Huskers Advance to Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinals

Norman, Okla. ? The No. 70 Nebraska women’s tennis defeated Oklahoma State, 4-3, in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament Thursday at the OU Headington Family Tennis Center. The victory marked seventh-seeded NU’s first conference tournament victory since the 2001 season, and the 10th-seeded Cowgirls’ season came to an end.

With the win, the Huskers will advance to Friday’s quarterfinals to face Texas A&M, the tournament’s No. 2 seed at 6 p.m.

“Our kids worked real hard today,” NU Coach Scott Jacobson said. “There is only one word to describe our team today and that is ?perseverance.’ We played with such passion and that helped us get the win against a tough team like Oklahoma State.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead of us against Texas A&M tomorrow.”

The Cowgirls made a bid for the upset by winning at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles, but NU took victories at the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 singles spots. The Huskers' No. 1 singles standout Gitte Ostermann edged OSU's Katya Kolodynska 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 for one of the decisive singles points, as Nebraska improved to 16-8 for the spring season.

“It felt so good to win today,” NU senior Leslie Harvey said. “We really wanted to come out here and win because we recently had a really good friend of ours pass away. We were really playing for her and it was really nice to win it.”

Singles
No. 1: #107 Gitte Ostermann (NU) def. Katya Kolodynska (OSU), 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
No. 2: Milena Schulz-Gartner (NU) def. Jana Karaskova (OSU), 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
No. 3: Leslie Harvey (NU) def. Ines Furtmayr (OSU), 0-6, 7-5, 6-4
No. 4: Zana Masnic(OSU) def. Anna Oehme (NU),  7-6, 6-0
No. 5: Pamela Castillejos (NU) def. Jennifer Poskitt (OSU), 6-2, 7-6
No. 6: Lauren Simmons (OSU) def. Katie Garcia (NU), 6-3, 6-2

Doubles
No. 1: Karaskova/Kolodynska (OSU) def. Ketmayura/Harvey (NU), 8-5
No. 2: Ostermann/Garcia (NU) def. Furtmayr/Masnic (OSU), DNF
No. 3: Poskitt/Simmons (OSU) def. Oehme/Schulz-Gartner (NU), 8-4