NCAA First/Second Round Previews: North Carolina & Illinois Regionals

North Carolina Regional
Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center - Chapel Hill, NC

[2] North Carolina Tar Heels (25-4) vs. [49-64] College of Charleston Cougars (19-6) - Saturday Noon ET - North Carolina got in as an at-large after falling to Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament while Charleston punched its ticket by defeating UNC Wilmington in the finals of the Colonial Conference Tournament. Charleston went 1-5 against ranked opponents with the one win coming over UNC Wilmington. Charleston went 0-2 against ACC opponents falling to Virginia Tech and Clemson by a combined score of 13-1. Charleston has two starters that began their collegiate careers elsewhere with Juan Estevarena transferring in from Mississippi State while Garrett Gordon transferred in from Georgia Tech. 

Doubles Records: North Carolina 22-7, College of Charleston 15-9

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: North Carolina 84, College of Charleston 75

Friday Recap: UCLA and Cal Win Out West, Rain Hampers Play in the Southeast, Ohio State and Penn State deliver in the Big Ten, & More

It was an extremely long day of tennis in Columbia, South Carolina, as rain pushed the schedule at the SEC Tournament back significantly and ultimately shifted play indoors. One of the opening matches of the day, which started at 9am ET, would be a barnburner as South Carolina was trying to pull off its third top-20 upset in the last five days.

The Gamecocks started off the morning by taking the doubles point over No. 13 Texas A&M with Gabriel Friedrich and Harrison O'Keefe winning the deciding tiebreak at No. 1 by a 7-1 score.

Texas A&M rebounded in singles by taking four opening sets but South Carolina's Andrew Schafer was the first one to finish after he defeated Jordi Arconada 6-1, 7-5 at No. 3.

Saturday Recap: SoCal Too Tough For NorCal, SMU Stuns South Florida, Texas Tech Wins A Thriller at Baylor, Ivy Roundup

It was a nice weekend for the two Southern California Pac-12 schools as both UCLA and USC swept their Northern California neighbors, Cal and Stanford. Both Cal and Stanford went 2-0 in doubles on the weekend but neither could do enough damage in singles to make the early lead hold up.

Cal's Mads Engsted and JT Nishimura cruised to a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Gage Brymer and Max Cressy but the Bruins appeared to be in control with 4-1* and *4-2  leads at No. 1 and No. 2. Cal would get the break back on both courts and Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat would take the final five games at No. 1 to win it 6-4 and give the Bears the doubles point.

UCLA came back in singles and took opening sets at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. UCLA sophomore Martin Redlicki made quick work over the slumping Andre Goransson by winning 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. Goransson went 13-2 in the fall with 7 ranked wins but he's just 5-8 in dual-match play with a 1-8 record against ranked opponents.

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).

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.

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.

UNCW Clips #25 NC State & Memphis Holds Off SMU

North Carolina State returned to the top 25 this week and had four matches scheduled for the weekend with two of them ranked opponents. However the Pack may have been caught looking ahead to Friday's showdown with #6 Texas Tech because this afternoon it was upset by unranked UNC Wilmington 4-3.

Despite being an upset in terms of ranking, it wasn't a surprise in terms of recent history because this was actually the third time in the last four meetings that the Seahawks have clipped the Wolfpack.

UNCW won a tightly contested doubles point with both #1 and #3 going to tiebreaks. UNCW won 6-2 at #2 and when Xander Veys/Javier Restrepo and pulled it out 7-6(4) at #1 the Seahawks had the crucial doubles point.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Wins At Illinois, Ohio State Outlasts Florida, Memphis Wins in Oxford, & More

Texas A&M had been on the road for the last week and a half, and had lost its last three, but it managed to come from behind today to beat Illinois 4-2 despite playing without one of its top starters. Texas A&M senior Shane Vinsant missed today's match against Illinois due to a blister on his foot but the Aggies managed to stay focused in his absence and the team performed much better in singles than it did in doubles. The weather was right around 50 degrees outside but they played it indoors anyway. I was a little surprised at the lighter turnout of around 175 because I've been to Atkins in the past for some big matches and have seen well over 500 on hand.

