Cowgirls Looking to Stay Picture Perfect vs. Michigan in Waco for the NCAA

STILLWATER – You have to go back to March 2 of this season when the Cowgirls tennis team was 7-6 and seemingly looking like they were going nowhere. The Cowgirls were 1-1 in the Big 12 losing a rare home match at the Greenwood Tennis Center to UCF 4-3. Since then the Oklahoma State women have been on a roll going 15-1 including wins over ranked teams like Arizona State, Arizona, TCU, Baylor, BYU, Kansas, Iowa State, Tulsa, and then No. 6 Oklahoma towin the regional and No. 25 Stanford to win the super regional. 

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Epps working out in Waco in preparation for the NCAA.

It was Gracie Epps that polished that win over Stanford that earned the trip to Waco and the NCAA Elite Eight where the Cowgirls will face No. 3 Michigan (26-4) in a rematch of a 4-2 loss at Michigan on Feb. 21.  

“I’m blessed to be here and have a coach and a team that supports me and that is really who I’m playing for,” Epps said of this team and how she feels. “I do believe this entire team is gritty. We lost to Michigan but we didn’t have Melisa (Ercan) then. We are a better team now and I believe in myself and my teammates.”

Gracie Epps is faith-based. An FCA member and an athlete that wants people to know she believes in Christ and puts here emphasis in life on that. Her next emphasis is family and then tennis, but it is a very strong third. 

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Young is having a lot of fun with this team.

Her coach, Chris Young, coached her parents and he has known Gracie her entire life. It is probably fair that Epps transferred from Georgia to play for Young. It is poetic that Epps won her three-setter against Stanford to clinch another trip for Young, who is also the chair of the NCAA Tennis Committee, and his team to the Elite Eight.

“It is hard to do and we haven’t done is since 2017, but we’ve been right there knocking on the door,” Young said. “This is probably a team that people didn’t expect at certain points of the season (to be here). It is a young team that is just going to lose one kid for next season, but this team is growing, really growing in confidence and doing it in different ways. We’ve now won two matches where we lost first sets and come back and done it. It is a pretty special group.”

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Ercan coming in and playing No. 1 singles has switched the line-up completely from the first Michigan meeting.

They lost to Michigan 4-2, but they are stronger and better now. Michigan has four-ranked singles players in Julia Fliegner (No. 6), Piper Charney (No. 21), Lily Jones (no. 46) and Emily Sartz-Lunde (No. 68). Fliegner, Charney, and Jones all won in the first meeting. Komar was playing No. 1 and lost to Fliegner 6-4, 6-0. Charney beat Kylie Collins 6-4, 6-4. Epps dropped the match in straight sets to Jobes 6-3, 6-3. Miller took Marcela Lopez 6-1, 6-4. None of those players will meet each other. It is all jumbled up.

“I hope fans really appreciate this team. This is the type of team people would really appreciate because it is the type of team that doesn’t go away and the type of team that really fights,” Young described his group. “They come out here to watch people really fight and compete. If this team losses it is because somebody just beat them.”

That is what Michigan will have to do. Oklahoma State intends on sticking around in Waco.