NCAA 1st Round Previews: Virginia & Ole Miss Regionals

Virginia Regional
Snyder Tennis Center - Charlottesville, VA

[3] Virginia (23-3) vs. [49-64] St. John's (15-8) - Friday  1pm - #3 Virginia received the ACC's automatic bid after beating #12 Wake Forest 4-2 in the ACC Championship while St. John's got the Big East's automatic bid after defeating Marquette 4-2 in the Big East Championship. St. John's finished the year on a 6-match winning streak and won 11 of its final 12.  The Red Storm went 0-6 against ranked teams on the year.

Doubles Records: Virginia 23-3, St. John's 11-11

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 87, St. John's 78

Saturday Preview: Conference Semifinal Saturday + Pac 12 Championship

It's go time for the ACC, Big 10, and Big 12 with each conference down to the semifinals of their conference tournaments plus the Pac 12 has reached its Championship match.

ACC:

#5 [1] Virginia vs. #16 [4] North Carolina - 10am est - Virginia won both the regular season meetings with the Wahoos beating UNC 6-1 in Charlottesville and blanking them 4-0 at the National Indoors in Chicago.  Neither match was particularly close though the match at UVA was the better of the two with UNC taking 3 sets and losing several 7-5.

Sun Shining On Florida Gulf Coast + A Look Back At A Few More From Sunday

Florida Gulf Coast was the big winner today as the Eagles earned its first ever NCAA berth by defeating North Florida 4-3 in the finals of the Atlantic Sun.  The teams met in the regular season 2 weeks ago with FGCU winning 7-0 but FGCU figured it wouldn't be as easy this time around despite UNF playing without its injured #1 Jack Findel-Hawkins (13.32).  The match, held in Jacksonville at UNF, started on Sunday but before the rain came UNF captured the doubles point by winning a pair of tiebreaks at 2 and 3.  Usually when you have the top 2 seeds playing for a conference championship you expect several 3-setters but all 6 singles matches finished in straight sets with no set closer than 6-4.

Friday Recap: Gophers Shock Illini & SEC Tournament Follows Form

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside at night the Minnesota Golden Gophers jumped out from behind the tree and yelled boo and shocked #3 Illinois 4-3.

Minnesota took the doubles point for the 20th time in 24 matches by getting wins at #1 (Jack Hamburg/Mathieu Froment) and #2 (Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo) with the win at #2 coming in the tiebreak.  Illinois had won the doubles point in the previous 6 matches but is now just 15-10 on the year in doubles.

Despite falling behind, many people including myself thought Illinois would turn it on in singles and still get it done but Minnesota said not tonight.

The biggest singles upset came in the first match to finish as Minnesota's Jack Hamburg snapped #57 Aleks Vukic's 14-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles.  Vukic hadn't dropped a set since March 15th.  For those that like tracking the UTRs of each player you'll notice that there was a difference of more than 1.00 which means this is definitely an upset.

Friday Recap: Mississippi State Upsets #6 Georgia, Hokies Gut Out A Win, + More Results

The big upset of the day came in Starkville as the Bulldogs from Mississippi State upset the Bulldogs from Georgia 4-2.  Mississippi State took the doubles point for the 16th time this year and is now 11-0 in doubles at home.  State fell a break behind at both #1 and #3 but managed to turn both courts around and would clinch the point with a win at #1 over the #1 ranked team in the country.

Mississippi State kept the momentum going during singles play and jumped out to early break leads on 5 of 6 courts.

Mississippi State's Rishab Agarwal was 1st off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #5 singles over Nick Wood in a match that was pretty lopsided the entire time.  Georgia's Wayne Montgomery would cut the deficit to 2-1 with a 7-6, 6-2 at #2 singles over Juan Cruz Estevarena.  Montgomery fell behind 5-3 in the 1st set but would break Estevarena at 4-5 and 5-6 to force the breaker then after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the TB he took it 7-4.

Wednesday Recap: Bulls Ground The Gophers & Cowboys Rally Past The Mustangs

The top 25 showdown between South Florida and Minnesota may have finished 4-3 but it wasn't that close as South Florida cruised to the doubles point and then picked up 4 opening sets and ended up sweeping the top 3 courts.  Roberto Cid provided the clincher at #1 singles winning the 3rd set 6-1 then after the clinch the 2 remaining matches played 10 point supertiebreaks in lieu of a 3rd set.

USF recap

“[Minnesota] has a very good team in doubles and we have a very strong team in doubles, so we knew that would be a huge point,” said head coach Matt Hill. “The guys played really well today, especially at No. 1 and No. 3, so that gave us a lot of confidence moving into the singles.”