Thursday Recap: Go Tigers Go, Stangs Top the Islanders

Going into last night's match Memphis had dropped 14 of its last 15 against Vanderbilt with its last win over Vandy coming back in 2012. Now they can say they've taken split the last four meetings after coming away with a 5-2 win on Thursday night.

Memphis took the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 and then took three opening sets in singles with five singles matches in progress at the five court indoor facility. Ryan Peniston was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #2 and then Kai Lemke made it 3-0 Tigers with a 6-2, 7-6 win at #4. Vandy's Daniel Valent put the Commodores on the board with a 7-6, 6-1 win at #1 but a short while later Felix Rauch clinched it with a 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at #5.

Men's Kick-Off Weekend Regional Previews

There will be 15 men's regionals taking place this weekend with 2 of the 15 getting started on Friday. I'll start off by previewing the USC and Illinois Regionals since they both start on Friday and I'll work my through all 15 of them by Friday evening. Keep checking back for updates since I'll just be adding on to this post. FYI, the numbers beside the school name are each player's current Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) as of 1/20/16. 

USC Regional (Fri/Sat) - Marks Stadium (no live scoring due to construction)

#57 UC Davis [4] at #8 USC [1] – 4pm est/1pm pst – USC Twitter - This will be the dual-match opener for USC with the Trojans expected to start at least 3 freshmen while UC Davis kicked off its season on Wednesday with a 4-0 loss at #18 Stanford. The Aggies return all 6 starters from last year's team including its top player #38 Alec Adamson who had a tremendous fall winning four matches over ranked opponents. I don't foresee UC Davis getting on the board in this one with USC just too strong top to bottom. Prediction: USC 4-0 (Result: USC 7-0)

Rubin Sandwiches Paire, Georgia Finishes Strong, Pokes Walking in Memphis, Lenz Wins Sherwood

The big story of the day took place in the wee hours of the night here in the United States as former Wake Forest Demon Deacon #328 Noah Rubin (UTR 15.01) stunned #18 Benoit Paire (UTR 15.39) in 3 tiebreak sets in the opening round of the 2016 Australian Open. I'll be the first to admit I was sound asleep when the match took place but when my 3-year came barreling into our room at 6am one of the first things I did was pull up Twitter and that's when I saw the good news. I'll let these Twitter posts from Parsa, Martin Blackman, Josh Meiseles, Noah Rubin, and the Australian Open tell you the story

19-yo Noah Rubin earns his 1st tour-level win, beating [17] Paire 76(4) 76(6) 76(5) to reach the #AusOpen R64! American men go 3-1 on day 1!

— Parsa (@Smith_J1989) January 18, 2016

Sunday Recap: Kentucky Finishes Strong, Sarkissian Wins Again, Futures Action Continues in CA & FL

The final day of the FGCU Invitational was cut short a little with LSU and Memphis leaving after doubles due to a 6-hour rain delay. Kentucky waited out the delay and played singles with the host Florida Gulf Coast with Kentucky winning 4 of 6 matches. Kentucky ended up the big winner during the 3-day tournament winning 15 of 21 singles matches and 6 of 10 doubles matches. Kentucky's Jake Stefanik, Gus Benson, and Kevin Lai each went 3-0 in singles while Ryotaro Matsamura went 2-0. Memphis's Ryan Peniston, Andrew Watson, Kai Lemke each went 2-0 as did LSU's Gabor Csonka.

Sunday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 4-2/2-0
Memphis 0-0/2-1
LSU 0-0/1-2
FGCU 2-4/1-2

Kentucky & Memphis Dominate, Sarkissian Qualifies In Sydney, Huskies Sweep Seattle

Kentucky and Memphis were the big winners on Day 2 of the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational. Kentucky went 9-2 overall including 6-1 in singles with freshman Ryotaro Matsamura rolling for a second day in both singles and doubles. Memphis's Ryan Peniston knocked off  LSU's #78 Justin Butch in 2 close sets and Memphis freshman Chris Patzanovsky picked up a win over LSU's Tam Trinh. Sunday wraps up the tournament with each starting dual-match play in the coming weeks. Below the scores are quotes from 3 of the 4 coaches.

