Round of 16 Preview - Baylor/South Florida & USC/Duke

[2] Baylor (23-5) vs. [17-32] #18 South Florida (21-6) - Thursday 8pm - Baylor is coming off shutout wins over Bryant and #29 LSU while South Florida blanked #63 Boise State and #15 Virginia Tech. This is South Florida's first ever trip to the Round of 16 while Baylor is back for the 14th consecutive year. 

Doubles Records: Baylor 25-2, South Florida 22-5

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Baylor 86, South Florida 82

Round of 16 Preview - Virginia/Columbia & Texas A&M/Ohio State

[3] Virginia (25-3) vs. [17-32] Columbia (16-5) - Thursday 5pm - Virginia is coming off shutouts over St. John's and Minnesota while Columbia beat both Georgia Tech and Ole Miss by the same 4-1 score. Columbia went 0-4 this year against top 10 opponents though they were respectable in each loss (UGA 3-4, Texas 1-4, Oklahoma 2-4, USC 0-4). 

Doubles Records: Virginia 25-3, Columbia 15-6

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 87, Columbia 82

Round of 16 Preview: Illinois/North Carolina & TCU/Wake Forest

[4] Illinois (27-4) vs. [13] North Carolina (23-10) - Thursday 1pm - Illinois is coming off a 4-0 win over Green Bay and a 4-2 squeaker over #33 Drake while North Carolina blanked William & Mary and then won fairly comfortably over #20 Mississippi State 4-1. North Carolina welcomed Esben Hess-Olesen back to the singles lineup at #6 after he missed all but a handful of matches with injury troubles. Illinois won the regular season meeting 4-3 in a match that North Carolina played without its #2 Ronnie Schneider though Hess-Olesen was in at #3 so the bottom half of the lineup stayed the same.  The only singles rematches will come at #1 and #5. Below is the box score from that first meeting and here are a few video highlights that I shot when I was in attendance.  

Round of 16 Preview - Oklahoma/UCLA, Georgia/Texas

We are just a few days away from the start of the Round of 16 in hopefully sunny Waco so let's start peeling the layers away and breaking down each match.

[1] Oklahoma (26-2) vs. [16] UCLA (17-9) - 10am est - Oklahoma is coming off a 4-0 win over New Mexico State and a 4-1 win over Northwestern while UCLA steamrolled both Florida Gulf Coast and Texas Tech 4-0. Even though Oklahoma won both matches comfortably the one area they didn't look as good in was doubles. OU dropped the point to Northwestern for the 2nd time this year and even New Mexico State challenged OU by winning at #2 doubles before OU clinched at #3 by a tight 8-6 score.  UCLA's strength all year has been its top 3 but against Texas Tech on Saturday the Bruins swept the bottom 3 and that was with Gage Brymer still on the sidelines.