Kansas’ men’s tennis team enters the Big 12 Championships with a sub-.500 record.
Yet the Jayhawks, 9-11 overall and 5-3 in conference, still have hopes of advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season.
“I think if we beat Oklahoma State, we’re in,” KU coach Mark Riley said of the 64-team NCAAs.
“We finished fourth in the Big 12 Conference, an extremely tough conference. If we make the semifinals, we’re probably in.”
KU, the fourth-seeded team, will take on No. 5 seed Oklahoma State (11-7, 4-4) at 11 a.m. Friday at The Plaza Tennis Center in Kansas City, Mo.
The winner advances to Saturday’s 10 a.m. match against No. 1 seed Baylor, provided Baylor wins its first match today against either Colorado or Nebraska.
“Anybody who has played Baylor has had their hands full this year,” Riley said of the Bears, 19-4 overall and 8-0 in conference. “They are ranked fourth in the country. We’d like the opportunity to play them again.”
Baylor beat KU, 5-2, earlier this season.
The Jayhawks enter the Big 12s following losses to Texas, Texas A&M and Tulsa. Prior to that stretch, KU had won five straight matches.
“When we won five in a row, I thought we were peaking then,” Riley said. “They we lost three. It’s been up and down. This is a young group. If I could say we were really ready, I may be lying a little bit. We’ve been up and down all season. If we are up now, it’d be great.”
Oklahoma State beat KU, 4-3, earlier this season. However, the Jayhawks appealed the match and actually won the appeal.
“I think it’s the first time I ever thought I had to appeal a match,” Riley said. “There are particular rules about how a lineup should be met — the order of players. I thought the Oklahoma State coach was way off base.”
Riley believed OSU’s No. 6 player was moved to No. 2 in an attempt to switch the order and give the Cowboys an advantage at Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6.
“The ironic part is it has happened once in women’s tennis and it was KU that won an appeal when Chuck Merzbacher was coach,” Riley said. “This should be a very spirited match.”
KU’s Eleazar Magallan and Rodrigo Echagaray, who have traded off at Nos. 1 and 2 singles this year enter with 29-16 and 19-14 records respectively. Quentin Blakeney is 19-15, Pete Stroer 20-17, Alex Barragan 7-19 and Bryan Maier 13-13.
Ed Dus and Echagaray are 16-13 in doubles. Barragan and Magallan are 12-11 and Blakeney and Stroer 13-10.
TODAY’S MATCH
9 a.m. — No. 8 Colorado v. No. 9 Nebraska.
FRIDAY’S MATCHES
8:30 a.m. — No. 8 Colorado or No. 9 Nebraska v. No. 1 Baylor.
11 a.m. — No. 5 Oklahoma State v. No. 4 Kansas.
1:30 p.m. — No. 6 Texas Tech v. No. 3 Texas.
4 p.m. — No. 7 Oklahoma v. No. 2 Texas A&M.
SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS
10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
SUNDAY’S FINAL
1 p.m.
