ITA HQ On The Move; Road To Tulsa, Thursday Surprises

The ITA announced this morning that it has formed a new strategic alliance with Arizona State University and is in the process of moving its headquarters from Princeton, New Jersey, to Tempe, Arizona. The full release is down below and hopefully this will clear the way for the return of the Arizona State men's team which was dropped back in 2008.

3/29 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 7 Profiles

California stays at No. 1 for the fourth week in a row with its margin over No. 2 Ohio State decreasing slightly from 8.81 to 7.72.  North Carolina and Georgia swapped spots yet again at No. 3 and No. 4 while Vanderbilt holds at No. 5 although the Commodores are nipping at the heels of Georgia.

Florida comes up one spot to No. 6, Miami falls one spot to No. 7, South Carolina holds at No. 8 despite its loss to Florida, Pepperdine rises two spots to No. 9 and Duke holds firm at No. 10.

3/29 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 7 Profiles

North Carolina retained its top spot but TCU and Virginia swapped spots at No. 2 and No. 3. If TCU's win over Texas A&M would have counted in these rankings the Horned Frogs would have been the new No. 1. Ohio State is still at No. 4 while UCLA moves up to No. 5 after the previous No. 5 Oklahoma State was upset by SMU.

Wake Forest moved up seven spots to No. 6 after picking up a road win at Florida State while Georgia moved up four spots to No. 7 after beating Kentucky. Oklahoma State dropped three spots to No. 8 after losing to SMU while USC dropped one spot to No. 9 after losing at Washington. Texas A&M falls three spots to No. 10 after losing at Vanderbilt.

This set of rankings used each team's seven best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's eight best wins.

Monday Recap: TCU Wins a 4-3 Thriller of Texas A&M

What a match it was tonight in College Station between No. 3 TCU and No. 7 Texas A&M. These two former Big 12 rivals went toe-to-toe for three hours and fifteen minutes and in the end the match was decided in a third-set tiebreak at No. 5 singles.

TCU Celebrates (Photo by Sarah Lane/Texas A&M Athletics)

3/29 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections

North Carolina stays at No. 1 for the second week in a row but TCU leapfrogs past Virginia for No. 2 after its win over Northwestern on Tuesday. This week's rankings used each teams seven best wins with UNC's six top-20 wins still by far the best. Below my rankings chart I also did a top 10 that is sorted by each team's seven best wins with losses not in the equation.

Ohio State stays at No. 4 after picking up a road win at Michigan State and a nice home win over Michigan. UCLA moves back up to No. 5 after picking up road wins at Oregon and Washington in conjunction with last week's No. 5 Oklahoma State losing to SMU which dropped the Cowboys down to No. 8. Wake Forest jumps up from No. 13 to No. 6 after its road win at Florida State plus a few of its other top wins moved up a few spots last week. Georgia rises from No. 11 to No. 7 after a win over Kentucky while USC falls one spots from No. 8 to No. 9 after a win at Oregon and a loss at Washington. Texas A&M falls from No. 7 to No. 10 after its Friday loss at Vanderbilt.

Sunday Recap: Owls Shred #9 Texas Tech, Hogs Tops Rebs, USC Survives Oregon, Dawgs Tame the Cats

Rice was looking to win the Rice Invitational for the ninth year in a row but to achieve that feat it'd have to find a way to beat a top 10 team for the first time in 10 years. Both Rice and Texas Tech beat William & Mary and Drake on Saturday so both were playing well coming into today's finale.

Texas Tech's Felipe Soares and Hugo Dojas won 6-4 at No. 1 doubles but Rice's Jake Hansen and Emanuel Llamas came back from *1-4 down to win 7-5 at No. 3.  Rice's Jamie Malik and Adam Gustafsson trailed 6-3 in the tiebreak at No. 3 but would fight off a total of five match points to win a marathon tiebreak 14-12 to give Rice the doubles point and early 1-0 lead.

Ride Sally Ride - Mustangs Run Over The Pokes, Boise State Comes Up Big Again, Texas Takes Out Tulsa

The hits keep on coming and on today's playlists we heard the 1966 classic Mustang Sally after No. 36 SMU ran all over No. 5 Oklahoma State 4-0.

