophomore Alina Zolotareva (Barnaul, Russia) 6-2, 6-3. No. 22 Lily Miyazaki clinched the match on court 1 over sophomore Alexandria Stiteler (Bradenton, Fla.) 7-5, 6-2.

"It's definitely painful to take these losses in the short term but if we process these matches the right way we will look back at this trip at the end of the season and understand that we finally became a mentally tough team when we competed as hard as we did these last couple of matches when the deck was stacked against us," Keyser said.

In doubles, the Jaguars earned the point with 6-2 victories at Nos. 2 and 3. Stiteler and senior Monica Mitta (Fairhope, Ala.) downed Miyazaki and Simran Sethi at No. 2, and Zolotareva and senior Laura Matuskova (Bratislava, Slovakia) topped Serena Nash and Selim on court 3.

The Jaguars start a three-match homestand Friday with Louisiana Tech at 1 p.m.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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