Oklahoma State entered Saturday with national title hopes but ended the day with a heartbreaking defeat.

OSU’s women’s tennis team lost 4-2 to No. 16 Tennessee in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Cowgirls were the No. 1 team in the country with a 29-0 start, but their first loss came in heartbreaking fashion at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater.

Trailing 3-2 with Ayumi Miyamoto and Anastasiya Komar still playing on Courts 5 and 1, the Cowgirls looked to stave off elimination. Both players battled through adversity and extended their sets but could not overcome the hole they had put themselves in.

Komar lost the third set in a tiebreaker, as Tennessee’s Sofia Cabezas sealed her team’s victory and a spot in the Elite Eight. The match did not end in OSU’s favor, and the team’s early momentum quickly came to a halt.

OSU got on the board first, winning the doubles point on Courts 1 and 3. However, the Cowgirls lost the first singles point after Lucia Peyre left with an injury. Peyre did not play in doubles and was unable to get through the first set before her afternoon ended.

No. 3 Ange Oby Kajuru put OSU up 2-1 after beating Elza Tomase on Court 2. However, Tennessee did not lose another match to end OSU’s undefeated season.

Despite the loss, Chris Young’s team still had one of the most successful seasons in OSU history. Although the Cowgirls have had deeper postseason runs in his tenure, their consistent placement at No. 1 and the ITA indoor championship made 2024 an unforgettable campaign.

The season ended with a disappointment, but the Cowgirls should be able to carry the momentum from this season into the next. However, the Cowgirls missing out on the opportunity to win a national championship in front of their home fans might sting for a while.

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The Tennessee Volunteers will trot out a very strong five-man group along their offensive line this season.

While the conversations around the Tennessee Volunteers remain centered on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, their offensive line unit has begun drawing some national attention. Offensive line coach Glen Elarbee has done a strong job building his unit over the past few years, and now he’s got a group that appears fit to compete at a high level in the SEC.

On3 national writer Jesse Simonton ranked the top-10 offensive lines in the country, and the Vols slotted in as the No. 9 unit across college football. “Josh Heupel’s offensive system does some of the heavy lifting for Tennessee’s OL, but the Vols still feature a veteran unit with highly-coveted young transfer,” Simonton wrote. “Cooper Mays, Javontez Spraggins, and John Campbell Jr. (who is flipping from left to right tackle) have a combined 95 career starts and are all back. Tennessee then added former 5-star Lance Heard from LSU, who is set to protect Nico Iamaleava’s blindside in 2024. “

“The Vols also inked a very good recruiting class of offensive linemen, and Dayne Davis and Jackson Lampley return as sixth-year seniors who provide valuable depth. This won’t be a unit that wins the Joe Moore Award, but it’s capable of pushing around a fair number of DLs in the SEC.”

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No one is going to feel sorry for Vanderbilt baseball, especially those dudes across the state in orange.

The fact that Tennessee entered this weekend’s series at Hawkins Field ranked No. 1 in the nation isn’t some outlier in our state’s best college sports rivalry. It was the continuation of a shift that dates back a few years now.

So, too, was the Vols’ 8-4 victory over the unranked Commodores in Friday’s Game 1, which made it eight in a row in the series. With a monstrous offense and overachieving pitching staff that keeps piecing together outs and wins, Tony Vitello’s Tennessee (41-9, 18-7 SEC) is barreling toward a return to the College World Series, likely hosting the NCAA regionals and super regionals along the way.

In the coming weeks, there will be plenty more to say about these Vols.

As for the rest of this weekend, that looms far more important for Vanderbilt (33-17, 11-14).

It’ll have two more opportunities to break the in-state jinx and start turning a sinking season before it’s too late. Not impossible.

But seldom have Tim Corbin’s Vandy Boys looked as much an underdog as they do right now.

All is not well on that side of the diamond. Vanderbilt’s sub-standard hitting is now paired with an underachieving pitching staff that’s banged-up, hurting for confidence and increasingly unreliable in critical situations.

Friday’s loss — during which the Commodores’ bullpen blew a 4-3 eighth-inning lead — wasn’t just another deflating setback to their in-state rival. It was their sixth SEC loss in a row, period. During that stretch, they have been outscored 58-26.

Hopes to host an NCAA regional are all but gone. You’d think an NCAA bid remains assured. But look at Vanderbilt’s five remaining regular-season games: Two more this weekend against Tennessee, followed by a three-game series at No. 5 Kentucky.

Something needs to go right for Vanderbilt. Quickly.

And that’s why Friday night’s blown lead felt especially cruel. Because the Commodores and their home fans had started to sense a turning point was at hand. Starting pitcher Bryce Cunningham gave them that belief, striking out 10 and allowing only three runs in 6⅔ innings.

“He attacked, obviously, a good offensive team,” Corbin said of Cunningham. “I thought he did what he needed to do to put us in a good position to win.”

Down to their final six outs, the Vols just grabbed their bats and swatted aside the Commodores like a minor annoyance. A five-run eighth inning featured home runs by Kavares Tears and Cannon Peebles. Vanderbilt’s freshman relief pitchers Miller Green and Brennan Seiber combined to allow five hits and five runs in 2⅓ innings.

That Corbin, facing the nation’s most powerful offense, chose to hand a one-run lead to a freshman in Green suggested a lack of faith in the rest of his (healthy) pitching staff.

“I mean, we’ve got what we’ve got, OK,” Corbin said when asked afterward about his bullpen’s struggles, “unless Jesus comes into the picture.”

It wasn’t just the pitching. The 3-4-5 hitters in Vanderbilt’s lineup were a collective 0-for-11, with five strikeouts. Tennessee’s A.J. Causey, who slipped to allow three runs in the sixth inning that put Vanderbilt ahead 4-3, was able to stay in the game. He threw the final 6⅓ innings, thus saving Vols arms for the remainder of the series.

After losing the starting role on Friday nights, Causey has been effective out of the bullpen for Tennessee, which has gotten by without injured pitcher A.J. Russell, who was expected to star atop the Vols’ rotation this season.

Entering this weekend, they haven’t lost an SEC series since the first one in March.

They are a legit powerhouse and national title contender.

If this Vanderbilt team wants to have a chance to be viewed that way again this season, it’ll need to figure out a way to finally beat them before the losing streak grows.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.