SMU jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 and then the Mustangs claimed four opening sets in singles. SMU's Nate Lammons made it 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Julian Cash at No. 1 and then Hunter Johnson put the Mustangs a point away from clinching with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Arjun Kadhe at No. 2. Redshirt junior Tony Russell would bring it home for SMU with a 7-6, 6-3 upset win over Lukas Finzelberg at No. 5.

Friday Recap: Mayhem in Music City, Nuts in the Emerald City, Gators Win In Starkville, Cal Survives, UAB, LMU, & UNLV Beat Ranked Teams

Another Friday brought us another round of stunning upsets as a pair of top 10 teams went down on the road.

Vanderbilt won its third consecutive match by a 4-3 score as it stunned No. 7 Texas A&M 4-3. The Commodores took the doubles point when Tate Allwardt and Baker Newman knocked off Max Lunkin and AJ Catanzariti 7-6(5) at No. 2.

Weekend Preview (3/25-3/28)

Most of the bigger conferences are into the middle of conference play while some of the smaller ones are still playing out of conference.

There are two top 25 matchups on Friday with No. 24 Mississippi State hosting No. 16 Florida while No. 23 Michigan welcomes in No. 25 Penn State.

In my opinion the biggest match of the day in the Big Ten isn't the Michigan/Penn State match but rather the one between Iowa and Wisconsin. Neither team is going to win the conference this year so to get into the NCAAs as an at-large these guys will need to be ranked in the low 40s and if you want to stay in the low 40s or better you have to win these types of matches. I do like Wisconsin to get the win in its own backyard.

Thursday Recap: Tulsa Wins In Waco, FSU Beats GT, & Dartmouth Salvages Its Road Trip

The hosts of this year's NCAAs met the hosts of last year's NCAAs on Thursday night and in a mild surprise it was Tulsa defeating Baylor 4-3.

Baylor played without Will Little, who normally plays at No. 1 doubles and No. 4 singles, and despite a valiant effort it couldn't get it done at home. Tulsa took the all-important doubles point with Majed Kilani and Carlos Bautista winning the decider at No. 3 doubles 7-6(2).

ITA/UTR Ranking Comparison

When the last set of ITA singles rankings came out I did a comparison between them and the UTR rankings so I thought I'd do it again this time. Below is a chart of the top 25 men and women sorted by UTR and ITA rankings. Down below the table I also tackled the team rankings using the UTR Power 6 which is the combined UTR of the top 6 singles players. I had to do some tweaking to these because there are several guys, in a team's top 6, that aren't playing for one reason or another that I had to pull out.

Wednesday Recap: Hogs Slop The Horns, Stanford Gets Past Pacific, Boise State Upsets UCSB

A great season for Arkansas got even better on Wednesday night when the Razorbacks beat Texas for the first time since 2004 and won in Austin for the first time since 1988. Arkansas took the doubles point by winning the deciding match at No. 1 in a tiebreak but Texas rebounded by taking four opening sets in singles.

Adrian Ortiz bum-rushed Santiago Munoz 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 and then Michael Riechmann put Texas ahead with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Adam Sanjurjo at No. 5. Arkansas's Giammarco Micolani tied the match at 2-all with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rodrigo Banzer at No. 4 and then Jose Salazar put the Hogs ahead with a come from behind 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Texas freshman Harrison Scott.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 6 Profiles

California stays at No. 1 for the third week in a row with the Bears lead over No. 2 Ohio State increasing from .37 to 8.81.  Georgia and North Carolina swapped spots for the second week in a row with the Bulldogs edging 2.08 ahead of North Carolina for No. 3. Vanderbilt returns to the top 5 after a one week absence while last week's No. 5, Pepperdine, fell to No. 11.

This set of rankings used each team's six best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's seven best wins.

Tuesday Recap: TCU Slides Past Northwestern, Kentucky Stuns Illinois, Drake Beats Oregon, Tulsa Tops Dartmouth

Usually Tuesdays are reserved for the the release of the rankings, but today should have been renamed 4-3day with one match after another going down to the wire.

