NCAA 1st Round Previews: Oklahoma & UCLA Regionals

NCAA Interactive Bracket & Printable Bracket - all times EST.

Oklahoma Regional

Headington Family Tennis Center - Norman, OK

[1] Oklahoma (24-2) vs. [49-64] New Mexico State (11-13) - Friday 5pm - Not a whole lot of analysis needed for this one with the #1 team in the country playing the WAC champs who come in with a losing record.  This will be Oklahoma's 27th match this year but only the 2nd against an unranked opponent - Purdue was the other.

NCAA Singles & Doubles Selections

Here is who was chosen for NCAA Singles Tournament along with what their current ITA ranking and current Universal Tennis ranking.

The Atlantic 10, Big South, and Colonial lost its automatic bid due to not having any players ranked inside the top 125 while the Sunbelt gained a spot with South Alabama's Daniel Leitner ranked inside the top 100.  

There is also a list below of alternates below - last year 4 alternates made it into the field due to withdraws.  1 of the automatic qualifiers, North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins, hasn't played since March 13th so if he can't go that would open up a spot for Florida Gulf Coast's Jordi Vives if he stays inside the top 125 - he was 123 last week.

It looks like the cut-off to make the field as an at-large was an ITA ranking of #58

The guys with the highest UTR to miss out are Virginia's Collin Altamirano #7, Illinois's Aleks Vukic #24, USC's Eric Johnson #25, Texas A&M's Arthur Rinderknech #28, UCLA's Martin Redlicki #30, Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti #32, Oklahoma's Alex Ghilea #33, Illinois's Tim Kopinski #40, Ole Miss's Stefan Lindmark #41, and Old Dominion's Carlos Lopez Villa #43, Illinois's Aron Hiltzik #47, and Virginia Tech's Amerigo Contini #48. 

What's Coming Up & Interesting NCAA Facts & Notes

Between now and the start of the 1st round on May 8th I'll preview 2 regionals per day. I'll start off with the Oklahoma and UCLA regionals and finish with the Virginia Tech and Baylor regionals.  I'll list the projected starting lineups with current player rankings and current Universal Tennis Rankings and I'll also make my predictions on each.

Some interesting facts and stats:

The doubles point plays a large roll between winning and losing and it seems to mean that much more when tournament time rolls around.  It's interesting to see a pair of top 20 teams in the bottom 4 in winning percentage. 

NCAA Tournament Men's Field

Master Lineups (pre-challenge)

All Times Eastern:

Norman Regional
[1] Oklahoma* vs. [49-64] New Mexico State - Friday 5pm
[17-32] Northwestern vs. [33-48] Harvard - Friday 2pm

UCLA Regional
[17-32] Texas Tech vs. [33-48] UC Santa Barbara - Friday 1pm
[49-64] FGCU vs. [16] UCLA* - Friday 4pm

Austin Regional
[9] Texas* vs. [49-64] Navy - Friday 2pm
[17-32] California vs. [33-48] Texas A&M Corpus Christi - Friday 11am

Athens Regional
[17-32] Florida State vs. [33-48] Troy - Friday 11am
[49-64] Winthrop vs. [8] Georgia* - Friday 2pm

NCAA Tournament Women's Field

Master Lineups (pre-challenge)

USC Regional
[1] USC* vs. [49-64] Youngstown State
[17-32] Virginia Tech vs. [33-48] Long Beach State

Lubbock Regional
[17-32] LSU vs. [33-48] New Mexico
[49-64] New Mexico State vs. [16] Texas Tech*

Charlotteville Regional
[9] Virginia* vs. [49-64] VCU
[17-32] South Carolina vs. [33-48] Princeton

Waco Regional
[17-32] Rice vs. [33-48] Tulsa
[49-64] Northwestern State vs. [8] Baylor*

NCAA Tournament Field Projections

If the committee follows my final ranking projections and uses H2H for adjacent teams this is what the field could look like at 5:30pm eastern.  Tune in to find out - NCAA Selection Show.

Seeds 1-16:
1. Oklahoma
2. Baylor
3. Virginia
4. Illinois
5. TCU
6. Texas A&M
7. USC
8. Georgia
9. Texas
10. Duke
11. Ohio State
12. Wake Forest
13. North Carolina
14. Ole Miss
15. Virginia Tech
16. UCLA

Championship Sunday Recap - Part 2 (Big East, Big Sky, Big West, Horizon, MAAC, Southern, Southland, Summit, WAC)

Big East:

St. John's repeated as Big East Champions with a 4-2 win over #2 Marquette.  The Red Storm took the doubles point with 8-5 wins at 1 and 3 and then Lucas Hejhal extended the lead to 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-2 win at #1. Marquette answered with wins from Kris Trukov and Mackenzie Stearns at 4 and 5 to tie it at 2 but St. John's Robert Livi would put STJ back up 3-2 with a  6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win at #3. STJ's Erick Reyes would came back from a set down to clinch at #2 singles with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Vukasin Teofanovic.

2015 Conference Tournament Central

There will be 31 automatic bids handed out on the men's side for the upcoming NCAA Championships with the winners of the below conferences each getting 1 of those 31. The list of winners is at the very bottom of this page.

Week of April 20th

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) (Cary, NC) - April 22-26 - Virginia is defending champion. Participants: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Louisville, Florida State, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, NC State, Miami, Clemson, Boston College.

Championship Sunday Recap

I didn't think Oklahoma and Baylor could top some of their previous meetings but they sure tried their best today.  In a match that was delayed multiple times by weather it was #1 Oklahoma doing the unthinkable and beating #2 Baylor for the 4th time this year and for the 2nd time in Waco.

Baylor came out strong in doubles and jumped out to early break leads at 1 and 3 while Oklahoma got the early break lead at 2.  While Baylor's #1 team of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano would pull away for a quick 6-1 win its #3 team of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios would lose its early 3-1 lead and would find itself down 4-3.  After an exchange of holds Oklahoma's Jose Salazar and Axel Alvarez would break the Vince Schneider serve from 15-40 to take the match 6-4.  Schneider actually double faulted on match point.

Final Ranking Projections

I crunched the numbers twice and below is what I came up with.  If the NCAA seeding committee goes off the rankings then UCLA would get to host with Columbia missing out by a few points.

With the at-large cutoff at 42 it appears that Tulane and Dartmouth will be the first 2 out with Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and San Diego State just sliding in.

There is still some guesswork involved because since I only know who was ranked in the top 75 if someone has a win or multiple wins over teams ranked outside the top 75 then it's possible that I could over/under estimate points.  I've been pretty close all year but a small error on the first run could be compounded by the second run.

