Sooners Set for NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships

NORMAN: This week in Stillwater, Oklahoma, four players from the Oklahoma women’s tennis team—Julia Garcia Ruiz, Dana Guzman, Florencia Urrutia, and Alina Shcherbinina—will play in the NCAA individual finals to conclude their season. At the Greenwood Tennis Center, Guzman and Shcherbinina will begin play in the NCAA Doubles Championship commencing on Tuesday, while Garcia Ruiz, Guzman, and Urrutia will begin play in the NCAA Singles Championship on Monday.

Both All-Big 12 First Team members, Garcia Ruiz and Guzman, received at-large invites to the competition. At 1:30 p.m. CT, Garcia Ruiz will play Rachel Gailis, the No. 7 seed from Florida, while Guzman will play Celia-Belle Mohr, the 9–16 seed from Vanderbilt, at 10:15 a.m. CT. Urrutia, the alternate, will play Auburn’s 9–16 seed Carolyn Ansari at 9:00 a.m. CT to round out OU’s 64-player singles draw.

At an undisclosed time on Tuesday, the third-seeded and No. 4-ranked doubles team of Guzman and Shcherbinina will take on Vanderbilt’s Celia-Belle Mohr and Anessa Lee. The ITA All-American Championship and the ITA Central Regional Championship were both won by Guzman and Shcherbinina in the fall. They have eight rated victories this season, going 3-2 in dual matches and 22-4 overall.

The ITA has Garcia Ruiz ranked as high as 26 this season and presently has him at No. 37 in the singles rankings. She has an overall record of 25-7 this year, which includes an 18-3 record in dual matches. She mainly plays at No. 1 singles, where she was the Big 12 Co-Champion this year.

A first-team All-Big 12 selection in singles and doubles, Guzman’s rating has ranged from No. 40 to No. 23 this year. She has an overall record of 27-10 and a dual match record of 16-1. She primarily plays at No. 2, where she is a perfect 10-0, although she has also recorded 2-0 results at Nos. 3 and 4. She had a great finish to the season, winning nine out of ten games and six of them against opponents ranked in the top 100.

Despite missing time due to injury, Urrutia, a transfer from Kentucky, is now ranked No. 66 in the world and has been placed as high as No. 16 in the ITA’s singles rankings this season after winning the Big 12 Fall Championship. Her total record is 22-12; in dual bouts, she is 7-7, especially at No. 4, where she is 5-5. Eight of her 22 victories came against opponents with rankings.

For every match, there will be live streaming and stats accessible at this link.