TCU and Northwestern were originally supposed to meet a few weeks ago in Evanston but due to bad weather TCU's flight was cancelled so they made up the match up today in Fort Worth. Today in Fort Worth there were high winds anticipated so play was moved indoors though evidently it never got as windy as forecasted.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 6 Profiles

The new rankings are out and for the second week in a row we have a new No. 1 with North Carolina overtaking Virginia by almost 9 points. TCU stays at No. 3, Ohio State stays at No. 4 and Oklahoma State moves back ahead of UCLA at No. 5 with the Bruins at No. 6. Further down below I have a more in-depth breakdown of the top 6 and how the points were calculated.

This set of rankings used each team's six best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's seven best wins.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections - New Men's #1

Virginia's stay at No. 1 was a short one with North Carolina surging back ahead this week. This week's rankings used each teams six best wins and UNC had six top-15 wins while Virginia had four top-15 wins. UNC also benefited when Florida State jumped in the rankings because that meant the loss to the Seminoles didn't hurt as much plus when UVA went to No. 1 last week that means the Heels road win over them counted that much more.

TCU, which won matches last week over Tulsa, Dartmouth, and Columbia, stays at No. 3 while Ohio State stays at No. 4 after winning at South Florida before falling to Georgia. Oklahoma State and UCLA swap spots for the second week in a row with the Cowboys moving back up to No. 5 after winning at Pepperdine last week while the Bruins were idle.

Sunday recap: Georgia Knocks off Ohio State, Virginia Scalps Florida State, Oklahoma Beats Cal, Florida Blasts Ole Miss

There were several close matches on Sunday but there was only one that saw a top-five team go down. Georgia, ranked No. 19, was hosting No. 4 Ohio State on a mild and breezy day in Athens. After a week of sunny skies and temperatures in the high-70s, the conditions in Athens weren't as favorable with cloudy skies, an increasing breeze, and temperature hovering in the mid-50s. Despite the conditions a crowd of just over 1000 filled into the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and they were treated to a stellar performance by the home-standing Bulldogs.

Georgia Wins!! (Photo Courtesy of Bill Kallenberg)

I personally thought Ohio State would roll in doubles, but Georgia seemed determined to not let that happen.

Saturday Recap: Pac-12 Goes 2-0 In Indian Wells, Texas Tech Wins the HMVC, TCU Over Columbia, Utah State Makes History

It was a good day for the Pac-12 at the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge as both No. 14 Cal and No. 12 USC picked up wins over Big 12 opponents.

In the first match of the day it was the Battle of the Bears as Cal took on No. 21 Baylor. BU's Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski picked up a 6-2 win at No. 2 but Cal's Mads Engsted and J.T. Nishimura countered with a 6-3 win at No. 3. Cal's No. 1 team of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat served for the match up 5-3 but BU's Julian Lenz and Will Little broke and then Lenz held for 5-5. Cal held for 6-5 then Bergevi and Lakat broke the Little serve from 30-40 to win it 7-5.

Friday Recap: Noles Rally Past Hokies, Upsets Galore In the SEC, Tulane Outlasts San Diego, UNF Upsets Georgia St

Friday was a wild day of tennis with several teams coming from behind to pull out thrilling wins. The biggest comeback of the day took place in Blacksburg as No. 23 Florida State appeared to be down and out against No. 40 Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Florida State turned it around in singles and took first sets at one through four.

FSU's Benjamin Lock cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Joao Monteiro at No. 1 but Virginia Tech answered with a 7-6, 6-3 win from Aaron Gomez at No. 6.

Weekend Preview (3/18-3/20)

It's Friday and that means another weekend of action packed college tennis action. There are three top-25 matchups on the docket for Friday with two of them getting underway early in the day.

Ninth-ranked Texas A&M (15-4) and No. 25 Mississippi State (11-3) were originally supposed to play on Friday evening but due to the potential for rain the match was moved up to noon central. Last weekend Texas A&M split road matches with a loss to Arkansas and a win over Ole Miss while Mississippi State swept its matches against Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas A&M hasn't lost a conference match at the Mitchell Tennis Center in over three years (3/15/13 - LSU) and I don't see them losing today either.