Championship Sunday Preview: UVA/Wake, ILL/OSU, OU/BU Once More

Championship Sunday is here and 2 of the 3 will be available over the air with Fox Sports 2 televising the Big 12 Championship LIVE and ESPN3 covering the ACC Championship (weather permitting).  The Virginia/Wake Forest match gets underway at 10am so it should be over by the time Oklahoma and Baylor tie it on for a 4th time. Illinois also has a live stream of the Big 10 Championship although they don't have sound and the picture is just so-so.

#1 Oklahoma (23-2) at #2 Baylor (21-4) - 1pm est - This will be the 4th match of the year between these 2 with Oklahoma having won the first 3.  I'd expect nothing more than epic fight to the finish and at this point anything is possible.  Below are the box scores of each of the previous matches starting with the most recent and working back to the National Indoors in February.  

2015 Big Ten Tournament

Big Ten Conference (Champaign, IL) April 23-26 - Ohio State is defending champion. Participants: Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan St, Penn St, Wisconsin, Michigan, Purdue

Thursday Schedule 
#8 Iowa 4, #9 Wisconsin 0 
#5 Indiana 4, #12 Purdue 2
#10 Nebraska 4, #7 Michigan State 3
#11 Michigan 4, #6 Penn State 2

Pac 12 Tournament

Pac-12 Conference (Ojai, CA) April 22-26 - UCLA is defending champion. Participants include USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona

Wednesday Schedule 
#5 Oregon 4, #8 Arizona 1
#6 Washington 4, #7 Utah 0

Thursday Schedule 
#4 California 4, #5 Oregon 3
#3 UCLA 4, #6 Washington 0

Saturday Recap: Oklahoma & Baylor Win Thrillers, Blow Out City in ACC & B1G, USC Holds On, Mountain West Surprises, Buffalo Dancing

What a day of tennis in Waco - 2 semifinal matches played simultaneously on adjacent courts with both coming down to a 3rd set tiebreak to decide it and they both finished within seconds of each other.

It's too bad those FoxSports cameras weren't in operation today because it was rough trying to watch the conclusion of the Baylor/TCU match due to the streaming video being reduced to freeze-frame video.  As a side note, for those that were wondering, it was confirmed today by Baylor that PlaySight will be installing new HD cameras with sound in time for the NCAAs so the viewing public won't have to be subjected to any more of the current setup.  Click on this link for a preview of the kind of clarity that you'll see - choose Indian Wells during daylight hours.  PlaySight operated the streaming for Virginia Tech and did the streaming for the National Indoors at the MidTown Athletic Club in Chicago and at Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Collegiate Cup.

Saturday Preview: Conference Semifinal Saturday + Pac 12 Championship

It's go time for the ACC, Big 10, and Big 12 with each conference down to the semifinals of their conference tournaments plus the Pac 12 has reached its Championship match.

ACC:

#5 [1] Virginia vs. #16 [4] North Carolina - 10am est - Virginia won both the regular season meetings with the Wahoos beating UNC 6-1 in Charlottesville and blanking them 4-0 at the National Indoors in Chicago.  Neither match was particularly close though the match at UVA was the better of the two with UNC taking 3 sets and losing several 7-5.

Friday Recap: Georgia Tech Does It Again, UNC Rallies Past Duke, Big 12, Pac 12, & More

Another action packed day of college tennis is in the books and it was the ACC giving us the 2 best matches of the day as Georgia Tech and North Carolina both pulled out 4-3 thrillers.

I'm big fan of the schools that take the time to put an audio or video interview out on twitter shortly after the match finished.  TCU has done a great job all year getting a 30-second interview with David Roditi out on twitter and the last few days Georgia Tech has done the same with Kenny Thorne.  It's always better to hear the comments from someone as opposed to reading them.  I'm also a fan of school's posting video clips of match points - just gives you a feeling that you're there and lets you see the emotion from the players after a big win.

ACC:

In one of the early matches Georgia Tech came out of the gates like a bull seeing red. GT took the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 and then took the opening set on 4 of 6 singles courts.  GT's Eduardo Segura finished first with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jai Corbett at #6 but VT's Joao Monteiro would trim the GT lead to 2-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nathan Rakitt at #3.  Christopher Eubanks would make it 3-1 GT with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Andreas Bjerrehus at #1.

Friday Preview: Conference Tournament Quarterfinals

Most of the conference tournaments have reached the quarterfinals so its time for the rubber to hit the road as the higher seeds start to face a little heat.  Below I'll take a look at the matches in the ACC, Big 12, Pac 12, and Big 10.  I'm not seeing any upsets in these 4 conferences although the match between Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech could be very, very close.

The Mountain West Network has wall-to-wall coverage of every match on both the men's and women's side and I must say that I've been very impressed with the production they've put out so far. If you haven't checked it out yet make sure you do sometime today, tomorrow, or Sunday.  The announcers are knowledgeable and easy to listen to, they have decent graphics, they keep shuffling between courts, and the picture quality is very good.  I've not seen anything else better this year and that includes what I've seen on the Pac 12 Network, Fox Sports, and ESPN3.  Several of the conferences have done a nice job at least getting the Championship match on TV this year however no other conference have broadcast every match like the MW is doing.  2 thumbs up MW - nice work!!

Now to the conference previews:

#9 [5] Duke (22-5) vs. #16 [4] North Carolina (20-9) - 12pm est - These teams met just 2 weeks ago with North Carolina pulling off the mild upset 5-2.  Both teams look like they'll have the same singles lineup though Josh Levine will likely play at #6 for Duke instead of TJ Pura who lost 6-0, 6-1 in the last meeting.  Duke definitely didn't enter the ACC Tourney with much momentum after getting stunned by Georgia Tech 4-3 last Sunday.  Duke's #1 Nicolas Alvarez didn't play on Thursday against Miami and it's possible he won't play in this one due to an injury.

Thursday Action: Early Upsets in the ACC & Mountain West & Late Drama in the Pac 12 and B1G

It was a day of close matches as we saw several lower seeds pull off upsets.  In the ACC, #75 Clemson beat #32 Louisville 4-3 and #55 Georgia Tech hammered #35 Notre Dame 4-0.  In the Mountain West unranked Nevada sent #67 Utah State packing win a 4-2 win and Boise State did the same to #69 Fresno State by knocking them off 4-0.  In the Big Ten, Michigan beat #48 Penn State 4-2 and Nebraska came from behind to beat Michigan State 4-3.  In the Pac 12, #50 Oregon looked like it was going to upset #25 Cal but the Bears rallied to win 4-3.  Read about each match below.

