The No. 55 Horned Frogs were unable to overcome losing the doubles point Friday against the No. 21 Oklahoma State Cowboys, losing 4-3 at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
This year, the doubles point has been a consistent way for the Horned Frogs (9-8, 0-1 Big 12) to jump out to early leads in most of their previous matches
TCU had to beat the Cowboys (18-2, 1-0 Big 12) in the final singles match of the evening, but couldn’t close the deal in the Big 12 opener.
“The doubles point cost us the match today. We were too tentative and we got down too much too fast,” coach David Roditi said. “We can’t seem to figure out a way to win four points as a team.”
In doubles play, TCU’s top ranked duo No. 16 Nick Chappell and Will Stein was upset 8-3 by OSU’s Jakob Sude and Arjun Kadhe. Following the loss, TCU’sHudson Blake and Facundo Lugones picked up their seventh win as a pair this season with an 8-1 win over Brady Bohrnstedt and Chris Haworth on court three.
The doubles point would be decided by No. 73 Arnau Dachs and Trey Daniel. The pair fell down early 7-1, before rebounding to a 7-4 score before Lucas Gerch and Sebastian Sachs sealed the deal and eventually the match for the Cowboys.
TCU began the singles portion of the match strong after posting two straight-set victories on courts two and three to get its first lead in the match at 2-1.
No. 121 Dachs notched the first win with a 6-4, 6-1 shut down of Sachs.
No. 107 Lugones fought hard to win a tiebreaker in his first set at No. 3 singles and earned a 6-4 win in the second set to seal his victory.
No. 46 Chappell split his first two sets with No. 61 Sude and found himself up 4-1 in the third set, before Sude battled back to tie the set at 4-4. The two players each held serve, but Chappell showed grit and held serve one last time, before finally outlasting Sude to win the match.
“We are playing good tennis and I believe if we continue fighting and competing, then something good will happen,” David Roditi said. “It was fun to see Facundo, Arnau and Nick win at the top. They all played very good tennis.”
The match drama was short-lived for TCU. Rodolfo Bustamante lost to Lucas Gerch and clinched the overall 4-3 match win for the Cowboys with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
TCU will continue its opening weekend of conference play by welcoming No. 3 Oklahoma on Sunday, March 30 at 1 p.m., at the Friedman Tennis Center and the Bernard J. ‘Tut’ Bartzen Varsity Courts.