Thursday Recap: Buckeyes Top The Bulls, Columbia Wins at SMU, & Action Gets Underway in San Diego

After a calm Wednesday the pace picked up on Thursday with Ohio State taking on South Florida while the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic got underway with four close matches at two different sites.

No. 4 Ohio State made its outdoors debut in Tampa and despite getting tested the Buckeyes still had enough in the tank to get past No. 16 South Florida 4-3.  Ohio State's Chris Diaz didn't play in doubles (reasons unknown) but the Buckeyes still managed to win at No. 1 and No. 2. Diaz's normal partner, Hugo Di Feo, and Matt Mendez led 5-3 at No. 3 when the point was clinched.

Tuesday Recap: Pepperdine Upsets No. 26 Memphis, TCU Holds Off Tulsa, Nebraska Tops Lamar, Texas Tech Over IU

Tuesday was a good day for Marcelo Ferreira's guys with the Waves re-entering the rankings earlier in the day at No. 71 and then later in the day they took care of business and upset No. 26 Memphis 4-2.

Pepperdine won the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3 and then the teams split first sets in singles. Pepperdine junior Stefan Menichella was off the court quickly with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 4 but Memphis countered with a 6-3, 6-2 win by sophomore Kai Lemke at No. 3.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 5 Profiles

California is at No. 1 for the second week in a row with Bears holding off No. 2 Ohio State by .37 points. North Carolina and Georgia swapped spots at No. 3 and No. 4 while Pepperdine rode the wave that was created by several of its best wins rising in the rankings.

South Carolina moved into the top 10 for the first time since 1983 after picking up wins last week over Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Georgia Tech came up 15 spots from No. 34 to No. 19 after beating Wake Forest and Syracuse last week. Clemson was also a big riser coming up 21 spots from No. 42 to No. 21 after beating Syracuse and Florida State.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 5 Profiles

The new rankings are out and as expected we have a new No. 1 with Virginia sliding ahead of North Carolina. TCU holds firm at No. 3, Ohio State slides down to No. 4 and UCLA comes up to No. 5 just a .03 ahead of Oklahoma State. Further down below I have a more in depth breakdown of the top 5 and how the points were calculated.

Northwestern moved back into the top 10 at No. 7 after its first win over Illinois since 1997 while Texas Tech, who was idle, slid up No. 10 to No. 8. Texas A&M dropped from No. 7 to No. 9 after losing at Arkansas while Wake Forest dropped one spot from No. 9 to No. 10 despite a 7-0 win over Notre Dame.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections - New Men's #1

There have only been two men's teams to hold down the No. 1 spot this season, North Carolina and Virginia. The Cavaliers held the top spot up until the National Team Indoors then the Tar Heels took over after winning the event in Charlottesville. After this happenings of this past weekend, which saw North Carolina get upset by Florida State while Virginia beat Oklahoma, Virginia has taken the top spot back by the slimmest of margins with UNC falling to No. 2

TCU, which was idle last week, holds firm at No. 3 while last week's No. 2, Ohio State, who was also idle drops down to No. 4. UCLA and Oklahoma State swap spots at No. 5 and No. 6 with just a .03 separating them.

This week's rankings took into account each team's five best wins though starting next week things really start to ramp up with the six best wins used and then following week it goes to the seven best wins.

Kentucky Holds Off Bama, FSU Slides Past Duke, Wisconsin Wins In Des Moines, Georgia Tech Tops NC State

Friday and Saturday brought us a ton of upsets but things leveled out on Sunday with most higher ranked teams holding court and getting the win.

Florida State capped off a nice weekend by defeating No. 66 Duke 5-2. The Seminoles claimed the doubles point by sweeping all three courts and then it took four opening sets in singles.

Friday night's hero, Marco Nunez, was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Vincent Lin at No. 2 and his teammate Jose Gracia would put the Noles up 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ryan Dickerson at No. 5.