Clemson lost the regular season meeting against Louisville at home by a 5-2 score though none of the singles matches were repeats this time around.  Louisville won the doubles point last time with Clemson taking it this time.  Clemson got wins from Alejandro Augusto, Luke Johnson, and Hampton Drake with the freshman from Hilton Head providing the clincher at #6 singles by taking the 3rd set 6-0.  Below are some interviews from Clemson's youtube:

Winthrop Is Dancing & A Look Ahead Towards The Weekend

Winthrop won the Big South Championship for the 2nd year in a row with each of those Championship matches coming against Campbell and both finishing with a 4-2 final score.  All 3 doubles courts went to a tiebreak with Winthrop pulling through at 1 and 2.  5 of 6 singles courts went 3 sets with Winthrop's #1 Tremayne Mitchell and #2 Dylan Comerford pulling away late and it was freshman Ruben Franzanti providing the clincher at #5 by winning a 3rd set tiebreak 7-1 over Jonathan O'Neal.  Campbell got a straight set win from Marthinus Visser at #6 and a 3-set win from Nicolas Rakitin at #3 in a losing effort.

BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS! Men's Tennis captures second straight conference crown. #ProtectTheNest pic.twitter.com/o3ZHGPuOAe
— Winthrop Athletics (@WUEagles) April 21, 2015

4/21 ITA Rankings Have Been Released - Top 10 Breakdown (All Rankings On Same Page)

Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA Men's rankings for the 8th week in a row and for the 9th time in the last 10 weeks.

The top 2 (UNC/USC) stays the same in the women's rankings but Cal moves up from 4 to 3, Vanderbilt moves up from 9 to 4, and Florida falls from 3 to 5.  .  

Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 9 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins.  You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 9 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week.  I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.  

Sun Shining On Florida Gulf Coast + A Look Back At A Few More From Sunday

Florida Gulf Coast was the big winner today as the Eagles earned its first ever NCAA berth by defeating North Florida 4-3 in the finals of the Atlantic Sun.  The teams met in the regular season 2 weeks ago with FGCU winning 7-0 but FGCU figured it wouldn't be as easy this time around despite UNF playing without its injured #1 Jack Findel-Hawkins (13.32).  The match, held in Jacksonville at UNF, started on Sunday but before the rain came UNF captured the doubles point by winning a pair of tiebreaks at 2 and 3.  Usually when you have the top 2 seeds playing for a conference championship you expect several 3-setters but all 6 singles matches finished in straight sets with no set closer than 6-4.

4/21 ITA Rankings Preview

The top 2 stays the same though Baylor narrowed the gap from 10 points to 7 points after picking up wins over Texas and Texas Tech last week. Texas A&M surged up from 6 to 3 by adding 3 top 25 wins after beating LSU, Mississippi State, and Georgia in route to the SEC Championship.  Illinois drops 1 spot from 3 to 4 after getting stunned by Minnesota - had the Illini not lost they would have been #3 with 70.44 points.  Virginia drops 1 spot from 4 to 5 though they'll have a chance to add some top 15 wins next week in the ACC Tournament.  

This week's rankings use each team's top 9 best wins and they will be the last set of published rankings before the NCAA Tournament field is announced on April 28th.  The rankings will be run next week by the ITA but they just won't be published until May 1st - I guess this is done so everyone won't know if they deviated from the rankings when doing the seeding.  I'll do my best to run them next week but it's the toughest of the year because they actually get run twice - once like normal using the 4/21 rankings as a base - then after finishing those they re-run them using the new rankings as a base.  I should be able to narrow down the Top 20 with pretty good accuracy because most of their wins are over top 30-40 teams.    

Minnesota was the big winner last week moving up 10 spots from 33 to 23 after picking up wins over then #3 Illinois and #27 Northwestern with both matches decided by a 3rd set tiebreak.   

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Weathers The Storm & Drake Rises Out Of The Valley

Championship Sunday (Part 1) lived up to the advance billing with the SEC and Missouri Valley delivering heart pounding thrillers.

When #1 and #2 play you expect to see a great match and that's what Georgia and Texas A&M delivered on Sunday afternoon in College Station.  Texas A&M got off to a fast start in doubles by going up early breaks at 2 and 3 and once A&M had the lead on those courts they would not relinquish it the rest of the way.  The A&M #3 duo of AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech finished first winning 6-3 then just as Georgia's #1 team of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland were 6-3 winners A&M's #2 team of Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo would clinch the point with a 6-3 win themselves.  

Texas A&M carried the momentum from doubles over to singles as they jumped out to early break leads at #1, #5 and #6 singles while Georgia got the early break lead at #4. Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti would take the first set at #5 and Shane Vinsant and "Artillery" Arthur Rinderknech would get late breaks to take the opening set 6-4 at #2 and #3.  Georgia's Ben Wagland cruised to a 6-2 opening set at #4 and both Austin Smith and Paul Oosterbaan would come back from a break down to claim the opening sets at #1 and #6.  Smith was down 4-2 before rallying to win the set 7-6(5) while Oosterbaan came back from 5-2 down to take the set 7-5.

2015 SEC Tournament Central

The SEC Tournament which will be held in College Station, Texas starts on Wednesday, April 15th and runs through Sunday, April 19th.  The Championship match will be shown on ESPN3.

The lineups listed below are the official submitted lineups by each time with the only changes coming from injuries.

Sunday Preview: SEC Championship + Daily Schedule

It all comes down to today in the SEC with the regular season co-champs meeting in the finals of the conference tournament.  Texas A&M has the big advantage of playing at home but Georgia has already beat A&M once this year though that was in Athens. The winner will move up to #3 in the rankings next week in addition to having the title of SEC Tournament Champions.  It ought to be a good one so let's take a look at the numbers.

#1 Georgia (21-3) at #2 Texas A&M (20-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring & ESPN3 & Georgia Blog - Georgia won the regular season meeting in Athens 4-1 (box score below) but only 1 of the singles matches will be a repeat.  Texas A&M will definitely have the crowd behind it since the tournament is in College Station but whether that'll be enough to push Texas A&M to the top won't be known until later today.   

Saturday Recap: TCU Plows Over Texas, UGA/aTm Win In SEC Semis, Cal Wins The Big Slam + Conference Tournaments

Saturday was another great day of college tennis action with more than 2000 fans filling the stands in Fort Worth for the TCU/Texas match.  TCU hadn't beaten Texas since 1996 but that slump came to an end as TCU got it done 4-1.

TCU started off by taking the doubles point with a 6-1 win at #2 (Trevor Johnson & Cameron Norrie) and 7-6(4) win at #3 (Guillermo Nuñez & Hudson Blake) .  It looked like TCU would take the point a bit easier but Texas's #1 team of Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool came back from 5-3 down to win 7-6(5) which made the match at #3 the decider.

