Oklahoma State Women’s Tennis Team Will Play for the National Title

The California Bears women’s tennis team came into the national semifinals on Monday with a 23-1 record on the season. They won their first three matches in the NCAA Tournament 4-0. They won 4-2 in the Elite 8 against Pepperdine. They were the No. 1 team in the country coming into Monday’s match against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls.

And the Cowgirls beat them on Monday in Tulsa 4-3 to make it to their first-ever women’s national championship in tennis.

BOOM! HELLO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH!! pic.twitter.com/Mie0MK1v8w

— OSU Women’s Tennis (@CowgirlTennis) May 23, 2016

“Breaking barriers down is the hardest thing to do in sports because sports is lined up for certain teams, whether professional or college,” explained Cowgirl head coach Chris Young. “To break those barriers down, you’ve got to have special kids. That’s what we have.

“I’m still at a loss for words, I mean these girls know with everything we’ve been through this season and overcome, they know how proud I am of them. They know what this means, you get to this point in the journey I don’t think you have to say a whole lot, you just know.”

On the back of another win from Ukranian Viktoriya Lushkova who is now 26-1 this spring, OSU took home four of the seven matches to advance and will play Stanford at noon on Tuesday.

It wasn’t easy for Lushkova though. She dropped her first set (and the first set she’s dropped since April 9) but rallied to win the next two as well as her match and the entire match for her team.

“I mean no one is going to beat Viktoriya right now and that’s just a fact,” Young said. “Viktoriya has been the most consistent this season and with the match on the line she’s as tough as anybody, she’s been that way since day one, she has no fear. At the end of the day, I’ll take Viktoriya every time.”

Oklahoma State has now beaten three of the top five seeds (Georgia, Ohio State and Cal). Pretty awesome stuff.

“We are Oklahoma State,” Young added to the O’Colly. “I think we are the only ones that believed this was possible all year. (The girls) wanted to send a message to show people what Oklahoma State is all about. It has never been a lack of talent – it is a matter of belief.”