More Upsets - Northwestern Beats #8 Illinois For First Time Since '97, Mississippi State Blanks #12 Kentucky & More

The weekend of upsets continued on Saturday with three higher ranked team going down on top of the seven that were upset yesterday. The biggest upset in terms of ranking took place in Starkville but I'll start off in Evanston where Northwestern was looking to snap a 27-match, 19 year, losing streak to in-state rival Illinois.

Even though Northwestern was shutout by the Illini earlier this season it had to be optimistic with a big home crowd on hand. Northwestern got things started off on the right foot by claiming the doubles point for the 12th time in 14 tries with a 6-4 win at No. 2 and a 6-3 win at No. 3.

Noles Shock #1 UNC, Razorbacks Upset #7 Texas A&M, Clemson beats #38 Notre Dame

Friday was a day of upsets with the biggest shocker coming in Tallahassee as No. 51 Florida State stunned No. 1 and previously unbeaten North Carolina 4-3.  Florida State was coming off a tough 4-3 loss to Miami last Sunday so the thought of them beating the No. 1 team in the country had to be a long shot at best coming in.

FSU's Aziz Dougaz and Michael Rinaldi were first off the court at No. 2 doubles as they defeated UNC's Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray 6-1. UNC's Andrew Gores and Ronnie Schneider won 6-3 at No. 3 over Jose Gracia and Terrance Whitehurst but FSU took the doubles point when Benjamin Lock and Marco Nunez defeated Brett Clark and Robert Kelly 6-4 at No. 1.

Thursday Recap + Weekend Preview (3/11-3/13)

There were actually four ranked versus ranked matches on Thursday with the higher ranked team winning three of the four.

No. 4 Virginia went to Tulsa, the site of this year's NCAA Championships, and rolled over No. 26 Tulsa 6-1. Virginia won a pretty tight doubles point by breaking Tulsa's 5-6 service game at No. 3 to claim the point.  Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, Mac Styslinger, and Henrik Wiersholm won in straight sets for Virginia at 1, 2, 5, and 6 while Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won a three-set battle over Dylan McCloskey at 3. Tulsa's Juan Matias Gonzalez earned the lone point for the Golden Hurricane with a straight set win at No. 4.

News and Notes - UTR vs. ITA, Davis Cup, Attendance Race, Miami Streaming, Me in Des Moines

The first thing I wanted to mention is that I wrote an article for the Tennis Recruiting Network that ran today with the topic being the Road to Tulsa. It talks about the teams that I think are contenders for the national championship along with the others that have some work to do so make sure you give it a read.

After the release of the latest Oracle/ITA rankings,  I wanted to do a comparison between those and the most recent Universal Tennis Ratings. Below is a chart of the top 25 men and women sorted by UTR and ITA rankings.

Ohio State Women Marking Their Own Territory

By Joey Dillon

March 1st may have been just a normal day for the ITA rankings to be released, but for the Ohio State women’s team, it meant another step in the journey to becoming a powerhouse. The Buckeye ladies rose to No.1 in the country for the first time in program history, as well as having the No.1 singles player and No.4 doubles team in the country, also program-bests. I spoke with head coach Melissa Schaub, as well as current and former members of the Buckeye program, who before last season had never moved past No.17.

3/8 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release

For the second week in a row there is a new No. 1 as Cal retakes the top spot from Ohio State. Cal's five best wins weren't as good as Ohio State's but the difference this week was Ohio State having the one loss to Cal while is undefeated.

Georgia moves up from No. 7 to No. 3 after beating both Ole Miss and Mississippi State on the roast last weekend. North Carolina drops one spot from No. 3 to No. 4 while Vanderbilt moves up 3 spots from No. 8 to No. 5 after defeating Kentucky last weekend.

This week's rankings used each team's five best wins as will next week's rankings.

3/8 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release

The third computer rankings of the year are out and while there was still a good bit of movement it wasn't as drastic as in the past two weeks.

North Carolina remains at #1 while Ohio State rises up from #4 to #2 after getting the big road win at Oklahoma. TCU stays at #3 while Virginia drops from #2 to #4 with Oklahoma State staying at #5.