TCU kept the momentum flowing in singles by taking 4 opening sets and they'd get the 3 singles victories they needed with all 3 coming in straight sets.  Cameron Norrie was off first with a 6-4, 6-0 win at #3 then Arnau Dachs rolled Clement Homs 6-1, 6-3 at #5. Texas's Soren Hess-Olesen would win at #1 singles 6-3, 6-4 to pull Texas to within 3-1 but a short while later TCU senior Will Stein would clinch the historic win with a 6-4, 7-6(8) at #6 singles over Nick Naumann.

Saturday Preview: SEC Semis + 2 Big Ones In the Big 12

Texas is the place to be today with 4 matches taking place between Top 20 teams.  It is semifinal Saturday at the SEC Tournament in College Station with the top 4 seeds set to meet up.  There's been a threat of rain each of the last 2 days which has forced matches to be moved up but as of now it looks like the rain should stay away until later in the day.

In Fort Worth, #7 TCU will host #10 Texas and over in Lubbock #16 Texas Tech will try to make it 2 huge upsets in the last week as they host #2 Baylor.


#2 Texas A&M (19-4) vs. #3 Mississippi State (19-6) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - Texas A&M won the regular season meeting 4-1 in Starkville (box score below) but it was a match that came down to the wire with Mississippi State in a winning position on the 2 courts that didn't finish. State gutted one out yesterday against Florida while Texas A&M rolled over LSU so the Aggies probably have some fresher legs. 

Friday Recap: Gophers Shock Illini & SEC Tournament Follows Form

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside at night the Minnesota Golden Gophers jumped out from behind the tree and yelled boo and shocked #3 Illinois 4-3.

Minnesota took the doubles point for the 20th time in 24 matches by getting wins at #1 (Jack Hamburg/Mathieu Froment) and #2 (Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo) with the win at #2 coming in the tiebreak.  Illinois had won the doubles point in the previous 6 matches but is now just 15-10 on the year in doubles.

Despite falling behind, many people including myself thought Illinois would turn it on in singles and still get it done but Minnesota said not tonight.

The biggest singles upset came in the first match to finish as Minnesota's Jack Hamburg snapped #57 Aleks Vukic's 14-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles.  Vukic hadn't dropped a set since March 15th.  For those that like tracking the UTRs of each player you'll notice that there was a difference of more than 1.00 which means this is definitely an upset.

Friday Preview - Conference Tournaments Heating Up

12 conference tournaments are in progress on the men's side with the quarterfinals taking place today in many of them.

If you haven't checked it out yet take a look at my Conference Tournament Central page which has details on all the conference tournaments plus live scoring links (if available).  The tab is at the top of my blog as well.

I also have a page just for the SEC Tournament which shows all the results, schedules, universal tennis ratings of the players, and the results from the regular season meeting.

Thursday Recap: USC Over UCLA 4-2, Tennessee Survives Against Alabama

UCLA got off to a good start by going up early breaks on all 3 doubles courts and would cruise to wins at 2 and 3.  Singles would be a different story because USC's Eric Johnson, Roberto Quiroz, Max De Vroome, and Nick Crystal would take the opening set at 2, 3, 5, and 6 and then those 4 would pretty much run away with the 2nd sets to close out a 4-2 win.  UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald picked up the only singles point for the Bruins as he took it to #12 Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3.

This match was supposed to be shown on TV on the Pac 12 network but the USC/UCLA women's match ran 90 minutes long and with the singles portion of this one only lasting 80 minutes that meant it was over before the broadcast ever started.

Normally you'd think a USC/UCLA match would pack them in but when you play it on a Thursday at 2pm local time this is the kind of crowd you get.

Let's go SC! @USCMensTennis at UCLA to end the regular season. #FightOn pic.twitter.com/E4b71YtSDt
— Aubrey Kragen (@aubreykragen) April 16, 2015

USC/UCLA Preview

The last several years this has been the biggest match of the season but this year these LA neighbors have taken a back seat to the big time tennis that's been taking place in the state of Texas.  USC and UCLA have an uncharacteristic 11 losses between them and both struggled last week in Northern California against Stanford and Cal.

Usually when these two play at the end of the season the #1 seed in the Pac 12 Tournament is at stake however Stanford has already locked that up so the winner of this takes the #2 seed and the loser falls to #3.

The Pac 12 Network will televise the singles portion starting at 6pm eastern/3pm pacific so tune in to hear the call from Paul Sunderland and Justin Gimlestob.

#9 USC (19-4) at #19 UCLA (14-7) - 5pm est/2pm pst - Live Scoring - Pac 12 Network - In this first meeting back on March 14th, USC took the doubles point and then cleaned up at the bottom 3 and if USC wants to win today they may have to do the same thing again.  USC has struggled in doubles this year going just 14-9 and the Trojans have dropped the point the last 2 times out.  UCLA has played better in doubles going 15-6 and has won the point in 5 of the last 6 matches.

Baylor Eases Past Texas 4-1 + What's Coming Up

What was expected to be a pretty close match turned into a fairly routine victory for #2 Baylor as they pushed past #10 Texas 4-1.

Packed house at Caswell Tennis Center pic.twitter.com/4BNR8zOssW
— Texas Tennis (@TexasMTN) April 15, 2015

Baylor started things off by taking the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 despite having Tony Lupieri and Max Tchoutakian playing together for the first time at #3. Lupieri's normal doubles partner Mate Zsiga did not play doubles but did play singles. Baylor's Diego Galeano was also serving for the match at #1 doubles when the point was clinched.

Wednesday Preview: Baylor/Texas

Another big match tonight in the Big 12 though technically they're all big matches since all 6 teams are ranked inside the top 30.  I think the doubles point will play a big role in deciding the winner because I'm looking for many of the Texas seniors to rise to the occasion tonight on Senior Day.

Baylor is running its blog for the match, even though it's in Austin, so make sure you log on and contribute your comments to Kim Gorum.  The BU blog always gives you some inside information that you wouldn't find elsewhere so make sure follow from start to finish.  Kim told us about the 2 overrules on the 2 match points in the Tchoutakian/Webb match and in the Oklahoma State match he mentioned that there's a good chance that Baylor will be getting new a new streaming video system through Playsight in time for the NCAAs since the current cameras don't have the best clarity and seem to freeze up too frequently.  He said the deal with Playsight isn't a done deal yet but there's been talks between the two.  Let's keep our fingers crossed so we can watch the NCAAs with the same clarity that we've seen at Virginia Tech, the National Indoors, and the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge.

