The Sacramento State Big Sky men’s tennis champs were no match for the eighth-seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Sac State was one of 19 teams to get swept in the first round.Oklahoma State’s current ranking is its highest ever, while Sac State this year was able to attain a ranking twice this season for the first time since the 2003 season.

Despite the team having more wins, Sac State was a heavy underdog in its match against Oklahoma State at Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The Cowboys have two ranked singles players and a ranked doubles, while Sac State was hoping for Oklahoma State to overlook it.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, the Cowboys were poised and focused.

The match started with the Cowboys grabbing the doubles point. No. 1 doubles featured the 47th-ranked team of Daniel Byrnes and Oleksandr Nedovyesov (14-7) holding off the Hornets’ Anton Stryhas and Gabriel Loredo 8-5.

The No. 1 doubles match was dead even at five all when the Cowboys broke Loredo’s serve, held serve and then broke Stryhas’s serve to close out the match.

On court three, Ivan Puchkarov and Dmytro Petrov (13-5) cruised to an 8-1 victory against Ramon Perez and Warwick Foy while on court two, the doubles match did not finish.

The Hornets No. 3 doubles did not hold serve once, while No. 2 Hague Van Dillen and Xavier Barajas-Smith were on serve at 6-7 against Oklahoma State’s Artsem Burmistrau and Nathan Byrnes until the match was called.

The match shifted to singles with the Cowboys concluding doubles with relative ease.

Oklahoma State’s No. 4 singles player, Dmytro Petrov, improved to 17-2 by overpowering Ramon Perez 6-0, 6-1.

Perez came into the match with confidence, but quickly found out why his opponent was so dominant.

“He was huge in everything. This is by far the best guy I have played all season,” Perez said.

The Hornets No. 1, Barajas-Smith, was valiant in his comeback effort before bowing out 1-6, 4-6. His opponent, 23rd-ranked Nedovyesov, improved to 17-5 on the season.

At No. 5, the Cowboys’ Artsem Burmistrau (14-4) stopped the match by winning the clincher 6-3, 6-3 against Warwick Foy.

Foy was up a break in the first set and led 3-2 in the second, but did not have enough to close out his opponent.

Foy said he thought he got a break in the first set so quickly because his opponent was a little nervous. The match turned when Burmistrau played loosely and more aggressively.

“There was pressure for them to beat us. I think they realized that, and they did not take us lightly,” Foy said.

The Hornets will lose senior players after the season, but Sac State’s three freshman stars will return.

One of the freshmen, Stryhas (20-4) was the only Hornet to win a set against the Cowboys and feels confident Sac State will return to the NCAA tournament next year.

Stryhas used his past experiences against his opponent wisely as he controlled the first set, in which he raced ahead 5-2. He led 30th-ranked Puchkarov 6-4, 2-5 when the match was called.

Matches that were also stopped on court were No. 3 Loredo and No. 6 Timothy Lantin, who both dropped first sets, but were fighting hard in second sets until the Cowboys’ Burmistrau clinched the match.

Wichita State transfer Loredo was the only Hornet with NCAA tournament experience.

In the 2004 NCAA tournament, he won the only match for Wichita State against Tennessee, and might have won it this year if it was not called off.

He was tied at four-all in the second set and up 30 love on his opponent’s serve.

“I think if we would have completed the match, I would have won the second and the third set would have been a battle,” Loredo said.

Sac State’s assistant coach, Kevin Kurtz, said he thinks the team has nothing to be ashamed of.

“Everyone played hard. We just played against a better team,” Kurtz said.

Oklahoma State crushed the No. 26 Oklahoma Sooners 4-0. Sac State’s opponent, Oklahoma State, has won the last 17 matches against Oklahoma and will next play ninth-seeded UCLA in round 16.

Tyrone Bowman can be reached at [email protected]