3/8 Ranking Projections - Cal Women #1

North Carolina stays at No. 1 for another week while Ohio State jumps up from No. 4 to No. 2 after a nice road win over Oklahoma on Sunday. TCU stays at No. 3 while Virginia falls from No. 2 to No. 4 due to a few of its best wins falling the previous week.

This week's rankings take into account each teams five best wins just as last week's ranking did and just as next week's rankings will.

Kentucky was the big mover inside the top 20 with the Wildcats expected to rise from No. 22 to No. 12 after picking up wins over Arkansas and Ole Miss.  Tulane will move up from No. 35 to No. 22 after picking up nice ranked wins over Memphis and LSU. NC State's road win over No. 7 Wake Forest will be enough to propel the Wolfpack back inside the top 30 after dropping down to No. 40 last week.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Holds Off Florida, NC State Upsets Wake, Ohio State Wins At OU & More

In what had to be the match of the day it was No. 8 Texas A&M outlasting No. 30 Florida 4-3 in 3 hours and 51 minutes. Florida jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Texas A&M came out ready to go in singles and took five opening sets.

Jordi Arconada was off the court first with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Chase Perez-Blanco at No. 3 but Florida's Gordon Watson answered with a 6-4, 6-4 win over AJ Catanzariti at No. 5.

Texas A&M senior Jackson Withrow evened the match at 2-2 with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Florida freshman McClain Kessler at No. 6 but Florida retook the lead when freshman Alfredo Perez rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Texas A&M senior Harrison Adams.

Sunday Preview - Florida/Texas A&M & Ohio State/Oklahoma

A couple of good ones on the docket for today. Texas A&M and Florida were voted #2 and #3 in the preseason SEC coaches poll while Oklahoma and Ohio State were in everyone's preseason top 10.

#30 Florida (6-3) at #8 Texas A&M (12-3) - 1pm est/12pm cst - Live Scoring & Video - Florida is coming off a 4-3 road win at LSU in a match where Florida dropped the doubles point but won the first four completed singles matches. Texas A&M is coming off a comfortable 6-1 road win at Auburn. Texas A&M is very, very tough to beat at home so Florida will have to bring its A+ game to come away with a win.

TCU Too Good for South Florida & Princeton Punches Penn State

The featured match of the day took place in Tampa as No. 3 TCU rolled into town to face No. 17 South Florida. South Florida got the win at No. 1 doubles but TCU came back and won at No. 2 and No. 3 with Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder clinching the point 7-6(1) at No. 2.

Each team picked up three first sets in singles but South Florida struck first when Justin Roberts closed out Eduardo Nava 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4. TCU freshman Alex Rybakov put the Horned Frogs back ahead 2-1 when he ran through Dominic Cotrone 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 and a short while later Jerry Lopez would make it 3-1 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Peter Bertran at No. 5.

Friday Recap: Drake Raps Past Iowa, SEC & ACC Play Underway, Lobos Top BYU

While conference play got underway in the SEC and ACC there was a non-conference battle brewing in Des Moines between #36 Drake and #33 Iowa. The two schools, separated by just 115 miles, are the only two schools in the state of Iowa that play Division 1 men's tennis so bragging rights were at stake Friday night. A boisterous crowd of close to 200, with a decent amount of black and gold, was on hand to see if Drake could make it five in a row over the Hawkeyes.

Drake got off to a good start at #3 doubles when Ben Stride and Calum MacGeoch jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Iowa's Robin Haden and Nils Hallestrand. Drake would hold on the deciding point to stretch the lead to 4-1 and then break again for 5-1. MacGeoch would serve it out from 40-30 to give Drake the 6-1 win in 24 minutes.

Weekend Preview (3/4-3/6)

The weekend is here and while there aren't as many high profile matches as in past weeks there is still plenty of quality tennis to be played.