#2 Baylor (18-4) at #10 Texas (18-3) - 6pm est/5pm cst - Live Scoring & Baylor Blog - This will be the final home match for 4 of Texas's starters with Soren Hess-Olesen, Lloyd Glasspool, Adrien Berkowicz, and Clement Homs all set to depart after this year.  Texas definitely leads the overall series (79-20-1 according to UT & 40-19 according to BU) but Baylor has been the dominant team recently winning 4 straight in the series and 16 of the last 19.  This will only be Baylor's 4th road match this year and first road match played outdoors.  Temperature at match time should be right around 80 with close to 50% humidity.  

4/14 ITA Rankings Have Been Released - Top 10 Breakdown (All Rankings On Same Page)

Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA Men's rankings for the 7th week in a row and for the 8th time in the last 9 weeks.

A little shake up in the women's top 10 with North Carolina replacing USC as the new #1 with USC now #2. Florida up to #3, Cal #4, UCLA #5, Georgia #6, Texas A&M #7, Baylor #8, Vanderbilt #9, and Oklahoma State #10. 

Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 9 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins that could potentially fit in down the road.  You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 9 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week.  I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.  

4/14 ITA Rankings Preview

The top 4 stays the same this week though Oklahoma has extended its lead at #1 to almost 10 points after knocking off #2 Baylor last Friday.  OU's lead was 15 points but its stunning loss at Texas Tech dropped it down a full 5 points.  Baylor is #2 though its lead over #3 Illinois went from 6 points to 5 with the loss to Oklahoma. Illinois stays at #3 with #4 Virginia a little over 4 points back. 

This week's rankings use each team's top 9 best wins as will each of the next 2 rankings which will take us all the way up through the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field on April 28th.

Texas Tech and Stanford were the 2 big risers this week with Texas Tech coming up 7 spots from 23 to 16 after the win over #1 Oklahoma and Stanford coming up 12 spots after the wins over #5 USC and #15 UCLA. Some may wonder why the increase wasn't bigger and its due to the fact that the best 9 wins were used so its tougher to move the needle with just 1 or 2 wins.  Going into the weekend Stanford only had 5 ranked wins and 4 of those 5 were ranked between 55 and 75.  

Princeton takes the biggest fall inside the top 40 by dropping 5 spots from 30 to 35 after losing to both Dartmouth and Harvard

Sunday Recap: Guns Up - Red Raiders Stick Up OU, Rubin Clinches for Wake Forest, Alabama State is Dancing

Just when we thought the weekend couldn't get any crazier #23 Texas Tech pulled off a 4-3 stunning upset over seemingly unstoppable #1 Oklahoma.

Texas Tech was just 7-9 in doubles coming in but they managed to take the point over Oklahoma by winning 6-3 at #3 doubles and 7-6(6) at #1.  Oklahoma was 12-10 in doubles coming in but time and time again they overcame the early deficit to come back and win - not today.  (TT's live scoring & recap showed Nick Papac with Spencer Papa at #3 dubs but it was Florin Bragusi who partnered with Papa).

Oklahoma would take the opening set at 1, 2, 4, and 6 singles while Texas Tech took the opening set at 3 and 5.  Texas Tech's Alex Sendegeya would run his dual match record to 17-6 with a 6-2, 6-3 upset over #30 Dane Webb which extended the Tech lead to 2-0.

Oklahoma would then make a run by winning the next 3 completed matches as Axel Alvarez, Andrew Harris, and Florin Bragusi each won in straight sets at 1, 2, and 6 singles.  Oklahoma would now lead 3-2 but they were trailing in each of the other 2 matches.

Texas Tech's Jolan Cailleau would then tie it at 3-3 as he won the only match that went 3 sets when he defeated Alex Ghilea 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 at #4 singles.

Sunday Preview: UNC at Wake + Sunday Storylines

It's been a great weekend of tennis so let's see if North Carolina and Wake Forest can finish it off in style.

#16 North Carolina (17-8) at #13 Wake Forest (15-6) - 2pm est - UNC is coming off a big 5-2 win over Duke while Wake Forest streamrolled Miami 7-0.  UNC continues to be hampered by injuries with both Esben Hess-Olesen (13.48) and Oystein Steiro (13.47) likely to miss their final regular season match in the powder blue.  If neither Hess-Olesen or Steiro can play doubles I'm not sure who UNC will put out though Brayden Schnur should be more than capable even though he hasn't played doubles since returning from his injury.

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #15 Brayden Schnur (UNC 14.55) vs. #26 Noah Rubin (WF 14.88)
2. #24 Ronnie Schneider (UNC 14.20) vs. #13 Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.34)
3. #71 Brett Clark (UNC 13.79) vs. #103 Jon Ho (WF 13.71)
4. Jack Murray (UNC 14.12) vs. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.19)
5. #109 Robert Kelly (UNC 13.56) vs. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.68)
6. Stuart DePaolo (UNC 12.46) vs. Maksim Kan (WF 13.33)

Saturday Recap: Stanford Stuns USC, TCU Hammers Texas A&M, Georgia Rolls Ole Miss

I thought the big story of the day would be TCU thumping Texas A&M or Georgia blanking Ole Miss but Stanford stole their thunder as the Cardinal stunned #5 USC 4-3. Each of these 3 big matches all had monster crowds on hand with TCU drawing over 1700, Georgia had over 1800, and while I didn't see an attendence figure from Stanford the pictures I saw showed the stands pretty full.

#Cardinalpalooza upset watch? Winners of eight straight, Stanford leads No. 5 USC 1-0. Shocked No. 15 UCLA yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Orr0Iq9Rgd
— StanfordMTennis (@StanfordTennis) April 11, 2015

Stanford took the doubles point with quick wins at 2 and 3 but then USC got off to a hot start in singles by taking the opening set on 4 courts. USC's Max De Vroome would tie the match at 1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles over Nolan Paige but moments later Stanford's David Hsu would knock off Nick Crystal at #6 singles by a 6-3, 6-4 score. Hsu's win over Crystal was probably the most surprising result because Crystal brought a 14-1 dual match record into the match and he had only dropped 4 games to Hsu in the first meeting in late February.  

Saturday Preview: Texas A&M/TCU, Georgia/Ole Miss, UCLA/Cal, USC/Stanford

Friday was a great day of tennis so hopefully these 4 matches below can bring us just as much enjoyment.

TCU has already beat Texas A&M once and that was on the road - can they win this one at home? Does Georgia wrap up a share of the SEC regular season title and the #1 seed in next week's SEC Tournament or does Ole Miss make a strong push for the top 10? Stanford has already beat both Cal and UCLA this year - could they possibly also beat USC today? Does UCLA regroup from the Stanford loss and beat an improving Cal? We'll have our answers in a few hours.


