Blue Gray NTC, BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge, & National Alumni Championships

I wanted to make a mention of a couple of events that are coming up over the next few months with one of them getting started tomorrow (Friday).

Six men's and six women's teams will converge on Montgomery, Alabama for the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. The Classic stated all the way back in 1949 and has evolved over the years from an individual event to a team event. One of the things that makes this such a unique event are the host families that take in the teams every year. The players and coaches love coming to Montgomery which is why several teams have been participating in this event for years and will likely keep coming back. There are a slew of positives testimonials that you can read over which talk about all the finer points of the weekend experience.

Sunday Recap: Sooners Come Up Big Again, Ole Miss Rolls, Duke Scraps Past Wake, Hokies Charge Back

After struggling in doubles most of the year, Oklahoma came up big in the finals of the BNP Paribas Collegiate Cup and handed Baylor its first doubles loss of the year and ultimately its 3rd overall loss as the Sooners beat Baylor 4-2.  The Oklahoma win was the second over Baylor in the last 5 weeks and they'll meet up against in Waco on April 10th.

Baylor's #2 team of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano won easily 6-2 but Oklahoma would win the other 2 courts 6-4 with Dane Webb and Axel Alvarez getting it done on 1 and Spencer Papa and Florin Bragusi winning on 3.  It was the first win of the year for the Papa/Bragusi pairing and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Each team would take 3 1st sets but with Baylor needing 4 singles wins they would need to close out their 3 and turn 1 more - OU wouldn't let it happen.  Axel Alvarez put OU up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 shellacking over Tony Lupieri at #2 and Alex Ghilea would make it 3-0 with an equally dominant 6-2 6-3 win over Vince Schneider at #4.  Julian Lenz would get Baylor on the board with a 6-3, 6-2 win at #1 over Andrew Harris and Mate Zsiga was just 2 games away from winning at #5. However, Oklahoma's Florin Bragusi would put an end to any doubt and clinch the win and title by defeating Felipe Rios 7-5, 6-4 at #6 and thus snap Rios's 10-match winning streak.

Getting the doubles point was huge for Oklahoma because even though they've come back before after dropping it this was a red-hot Baylor team they were facing.  If Baylor takes that opening point then it would have come down to a 3rd set at #3.  Of course you can play the IF game all day; bottom line is Oklahoma keeps on winning and keeps performing when it matters that most.

Bears Sic 'Em, Oklahoma Rallies Past Columbia, Toreros Hold Off Drake, Vandy Survives

Saturday had several close ones with both Baylor and Oklahoma pulling through in the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge while San Diego and Princeton both won tight ones in the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic.   There was also a good one in Nashville where Vanderbilt won a 3rd set tiebreak in the deciding match to avoid getting upset by unranked Kentucky.

The headliner of the day was between #3 Baylor and #4 USC.  It was almost a forgone conclusion that Baylor would take the doubles point with how dominant they'd been in doubles play but USC had the point well within grasp.  Baylor's #3 duo of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios were first off the court with 6-3 win but USC's #1 pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz answered with a 6-4 win.  So it all came down to #2 doubles where Baylor's Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano had jumped out to an early break lead on USC's Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson.  USC's 2s would break back to even it at 4 then get a De Vroome hold to go up 5-4 and then would go up 0-30 on the Galeano serve.  The Baylor 2s would win 4 straight points to hold for 5-5 but then Eric Johnson would hold at 40-15 to put USC up 6-5.  For the second service game in a row Baylor would go down 0-30 but they'd dig themselves out again by winning 3 straight points to go up 40-30.  After USC got the next point to make it 40-40, which was a deciding/break point, Lenz dropped the hammer on a 1st serve and sent to a tiebreak.  The tiebreak was all Baylor as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and ended up cruising to a 7-1 win.

Friday Recap: Wake Too Good for VT, USC Gets Its Revenge, The Ville Rocks UNC, Several 4-3 Nailbiters

Friday brought us several close ones as 6 matches finished with a 4-3 final score though of course there were several that weren't as close most notably 3 of the 4 in Indian Wells.  

The big upset of the day came in Louisville as the #29 Cardinals stunned #10 North Carolina 5-2.  It looked like #7 Texas A&M might get picked off too however the Aggies rallied late and held off #35 Mississippi State 4-1.  #33 Drake came back from 3-0 down to stun #22 Harvard 4-3 and #23 LSU pulled out a tight 4-3 win on the road at #60 Alabama.

In the biggest match of the day #12 Wake Forest ran its winning streak to 4 with a 5-2 win over #16 Virginia Tech.  The Demon Deacons cruised past Va Tech in doubles and then Noah Rubin made it 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 beat down of Amerigo Contini at #1 singles.  Jon Ho would extend the lead to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win at #4 singles over Hunter Koontz before Virginia Tech's Edoardo Tessaro would put the Hokies on the board with a come from behind 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Christian Seraphim at #5 singles. Romain Bogaerts would clinch the win for Wake Forest with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win at #2 singles over Andreas Bjerrehus and then the teams would split the 2 remaining matches after the clinch.  

Wake Forest now sets its sights on #6 Duke with Wake making the short trip to Durham on Sunday.