Huskers Come Back to Beat OSU in Thriller

Lincoln ? The Nebraska women’s tennis team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Oklahoma State Cowgirls 4-3 in a thrilling and tense match on Friday evening at the Nebraska Tennis Center. The Huskers snapped a five-match losing streak with the win, and evened their Big 12 record to 3-3. Oklahoma State fell to 8-10 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12 with the loss.

 

After winning the doubles point with a pair of closely-fought matches, Oklahoma State came out and won two of the first three singles matches to take a 3-1 lead. Wiveca Swarting won at No. 3 to give Nebraska its one point in that stretch.

 

The Huskers weren’t about to go down quietly, however. Mary Weatherholt started the Husker comeback with a straight-set victory at No. 2 singles. The win was her 30th singles victory of the season, tying a Nebraska all-time record.

 

Madeleine Geibert and Jennifer Holmberg had a lot of work to do at No. 1 and No. 5 singles, respectively. Each lost the first set, and were fighting to stay alive in the second set by the time Weatherholt finished her match to make it 3-2 OSU.

 

It looked like OSU was going to put the Huskers away after JoAnne Karaitiana had Geibert down 6-3 in a second-set tiebreaker. Geibert fought through three match points on her way to winning five straight points to give her an 8-6 win in the tiebreaker, forcing a third set. About that same time, Holmberg forced a third set with a close 7-5 win in the second set of her match.

 

“I knew I had to stay aggressive and play my game,” Geibert said about being down 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker. “I couldn’t win if I played safe, so I had to risk something, and it worked.”

 

Geibert went on the cruise in the third set, winning 6-2, while Holmberg clinched the match with a 6-3 win in the third set of her match, giving Nebraska the 4-3 victory.

 

“Our kids never gave up,” Head Coach Scott Jacobson said. “There was no quit. Geibert was down three match points, but she just never looked like she thought she was going to lose, even at that point in time. We’re happy for them, because we’ve had some challenging matches of late, and we needed a confidence boost. Sometimes you need something like this to give your team a little spark.”

 

Nebraska plays its final home match of the season on Sunday, as it takes on Oklahoma. First serve is set for 11 a.m. at the Nebraska Tennis Center.

 

Doubles (order of finish: 3-1-2)
No. 1 Shatkovskaya/Karaitiana def. Albers/Geibert, 9-7
No. 2 Buslaieva/Khatsko def. Ring/Swarting, 9-8 (2)
No. 3 Holmberg/Weatherholt def. Semenova/Tkachenko, 8-4

Singles (order of finish: 4-3-6-2-1-5)
No. 1 Madeleine Geibert def. JoAnne Karaitiana, 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2
No. 2 Mary Weatherholt def. Nataliya Shatkovskaya, 7-5, 6-1
No. 3 Wiveca Swarting def. Iryna Khatsko, 7-5, 6-1
No. 4 Maryna Tkachenko def. Jana Albers, 6-0, 6-3
No. 5 Jennifer Holmberg def. Alisa Buslaieva, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
No. 6 Galina Semenova def. Abby Buxton, 6-4, 6-4