Saturday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 6-1/3-1
Memphis 5-2/2-1
LSU 2-5/1-2
FGCU 1-6/1-3

LSU Shines in Florida, BYU Wins Opener, Vukic/Norrie/Sarkissian Win Down Under, Futures Action

LSU's guys were the top performers in Day 1 of the FGCU Invitational as they went 5-2 in singles and 2-1 in doubles. Kentucky had 2 freshmen make their debuts as Ryotaro Matsumura (14.08) won in straight sets over Memphis's Felix Rauch (12.63) while Enzo Wallart (13.17) lost a tough 3-setter to Memphis's Kai Lemke (13.38).

Friday Results Singles/Doubles
LSU 5-2/2-1
Kentucky 5-3/1-3
Memphis 3-4/2-1
FGCU 2-6/2-2

Monday Recap: Bruins over Runnin' Rebs, Mustangs Over Broncos, Tigers Beat the Jags, Stanford Plays a Match

Typically Mondays only have 1 or 2 matches but there were a handful of decent ones on the slate today with Cal Poly going into Boise and winning, Memphis winning at South Alabama, and UCLA getting a slightly tougher than expected win over UNLV.

UCLA won the battle of the abbreviations with a 6-1 win over UNLV.  UCLA was a little shorthanded with 2 of its top 3 players out of the doubles lineup with Mackenzie McDonald (14.91) and Martin Redlicki both participating in a Futures event in Calabasas this week.  After UCLA dropped the doubles point things were actually looking a little concerning but fortunately Redlicki was able to make it back in time to play in singles because otherwise the Bruins would have had to slide everyone except Mkrtchian up 2 spots in the lineup which could have spelled trouble for UCLA. In all seriousness UCLA probably still would have won no worse than 5-2 even without Redlicki.

Roll Tide Roll - Bama Upsets #9 Ole Miss 4-2 + a few other results anda look towards Sunday

Who saw this one coming?  Alabama shocks #9 Ole Miss 4-2 in T-Town.  The same Alabama team that came into the match with an 8-9 record with the 8 wins being over powerhouses UAB, Samford, Jackson State (4X), and Jacksonville State (2X).  The same Ole Miss team that routed a top 15 Vanderbilt team last weekend and the same team that gave #1 Oklahoma all it wanted at the National Indoors.  Total head-scratcher....

Ole Miss played well in doubles and took the point by winning at 1 and 3 but singles got off to a rough start when William Kallberg retired 3 games in at #4 singles.  The Bama recap said it was due to injury but didn't specify what kind of injury but it must have been severe enough to force him to throw in the towel.  Ole Miss regained the lead when Stefan Lindmark wiped the court with Danny Kerznerman 6-1, 6-0 at #2 but then Stuart Kenyon, who came in with a 5-7 dual match record, did the same and cleaned Zvonimir Babic's clock 6-1, 6-2 at #5.  The biggest shocker came at #1 singles when Bama freshman Korey Lovett, who was 6-6 in dual match play, thumped #60 Nik Scholtz 6-2, 6-2.  It was only Scholtz's 2nd dual match loss of the year and just his 3rd in the last 2 years.  With the Tide up 3-2 it would be Bama junior Becker O'Shaughnessey who would seal the deal with a 6-4, 6-3 win at #3 singles over Gustav Hansson.

Baylor Does It Again, Longhorns Too Good for Wake, Ole Miss Slams Vandy

It seemed like the story of the day wasn't who was playing; it was who wasn't playing as several big names were missing from their respective team's starting lineups.

The big rematch between Baylor and Virginia didn't come close to matching the level of play that we saw the first time around.  Virginia was without 2 of it's starters with neither Thai-Son Kwiatkowski or Alexander Ritschard playing.   Below is a quote from Virginia's recap that talks about the absence of the 2 players: