No. 12 Sooners Head to Illinois for ITA National Indoors

NORMAN – As the 2025 edition of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Team Indoor Championship gets set to open action Friday, the sixth-seeded Oklahoma women's tennis team (5-0) is preparing to face third-seeded UCLA (3-0) at 12 p.m. (CT) at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill.

The Sooners will make their third appearance all-time in the event and are a one-time runner-up – 2022. Oklahoma holds a 4-3 career record at National Team Indoors and has reached the quarterfinals in both trips to the prestigious tournament.

All main-draw matches will be broadcasted via the Cracked Racquets' YouTube channel. A PlaySight live stream, as well as live scoring, will be available for every match.

SCOUTING UCLA AND SERIES HISTORY

UCLA enters the ITA Indoors with a 3-0 ledger with losses coming against LMU (1-3), Washington (2-1) and No. 18 Cal (1-2). UCLA returns its most frequent participants on singles courts 2-6, including All-Pac-12 honorees Bianca Fernandez, Ahmani Guichard, Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle. ITA Southwest Regional Rookie of the Year Fernandez had a team-high 14 dual-match singles wins and made the NCAA singles field with Hance. Double-digit singles winners in addition to Fernandez returning for the Bruins are Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer, Guichard, Wagle, and Hance. Lutkemeyer, Hance, Guichard and Wagle each bring at least 14 doubles victories from the 2023-24 season. In the offseason, the team added Olivia Center (South Pasadena, Calif./San Marino HS) and Kate Fakih (Pasadena, Calif./Connections Academy) to the squad.

UCLA features Lutkemeyer (17), Wagle (53) and Fakih (56) ranked in the ITA singles ledger, while Center/Fakih (3), Hance/Wagle (9) and Guichard/Lutkemeyer (30) are ranked in doubles.

Oklahoma has met UCLA in only two outings, the last being in 1986 where the Bruins came out victorious in a 9-0 win.

SOONERS IN THE RANKINGS

The Sooners currently have five players in the ITA singles rankings. Leading the pack is No. 13 Julia Garcia Ruiz, followed by No. 43 Alina Shcherbinina, No. 91 Ava Catanzarite, No. 103 Salakthip Ounmuang and No. 114 Gloriana Nahum.

In doubles, OU is represented by No. 47 Shcherbinina and Cara Mester, followed by No. 58 Garcia Ruiz and Chloé Noël.

HOW WE GOT HERE

OU punched its ticket to the ITA National Indoor Championship by knocking off No. 14 Cal, 4-1, on Jan. 25 at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley, Calif.

In a rematch of last season's ITA Kickoff Championship in Norman, the Sooners claimed a tightly contested doubles point that was decided on a crucial tiebreaker on the top court.

Cal took the early advantage, winning the first doubles match on court two behind a 6-2 showing from Greta Greco Lucchina and Mao Mushika over Julia Garcia Ruiz and Chloé Noël. Following closely behind, the dynamic freshmen doubles pair of Salakthip Ounmuiang and Gloriana Nahum defeated Berta Passola Folch and Tiziana-Marie Schomburg, 6-2, on court three to shift momentum in OU's favor.

Despite finding themselves in a 3-2 hole early in tiebreakers, Alina Shcherbinina and Cara Mester rattled off five straight points vs. Greta Greco Lucchina and Mao Mushika, ultimately prevailing 7-3 to send Oklahoma to a 1-0 lead.

With three more courts to secure the OU victory, No. 68 Ava Catanzarite took down Greco Lucchina at the sixth spot in a dominant, 6-1, 6-0 fashion. Next up, Nahum defeated No. 81 Passola Folch on court five, 6-4, 6-3, to add another point to OU's score. The straight-set victory proved to be the first ranked singles win for the freshman from Cotonou, Benin.

Cal's lone singles win of the night came on court four, as Asola defeated Emma Staker, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The remaining courts went to a third set, but play would not last for long. Sending the Sooners on their third trip to Indoor Nationals in program history, Garcia Ruiz claimed the 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over Wiersholm on court one.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Oklahoma returns to the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Ill., for the first time since ending its historical 2022 campaign as NCAA National Runners-Up, marking the most successful season in OU history.

Head coach Audra Cohen took the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament and surpassed the second round for the first time in program history. The Sooners went on to advance to the Elite Eight after defeating No. 15 Stanford, Final Four after defeating No. 7 Texas A&M and reached the championship with a win over No. 3 Duke. OU finished their season as the 2022 National Runner-Up after falling to No. 4 Texas.

Throughout the illustrious year, the Sooners collected 12 sweeps, 17 ranked wins against teams in the top 30, four Big 12 Player of the Week honors and went undefeated at home.

WHAT IS NEXT?

If the Sooners advance past UCLA, Oklahoma will play on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 12 p.m. (CT) against the winner of the LSU/Michigan contest. The losing teams of both matches will play at 6:30 p.m. (CT) Saturday.

Texas A&M, Illinois, Oklahoma State and Texas are also on OU's side of the 16-team bracket. Teams advancing through the first two rounds head to Evanston, Illinois, for the semifinal and championship rounds next Monday and Tuesday.

For updates, follow @OU_WTennis on Twitter or like Oklahoma Women's Tennis on Facebook.