SEC conference play gets underway this weekend with a big match taking place on Sunday in College Station between #8 Texas A&M and #30 Florida. These two teams were selected as the preseason #2 and #3 by the SEC coaches so it'll be a chance for one of them to get a leg up on the other. Of course before Florida gets a crack at A&M it'll have to take care of business in Baton Rouge on Friday night against #32 LSU. The Bayou Bengals have been known to give higher ranked teams some trouble at home so we'll see if that's the case tonight. Texas A&M actually opens up its weekend on the road at #66 Auburn though I'm not expecting that one to be too close.

Cowboys Poke the Bears Plus Other Thursday Results

In an under the radar top 20 clash out in La Jolla it was #5 Oklahoma State edging #18 Cal 4-3. Oklahoma State took the doubles pint with 6-3 wins at #1 and #3 but Cal came back strong in singles and took four opening sets.

Oklahoma State only took two first sets in singles but both Julian Cash and Lukas Finzelberg managed to finish in straight sets. Cash upset the ITA #7 Andre Goransson 6-3, 6-2 at #1 while Finzelberg got the best of J.T. Nishimura 6-4, 6-3 at #6. Oklahoma State's lead was now 3-0 but it'd be a while before they could find its fourth point because Cal was in control on each of the remaining four courts.

Tulane Beats LSU For First Time Since '04 + See Who Is Playing Davis Cup

It had been 12 years since Tulane last defeated LSU but the Green Wave were able to get it done on Wednesday afternoon with a 4-2 win.

LSU took the doubles point with wins at #1 and #2 but Tulane rebounded in singles by picking up five first sets. Tulane's Constantin Schmitz rolled over Justin Butsch 6-0, 6-2 at #2 but LSU went back ahead when Gabor Csonka beat Alex Van Cott 6-2, 6-0 at #4. Tulane's Chi-Shan Jao evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Simon Freund at #5.

UCLA Outduels USC & San Diego Burns the Rice

Last season USC won all three meetings against UCLA, but so far this season it's Bruins 1 and Trojans 0. UCLA claimed this year's first edition of the Battle for LA by taking out #12 USC 5-2.

UCLA took the doubles point for the 10th time in 12 tries but it didn't do it with a win at #1. USC's Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven surprised the ITA #3 team of Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki 6-4. Crystal/Verboven jumped out to a 4-1 lead before McDonald/Redlick won three straight to even it at 4-4. Crystal/Verboven held for 5-4 and then broke to win it 6-4.

3/1 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release

Ladies and gentlemen we have a new #1 and it is The Ohio State University.  The Buckeyes took over the top spot from undefeated Cal due to having four top 10 wins, one of which was a road win over then # Michigan, and a total of five wins over top 24 opponents. Cal has three top 10 wins and a total of five top 20 wins.

This week's rankings used each team's five best wins as will the next two rankings after this week.

3/1 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release

The second computer rankings of the year are out and as expected there was a lot of movement throughout the top 75. As I mentioned in the past it usually takes at least 3 weeks of computer rankings before things start to level out some but they really will come into better focus later in March when the number of countable wins climbs past five.

The top two stayed the same with North Carolina at #1 and Virginia at #2 while TCU jumped up to #3 off the strength of its ranked road wins over Illinois and Wisconsin. Oklahoma State came up from #9 to #5 due to its strong win over South Florida and Northwestern enters the top 10 at #9 due to it having five wins over ranked opponents.

The next two rankings will also use each team's five best wins so I expect my predictions to become more accurate with each passing week.

UCLA/USC Preview

It's once again time for the battle for LA as #6 UCLA hosts #12 USC. Both schools are coming off wins at Stanford with UCLA squeezing out a 4-3 win while USC was a little more impressive in its 5-2 win. Both will be heading to La Jolla for the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships later in the week so this will be a chance to get some momentum before the guys play in that individual tournament.

USC swept all three meetings last season with the Trojans winning 4-1 at home, 4-2 in Westwood, and 4-1 at the Pac 12 Tournament in Ojai though Max de Vroome and Nick Crystal are the only 2 returning starters from those USC teams. This will be USC's second dual-match this season at the LA Tennis Center after it defeated #30 Florida 4-3 during the Pac-12/SEC Challenge.

#12 USC (7-2) at #6 UCLA (9-2) - 5:30pm est/2:30pm pst - Live Scoring