All-Sports Roundup: Tennis Competes in Big 12 Tourney, Cowgirl Softball Title Hopes Still Alive

Welcome back to another week highlighting Oklahoma State sports outside of football and basketball. In this week’s coverage, the OSU tennis teams traveled to Norman to compete in the Big 12 Tournament Championships and the Cowgirl Softball team took on a strong Baylor team.

Men’s Tennis

The No. 8 Cowboy tennis team (21-6, 3-2 Big 12) was awarded the No. 2 seed in the six-team Big 12 Tournament over the weekend. After receiving a first round bye, they were tasked with beating bottom seeded Texas Tech. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the Red Raiders came into the tournament with a ton of momentum and not only defeated the Cowboys 4-2, but won against No. 4 TCU in the finals to win the tournament.

The Cowboys will learn their postseason destination as the NCAA Tournament field is announced Tuesday, May 2nd at 4 p.m. The Cowboys hope to emulate last year’s postseason success after reaching the Sweet 16 a year ago. There’s a great chance that the Cowboys will host one of the regionals.

Women’s Tennis

Like the men, the No. 9 Cowgirls (22-5, 8-1 Big 12) fell to a strong Red Raider squad in the Big 12 Tournament, this time coming in the finals 4-2. The Cowgirls only conference defeat of the season also came to the No. 4 Red Raiders in March so there was a big build up to Sunday’s championship match. Texas Tech went up 3-0 before OSU mounted a comeback to pull within one. Although disappointed in the result, Coach Young was proud of the effort his girls laid out on the court.

“I told the girls that I’m proud of the way that we competed,” head coach Chris Young said. “We competed like champions…….That’s all you can ask for as a coach is just to go out and give everything they have. The Cowgirls laid it on the line today.”

The Cowgirls knocked off No. 15 Baylor Saturday to advance to today's #Big12TEN finals. Check out our video recap. #okstate pic.twitter.com/bru2Vu8Zre

— OSU Women's Tennis (@CowgirlTennis) April 30, 2017

The Cowgirls will now find out it’s NCAA Tournament seeding on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. right after the men’s tournament selection.

Cowgirl Softball

Cowgirl Softball faced conference foe No. 14 Baylor over the weekend in Waco and came away with weekend-ending win to avoid the sweep. Not only did the win keep the Cowgirls (33-19, 12-3 Big 12) in 2nd place over the Baylor Bears, but it was also their second top-25 win on the season. A fired-up Kenny Gajewski was interviewed after the game and had this to say.

“It was huge,” Gajewski said. “Just huge for our team. We got our butts kicked last night and there is only one thing you can do and that’s answer. And we answered. We made some nice plays and had some big at bats. I’m just so proud of this team.”

To finish the year, the Cowgirls will host 2 of 3 games against Bedlam rival Oklahoma which currently sits 2 games up in the Big 12 standings. The Cowgirls will need to sweep Bedlam to win the regular season title. Hopefully Saturday’s win over Baylor provides the much-needed momentum to do so. Below are the Bedlam times and locations.

Game 1: Wednesday at 6:30pm at Cowgirl Stadium – ESPNU
Game 2: Friday at 6:30pm in Norman
Game 3: Saturday at 4:00pm at Cowgirl Stadium ESPNU

We have only one word on our mind this week. #okstate pic.twitter.com/rRZEGUtNwu

— Cowgirl Softball (@CowgirlSB) May 1, 2017