#7 Texas A&M (18-3) at #10 TCU (18-6) - 2pm est/1pm cst - This will be a rematch from the 1st day of the season when TCU went into College Station and beat Texas A&M 4-2 (box score below). Both teams have shuffled the lineup a good bit so it's to take with the only expected rematch to come at #5 singles between Catanzariti and Lugones.

Ba Ba Boom!!!! Sooners Do It Again + A Plethora of 4-3 Thrillers

The match between #1 Oklahoma and #2 Baylor had a ton of hype coming in and boy did those 2 teams deliver a classic. A huge crowd of just under 1500 was on hand in Waco along with many more following along at home via the Baylor blog and live scoreboard.

The first surprise of the day came when the doubles lineups were announced. According to Kim Gorum, who was running Baylor's terrific blog, Baylor's doubles lineups were challenged earlier in the week by the opposing coaches in the Big 12. The coaches didn't like the fact that Baylor's #1 team had a record of 5-4 while it's #2 and #3 teams were a combined 26-3.  The challenge was upheld so Baylor had to move its #2 to #1, its #3 to #2, and while they could have kept the Zsiga/Lupieri duo together at #3 they decided to switch it up and pair Max Tchoutakian with Mate Zsiga at #3.  

Despite the shuffle, Baylor still came out strong and took the doubles point with wins at 1 and 3.  The clinching win at #1 was a little harder than it could have been because Diego Galeano got broke at love when he was serving for it up 5-3 but Baylor would come back and take it in a tiebreak.

Once singles got underway, the Sooner Schooner made a lap around the complex and deposited 4 first sets in OU's bank and then it gave Axel Alvarez and Dane Webb a little extra gas to get those 2 back in their respective matches.

Friday Preview: #1 Oklahoma/#2 Baylor, USC/Cal, UCLA/Stanford, Vandy/Miss St

Get your dinner done early because there's some big time tennis tonight in Waco as #2 Baylor hosts #1 Oklahoma.  Baylor will have a blog running in addition to providing live scoring and streaming video so if you're around a computer check it out.  All the scoring, video, blog, twitter links are done below at the bottom of this post.

#1 Oklahoma (20-1) at #2 Baylor (17-3) - 7pm est - Oklahoma has already beat Baylor twice this year, once indoors in Chicago and once outdoors in California (box scores below), so you'd think it'd be tough to beat them again.  Since the 2nd meeting Oklahoma has played and beat #10 TCU, #9 Texas, and #29 Tulsa while Baylor hasn't played anyone substantial.  It'll be interesting to see if that lack of competition over these last 3 weeks will hurt Baylor.  The Bears will have the home court advantage with a loud, rowdy crowd cheering on every point so we'll get to see how Oklahoma handles it though they managed just fine in Columbus against Ohio State.  The teams have split the doubles point in the previous 2 meetings but I like Baylor to take the point this time around because of the influence of the crowd.

Prematch comments via Baylor:

"It's going to be a blast," head coach Matt Knoll said. "I've been here a long time and this is only going to be the second time we've ever had this situation. On top of that we'll have a No.1 vs. No. 2 match in singles as well, so it's going to be a special day. It's a big day for the program and something that we're very excited about. It's going to bring out the best in us."

"I think they're super good," Knoll said. "I think the margins are small when you go against the best teams like this. We have to focus. We have to have fight. We have to do the intangible things, and I think we're going to have a chance. Having the chance to play in front of a big crowd here is going to be a special event for our guys and build a lot of enthusiasm and momentum going into the NCAA Championships."

Thursday Recap: UNC Tops Duke, Ole Miss Fights Back, aTm Rings Up Another Win, Dawgs over Hogs

North Carolina won the big match of the day as they knocked off cross town rival #6 Duke 4-2.   The Tar Heels started off by taking the doubles point as its #3 team of Esben Hess-Olesen and Andrew Gores provided the clincher winning 8-5.  The senior duo had never played an official doubles match before today but were thrown together after fellow senior Oystein Steiro had to sit out with an injury.

Duke quickly tied the match at 1 with Chris Mengel picking up a win when Esben Hess-Olesen was retired with an injury when trailing 5-2 in the 1st.   Just a few minutes later UNC would retake the lead when Robert Kelly laid out TJ Pura 6-0, 6-1 at #6 singles.  I thought Kelly would win going in but I didn't think it'd be like that.  

Brayden Schnur would extend the UNC lead to 3-1 as the Tar Heel sophomore picked up his most impressive win of the year when he knocked off #11 Nicolas Alvarez 6-3, 6-4 at #1 singles.  Raphael Hemmeler would get Duke to within 3-2 after he scored a 7-5, 6-3 win at #3 singles over Brett Clark. 

Duke needed both of the final matches but UNC wouldn't even give them 1 as Ronnie Schneider came back from a set down to beat Jason Tahir at #2 and just moments later Jack Murray would finish off Bruno Semenzato at #4.  

Thursday Preview: Duke/UNC, LSU/aTm, Ole Miss/S Carolina, UGA/ARK

Pretty decent schedule of matches for a Thursday with Duke making the 10 mile trip to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina plus at least 2 of the matches in the SEC should be competitive.  I have the live scoring links below so follow along when they get underway.

#6 Duke (19-3) at #16 North Carolina (16-8) - 3pm est - Live Scoring - North Carolina leads the overall series by a wide margin (89-38) but Duke has won 4 of the last 5 so for North Carolina's sake it's a good thing that Brayden Schnur came back last week.   The Tar Heels went 4-3 in Schnur's absense but upon his return they were able to beat both Boston College and Notre Dame last weekend.  Duke also beat BC and Notre Dame last weekend so both teams are currently riding 2 match winning streaks.

Duke is 16-6 in doubles however they just recently changed doubles pairings after dropping 3 in a row.  Duke switched up its #1 and #2 teams by pairing Nicolas Alvarez with Jason Tahir and Josh Levine with Raphael Hemmeler.  Previously Alvarez and Hemmeler have been teamed up as had Tahir and Levine.   North Carolina is 18-6 in doubles and they've won the point the last 3 times out.

What's Coming Up + Daily Top 10

It's hump day so that means it's time to look ahead at what's coming up over the next 4 days.  As you can see there are going to be more than a few good matches coming up and in fact Duke and UNC will jump start the weekend tomorrow afternoon.  For a full list of all the matches you can look in my live scoring links page.

