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.

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.

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.

NCAA 1st Round Previews: Virginia Tech & Baylor Regionals

Virginia Tech Regional
Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center - Blacksburg, VA

[15] Virginia Tech (19-4) vs. [49-64] East Tennessee State (17-7) - Friday 2pm - #15 Virginia Tech got an at-large bid after getting upset 4-3 in the ACC quarterfinals by #42 Georgia Tech while ETSU punched its ticket for the 9th year in a row after shutting out Furman in the Southern Conference Championship. ETSU went 2-6 against ranked opponents with the wins over #56 Texas A&M Corpus Christi and #73 UNC Wilmington. ETSU finished the season by winning 13 in a row and 16 of its last 17 with the Bucs only yielding 11 points in the 16 wins. 

Doubles Records: Virginia Tech 13-10, ETSU 17-7

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia Tech 83, ETSU 79

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.

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.

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:

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! #1 USC IS SHOCKED BY #51 TULSA + Other Saturday Results

Shocker of the day, week, month, year, decade, century, maybe longer - #1 USC playing without Eric Johnson and Nick Crystal goes down to #51 Tulsa 4-3.

USC came out strong and really blew out Tulsa in doubles winning 6-1 and 6-0 at 2 and 3 despite having new doubles pairing on each court.  Eric Johnson did play in doubles but I guess it was a coaches decision to give him and Nick Crystal the day off in singles and it ultimately proved to be costly.

Still even with those 2 guys out of the singles lineup you figure there is no way that Hanfmann and Quiroz are both going to lose and sure enough they both did in straight sets.

When I was looking at Saturday's matches and deciding which ones to preview I quickly passed this one over because I didn't think there was any way possible that Tulsa could win this match regardless of whether USC sat a couple of guys.  But I guess there is a reason they play the matches because you never know what can happen on a given day.

Hokie Hokie Hi, Dunk City Upsets the U, Cowboy Up, Ivy Power

Saturday didn't have any Top 10 showdowns but there were several solid matches between ranked teams.  The biggest upset of the day, in terms of ranking, came in Blacksburg as #37 Virginia Tech took it to #22 Penn State 4-1. The Hokies took 10 of 11 sets in singles after dropping the doubles point.  Penn State has now lost 2 of its last 3 and is looking at a tough road next weekend when they head to Chicago for the National Indoors against the best of the best with its opening match against #1 USC.


VT Recap
PSU Recap

#37 Virginia Tech 4, #22 Penn State 1

Singles

1. #35 Amerigo Contini (VT) def. Leonard Stakhovsky (PSU) 7-5, 6-3

2. #61 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT) def. Alex Fennell (PSU) 6-2, 6-2

3. Joao Monteiro (VT) vs. Matt Barry (PSU) 6-3, 5-5, unfinished

4. Hunter Koontz (VT) def. Roman Trkulja (PSU) 6-2, 6-2

5. Aws Laaribi (PSU) vs. Edoardo Tessaro (VT) 2-6, 7-6, unfinished

6. #94 Florian Nicoud (VT) def. Nika Dolidze (PSU) 6-2, 6-4

Order of Finish: 4, 2, 6, 1

Doubles

1. Andreas Bjerrehus/Amerigo Contini (VT) def. Matt Barry/Alex Fennell (PSU) 6-2

2. Leonard Stakhovsky/Aws Laaribi (PSU) def. Jai Corbett/Joao Monteiro (VT) 7-6 (7-5)

3. Michael Reilly/Roman Trkulja (PSU) def. Hunter Koontz/Florian Nicoud (VT) 7-5

Order of Finish: 1, 2