OU women's tennis coach Audra Cohen on Sooners' return to ITA indoors & more

For the second consecutive season, OU’s women’s tennis team will compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships.

The Sooners open the event against fourth-seeded Duke at 2 p.m. Friday in Seattle.

OU qualified with 4-0 wins over both Minnesota and Texas Tech on Jan. 28 in Norman.

Last season, the Sooners reached the finals at the event, springboarding them to a 32-3 record and an NCAA runner-up finish — the best in the program’s history.

Ahead of this season’s indoor championships, OU coach Audra Cohen spoke to The Oklahoman about how her team stands heading into the event, the challenges of bouncing back from last season and more.

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What does it mean for this program to be back in the ITA National Indoor Championships?

Cohen: It’s a huge opportunity. What it means most is that it’s established. It’s not easy to be top 16 in the country and to do it consistently so for us to have this opportunity solidifies that we’re one of the best teams in the country and we earned our way there.

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How much different was it this year qualifying at home?

It’s obviously easier to play at home. That’s why we also scheduled so many tough matches on the road prior to indoors because we had to have some of that toughness. Some of those matches haven’t gone our way but I think it’s actually a good thing because had we not had those tough moments, maybe we wouldn’t be going to indoors as prepared.

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How different has this season been after the success of last year?

It’s been tough. Also, a lot of teams are really good this year. I think this is one of the toughest years of college tennis since I’ve been involved in college tennis, which is a great thing. I think we definitely feel like we have a target on our head and going on the road to some of these places, our schedule has been by no means easy. … We have a lot of tennis to play here and we expected to not be winning every match this year with the schedule we had. From tough matches comes a lot of learning.

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You have two new players this year, Romana Cisovska from Slovakia and Julia Garcia Ruiz from Mexico. What has stood out to you about those two?

(Ruiz) is an extremely humble person. She’s just a hard worker. She’s not really tall or a big girl, but just hits the ball huge for her size. She’s a lefty and incredibly talented and pretty resilient so we’re really happy with how she’s progressed. … Romana, she’s a huge hitter and she could be a surprise superstar if she gains a little bit more confidence as the season goes on here. She’s got a big serve, big game. Her ball-striking ability is pretty remarkable.

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What has recruiting been like, especially looking internationally for talent?

It’s extremely tough. We’re not like a sexy destination in terms of location for tennis so it’s not easy to find recruits that want to come here and then, two, are the right fit. But what’s really helped us is being, I don’t want to say picky, but we’re looking for somebody who really wants to get better. They’re not not saying they want to get better, they just really want to get better and they want to be on a great team around people who want to get better. That growth mindset is something we look for a lot, that’s why a lot of times we’ll take a recruit that maybe might not seem like she’s at the level that we could recruit, but the growth side of it is so big that we bet on that margin.

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Has that dynamic changed with the success you’ve had?

It’s easier. It’s also a little tricky. … When you’re recruiting with a ranking, it’s easier, but your margin for getting better is smaller now. You’re still recruiting against Texas in Austin, you’re recruiting against Florida. It’s easier because we’re obviously more established as a program but from that pool of players that we’re now looking at, there’s still quite a bit of competition within that.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's tennis: Sooners coach Audra Cohen on ITA indoors and more