The HUGE match of the week takes place in Waco on Friday night when #2 Baylor hosts #1 Oklahoma.  Oklahoma has already beat Baylor twice this season - once indoors in Chicago at the National Indoors and once outdoors in Indian Wells at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge. There's a very good chance that this could be the 1st of 3 matches between these two teams just in Waco alone because not only is the Big 12 conference tournament in Waco this year but so is the NCAA Championships. They always say it's tough to beat somebody 3 times in a season - what do they say about beating someone 5 times?

I'll do in-depth previews with predictions on the ones in bold.

4/7 ITA Rankings Have Been Released - Top 10 Breakdown

Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA Men's rankings for the 6th week in a row and for the 7th time in the last 8 weeks. The top 8 in the Women's rankings stay the same with USC, North Carolina, Cal, UCLA, and Georgia holding down the top 5.

Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 8 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins that could potentially fit in down the road.  You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 8 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week.  I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.  

Next week's rankings will use each teams 9 best wins as will each subsequent set of rankings until the NCAA field is announced on April 28th at 5pm (Women) and 5:30pm (Men).

Oklahoma is still at #1 with the Sooners winning its only match last week over Tulsa.  

• 8 Best Wins (701.8): #2 Baylor (2x), #4 Virginia, #5 USC, #9 Texas, #10 TCU, at #11 Ohio State, at #13 Wake Forest
• Other Quality Wins: #14 Ole Miss, #16 North Carolina (2X), #19 South Florida, #26 Northwestern, #29 Tulsa
• Losses (8.2): #7 Texas A&M
• Computer Score:  701.8/8.2 = 85.59 (was 86.36)
• What's Coming Up: at #2 Baylor (4/10), at #23 Texas Tech (4/12), #25 Oklahoma State (4/19)
• Comments:  Big match this Friday as the Sooners go to Waco to play Baylor for the 3rd time this year.  Oklahoma should stay #1 regardless of the outcome but it's lead would narrow a good bit if it lost.  I'll run the #s on Wednesday to see what would happen if each won.  

4/7 ITA Rankings Preview

The top 4 stays the same this week with Oklahoma, Baylor, Illinois, and Virginia at 1, 2, 3, and 4 though the separation between the 4 changed a good bit. Oklahoma's lead over #2 Baylor dropped slightly from 8.5 points to 7 points though it'll likely change more this week when these 2 Big 12 heavyweights meet on Friday in Waco.  Last week #2 Baylor and #3 Illinois were separated by just .17 points but the gap opened up significantly this week to 6.57 - I alluded to the change in the Illinois section of my Top 10 breakdown last week. The gap between #3 Illinois and #4 Virginia shrunk from 9.46 to 4.88 due to Virginia picking up a big win over Virginia Tech and Illinois' 8th best win being outside the top 30.  

This week's rankings use each team's top 8 best wins and then next week it'll go up to 9 and stay there until the end of the regular season. 

Mississippi State is expected to enter the top 20 this week after being ranked at 34 just 2 weeks ago.  The Bulldogs upset #6 Georgia on Friday and have now won 5 in a row.  

Sunday Recap: Hoos Too Much For Hokies, Texas A&M Gets Past Florida

Both Virginia and Texas A&M faced tough opposition on Sunday but both answered the bell and came out on top.  Virginia won the doubles point and then took all 6 opening sets and managed to finish the top 3 out in straights as Mitchell Frank, Ryan Shane, and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski all won.   Virginia played singles without one of its top 3 players as Collin Altamirano sat out due to a stomach bug.

Virginia Tech did show some fight down low but Virginia still managed to win 2 of those 3 with all going 3 sets.

Virginia recap

"I was pleased with the overall performance today," said head coach Brian Boland. "Virginia Tech showed why they are a top-15 team, if not better. They are solid from top to bottom. We had all the momentum, winning doubles and six first sets, but they never gave up. We had to overcome a little adversity today and I was happy with how we responded to that."

"Missing Collin and Alex (Ritschard) in singles, I was pleased with how the guys stepped up," said Boland. "Alex is continuing to get better and is getting close to being back. Collin had a stomach bug and was able to play doubles, but not singles today. I thought the team responded well to having to reshuffle the lineup a little bit."

Sunday Preview: VT/UVA, FLA/aTm, + Other Storylines

Sunday brings us 2 Top 20 showdowns with Virginia hosting Virginia Tech while Florida hosts Texas A&M.  Below are the breakdowns of those 2 matches along with a schedule of play for the day.


#13 Virginia Tech (15-2) at #4 Virginia (15-3) - 1pm est - This will be the first time these two have ever met when both have been ranked inside the top 15. Virginia puts its 131 match ACC winning streak on the line as well as its 11 match winning streak against Virginia Tech.  The doubles point will be huge for VT because I don't see anyway they come close without taking that point.  Virginia Tech is 10-7 in doubles while Virginia is 16-2.

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of April 4th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #63 Amerigo Contini (VT 14.26) vs. #29 Mitchell Frank (UVA 14.96)
2. #45 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT 13.79 vs. #6 Ryan Shane (UVA 14.60)
3. #109 Joao Monteiro (VT 13.76) vs. #55 Collin Altamirano (UVA 14.80)
4. Hunter Koontz (VT 13.65) vs. #10 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVA 14.66)
5. Edoardo Tessaro (VT 13.29) vs. J.C. Aragone (UVA 13.95)
6. Jai Corbett (VT 12.87)  vs. #112 Mac Styslinger (UVA 13.94)

Others who could play: Henrik Wiersholm (UVA 13.46), Florian Nicoud (VT 13.27), Aaron Gomez (VT 12.94)

Saturday Recap: Texas Wins #300 For Center, TCU Keeps On Rolling, Green Wave Crash Down On Tulsa

Texas picked up win #300 for head coach Michael Center with a hard fought 4-1 win over Texas Tech.  The Red Raiders won the doubles point by winning tiebreaks at 2 and 3 but Texas was able to rally with singles wins from Soren Hess-Olesen, Adrien Berkowicz, Nick Naumann, and Clement Homs.

Texas recap

"I'm proud of the student-athletes I've had, not only this year but in the past, that have made contributions to our program while they were here and after their graduation," Center said after Saturday's win. "It has been very gratifying, and I'm looking forward to many more with this group."

"Every match is so hard to win in this conference and at this time of year," Center said. "We had some opportunities in doubles, but ended up losing two tiebreakers to put our backs against the wall. I know Texas Tech has a heck of a team in singles, but we played really well down the stretch and fought hard to get this win."

"Clement is strong, both physically and mentally, particularly in the moment when you really need him to step up," coach Michael Center said. "He is just a man out there right now. He is playing really tough. As he continues to play stronger, that makes our team stronger."

