Tennis

OU’s Sleeth & Texas’ Harper and Spizzirri Finish as National Runners-Up

Oklahoma’s Layne Sleeth and Texas’ Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri finished as NCAA national runners-up at the 2023 Division I Tennis Championships in Orlando, Florida.

Sleeth concluded her season as the national runner-up in the women’s singles bracket. The senior notched five-straight wins to become the first Sooner in program history to advance past the round of 16. Sleeth garnered All-American honors and finished with a 22-9 record this season while also finishing on the All-Big 12 First Team Singles Team.

Harper and Spizzirri advanced to the Longhorns’ second-straight men’s doubles final in as many years after winning their first four matches this postseason. It was the second-straight year Harper advanced to the Championship match after winning the men’s doubles title with teammate Richard Ciamarra in 2022. The duo collected All-American honors, First Team All-Big 12 recognition and were named the Big 12’s No. 1 position champions in doubles in a season that they recorded a 28-14 record.

It is the first time in Big 12 history that the Conference was represented in consecutive years in the championship match of the women’s singles bracket after Texas’ Peyton Stearns won the women’s singles title last season. It is also the first time the Conference has been represented in the men’s doubles final in back-to-back years since TTU’s duo of Raony Carvalho/Gonzalo Escobar made it in 2012 followed by Texas’ Chris Camillone/David Holiner in 2013. ­­­