Saturday Preview: Texas/Texas Tech, TCU/USF, + Other Storylines

Saturday brings us a pair of Top 25 matches with #9 Texas hosting #21 Texas Tech and #10 TCU hosting #22

#21 Texas Tech (16-5) at #9 Texas (15-3) - 4pm est (Longhorn Network) -  Texas Tech is coming off a close 4-2 loss to TCU while Texas lost to Oklahoma 4-1 last Sunday.  Neither team has played well in doubles with Texas going 9-9 while Texas Tech is a poor 5-9 (didn't play doubles point in 7 matches).  The weather forecast calls for cloudy skies and temps in the low 60s for this one.

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of April 3rd.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

Projected Singles Lineup:

1. #40 Felipe Soares (TT 13.65) vs. #1 Soren Hess-Olesen (TX 14.92)

2. Hugo Dojas (TT 13.45) vs. #34 Lloyd Glasspool (TX 13.90)

3. Alex Sendegeya (TT 13.58) vs. #72 Adrien Berkowicz (TX 13.89)

4. #113 Jolan Cailleau (TT 13.38) vs. George Goldhoff (TX 13.68)

5. Francisco Zambon (TT 12.88) vs. Nick Naumann (TX 13.76)

6. Connor Curry (TT 12.94) vs. Clement Homs (TX 13.31)

Friday Recap: Mississippi State Upsets #6 Georgia, Hokies Gut Out A Win, + More Results

The big upset of the day came in Starkville as the Bulldogs from Mississippi State upset the Bulldogs from Georgia 4-2.  Mississippi State took the doubles point for the 16th time this year and is now 11-0 in doubles at home.  State fell a break behind at both #1 and #3 but managed to turn both courts around and would clinch the point with a win at #1 over the #1 ranked team in the country.

Mississippi State kept the momentum going during singles play and jumped out to early break leads on 5 of 6 courts.

Mississippi State's Rishab Agarwal was 1st off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #5 singles over Nick Wood in a match that was pretty lopsided the entire time.  Georgia's Wayne Montgomery would cut the deficit to 2-1 with a 7-6, 6-2 at #2 singles over Juan Cruz Estevarena.  Montgomery fell behind 5-3 in the 1st set but would break Estevarena at 4-5 and 5-6 to force the breaker then after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the TB he took it 7-4.

Friday Preview: Virginia Tech/Louisville, Georgia/Mississippi State + Other Storylines

There aren't any top 10 match-ups on Friday but there are several in the top 40 that will be playing each other.  Below are my previews of the 2 biggest ones along with a few other storylines.

#13 Virginia Tech (14-2) at #23 Louisville (19-4) - 2:30pm est - The Cards have won 5 in a row and 7 of 8 with 4 of those being ranked wins while the Hokies have won 2 straight and 11 of 12 with 6 of those being over ranked teams.  Louisville is 18-5 in doubles while Virginia Tech is 9-7.

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of April 2nd.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #45 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT 13.79) vs. #5 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL 14.65)
2. #63 Amerigo Contini (VT 14.25) vs. #94 Albert Wagner (UL 13.61)
3. #109 Joao Monteiro (VT 13.75) vs. #123 Alex Gornet (UL 13.60)
4. Hunter Koontz (VT 13.66) vs. Chris Simich (UL 13.37)
5. Edoardo Tessaro (VT 13.28) vs. Michael Lippens (UL 12.96)
6. Jai Corbett (VT 12.86) vs. Van Damrongsri (UL 12.36)

Thursday Recap: TCU Clips Texas Tech, Ole Miss Blanks Tennessee, Kentucky Upends Arkansas

The match of the day took place in Fort Worth as #10 TCU held on to beat #21 Texas Tech 4-2. TCU had a dominant performance in doubles and then picked up a couple of quick wins from Facundo Lugones and Will Stein at 5 and 6 before having to withstand a Red Raider rally on the other 4 courts. Texas Tech pulled to within 3-2 after Jolan Cailleau and Felipe Soares won in straight sets at 4 and 1 and Alex Sendegeya was a game away from a win at 5 leading 5-3 in the 3rd.  However TCU's Cameron Norrie would fight off a set point in the 2nd set tiebreaker and close out his match in straight sets to clinch the TCU win.

TCU recap with comments and video clip from David Roditi (courtesy of TCU)

"That was a great college battle," head coach David Roditi said. "Our boys had to dig in deep. We had many opportunities to finish the match earlier and I'm proud of our guys for continuing to dig and fight for every point.

"There was a great doubles performance at No. 2 and a great clinch for our No. 1 doubles team. When we win the doubles point and then get quick wins on courts five and six, it puts us in a very good position and puts a lot of pressure on our opponents. Now we take care of our bodies and be ready for another top-25 battle on Saturday."

Wednesday Recap: Oklahoma Over Tulsa, Texas A&M Tops Rice, San Diego Too Strong For Pepperdine

There were 3 good matches on Wednesday's docket with the higher ranked team winning each of them.

#1 Oklahoma overcame the loss of the doubles point to #20 Tulsa by taking it to the Golden Hurricanes in singles winning all 10 completed sets.  Axel Alvarez, Dane Webb, Alex Ghilea, and Spencer Papa all won in singles.

#8 Texas A&M was pushed by #48 Rice in doubles but pulled out the deciding court in a tiebreak.  The Aggies took 9 of 10 completed sets in singles and got its 3 points from Harrison Adams, AJ Catanzariti, and Max Lunkin.  The win by #51 Harrison Adams was his first dual match win this season after starting out 0-8.

#17 San Diego defeated #41 Pepperdine 4-1 to put the Toreros 2 up on the Waves in the WCC standings.  San Diego took the doubles point and picked up singles wins from Filip Vittek, Jordan Angus, and Geoffrey Fosso. Pepperdine's Pedro Iamachkine picked up the Waves lone point winning at #4 singles.  

What's Coming Up

There are several good matches on the schedule for Wednesday evening then the weekend has a few good ones too.  Here is what is coming up with the ones in bold what I'll be previewing the day before:

4/1 (Wednesday)

Tulsa at Oklahoma - Tulsa has already beat a #1 this year - can they do it again?

Texas A&M at Rice - Rice has pulled off some upsets lately - maybe one more?

San Diego at Pepperdine - a USD win here would put them in control of the WCC

4/2 (Thursday)

Texas Tech at TCU - Texas Tech has been on the rise but they haven't faced a top 10 team yet.

Tennessee at Ole Miss - Tennessee needs a big win to get into the top 40 so it can be assured of an NCAA berth - can they sneak past Ole Miss or will the Rebels turn them away?