Minnesota recap

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of March 14th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

#21 South Florida 4, #25 Minnesota 3

Mar 18, 2015 at Tampa, Fla. (USF Varsity Tennis Courts)

Singles competition

1. #21 Roberto Cid (USF 14.19) def. #25 Leandro Toledo (MINN 14.01) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1

2. Sasha Gozun (USF 13.39) def. Jack Hamburg (MINN 13.07) 6-3, 7-6(5)

3. Oliver Pramming (USF 13.32) def. Ruben Weber (MINN 13.27) 6-2, 6-4

4. Matic Spec (MINN 13.78) def. Igna. Gonzalez-Muniz (USF 13.09) 7-5, 6-3

5. Felix Corwin (MINN 13.58) def. Justin Roberts (USF 13.03) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 1-0(5)

6. Mathieu Froment (MINN 12.84) def. Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF 13.21) 7-6(5), 4-6, 1-0(5)

Doubles competition

1. #37 Oliver Pramming/Justin Roberts (USF) def. #66 Mathieu Froment/Jack Hamburg (MINN) 6-2

2. Sasha Gozun/Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF) vs. #80 Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo (MINN) 4-5, unf

3. Roberto Cid/Igna. Gonzalez-Muniz (USF) def. Eric Frueh/Matic Spec (MINN) 6-2

Match Notes

Minnesota 10-5 (1-0 Big Ten); National ranking #25

South Florida 13-4 (1-0 AAC); National ranking #21

Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (3,4,2,1,5,6)

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Hokies Rock #2 Duke, Deacs Hold Off TCU, Aggies Hold Off Feisty Gamecocks

The upsets keep on coming and today it was #2 Duke's turn as the Blue Devils got stunned by #44 Virginia Tech 6-1.  What made the Hokies win that much more impressive was the fact that Virginia Tech played singles without its #1 player Amerigo Contini which meant everybody else had to slide up 1 spot in the lineup.  Duke was also without its #5 singles player Chris Mengel.

Duke started off fine by taking the doubles point with wins at 1 and 2 but Virginia Tech would pick off Duke 1 by 1 in singles.  Florian Nicoud started things off by blowing out Josh Levine at #5 singles 6-1, 6-3 then Aaron Gomez gave Tech its first lead when he finished off TJ Pura 7-6(5), 6-0 at #6 singles.  Andreas Bjerrehus would put Virginia Tech up 3-1 when he broke Nicolas Alvarez to take the match at #1 singles 7-6(7), 6-4. With all remaining matches in the 3rd set it looked like VT's Hunter Koontz was going to be the one to clinch because he led 4-2 in the 3rd at #3 while Duke's Bruno Semenzato led 5-3 in the 3rd on #4 and Duke's Jason Tahir led 4-3 in the 3rd on #2. However Semenzato would be unable to serve it out up 5-4 then Edoardo Tessaro would consolidate the break with a hold to go up 6-5.  With Koontz nearing the finish line at 3, Tessaro decided he wanted to close it out himself and he broke Semenzato again to take the match and give Virginia Tech the stunning win.  Koontz would also win his match at #3 as would Joao Monteiro at #2 to make the final score 6-1 VT.

Note: ACC conference matches play a pro-set to 8 in doubles and utilize regular ad scoring similar to what will be used during the NCAA Championships.  The Big 10 is the only other major conference to use the same format while everyone else is playing no-ad. 

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.

Stanford wins the Big Slam, Ohio State makes it 200 straight, Wake toogood, Ivy League no joke + My Sunday Preview

I knew it'd be hard for today's matches to follow up those from Friday but while a few of them came up short in the drama department the one that didn't was the "Big Slam" in Berkeley as Stanford pulled out a classic 4-3 win over rival Cal.  

Cal jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point with a 7-5 win at #3 doubles in the clinching match.  Stanford welcomed freshman David Hsu back into the singles lineup at 5 which shifted Nolan Paige to 6 while Cal made a switch at 5 and 6 and moved Greg Bayane up from 6 to 5 and dropped Wikberg from 5 to 6.  After dropping the doubles point the momentum shifted back to Stanford in singles as the Cardinal took 4 opening sets and managed to finish 3 of them off in straights as Tom Fawcett, John Morrissey, and "Rollin" Nolan Paige won at 1, 3, 6 to give Stanford a 3-1 lead.  Cal would answer back with wins from Filip Bergevi and Greg Bayane at 2 and 5 to tie it up at 3.  

All focus was centered on #4 singles where Cal freshman J.T. Nishimura had opened up a 5-2 lead in the 3rd set over Stanford junior Maciek Romanowicz and Nishimura was serving for the match. Nishimura fell behind 15-40 in his service game and after getting it back to the deciding point (40-40), which was also a match point, he would put a shot into the net to give Romanowicz the break. Romanowicz went up 40-15 on his 3-5 service game but then Nishimura hit a two-handed forehand winner to make it 40-30 and followed that up with a backhand winner past a drawn in Romanowicz to bring up the deciding point (40-40).  Nishimura chose the ad-court to receive the serve on what would be his final match point and Romanowicz landed his 1st serve out wide and as the outstretched arm of Nishimura deflected it back in play Romanowicz closed in toward the net and hit a volley into the open court for the hold.  Nishimura would now serve for the match for a 2nd time up 5-4 and he would quickly get broke at love as Romanowicz continued to play aggressively while Nishimura tightened up and had difficulty keeping the ball in play.  Romanowicz would then hold at 40-15 to go up 6-5 and would then race out to an 0-40 lead on the Nishimura serve. After a Romanowicz error made it 15-40 Nishimura wouldn't be able to keep the next one in play and with that Stanford had stunned its rival 4-3.

Saturday Preview

Friday was an entertaining start to the weekend and I expect that Saturday should more of the same.  Let's take a look at the highlighted matches on Saturday.

The number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of the current date so Notre Dame's Quentin Monaghan has a 14.28 UTR as of today 2/21.  For more details about UTR check out theirwebsite.  

#17 Notre Dame (6-1) at #9 Ohio State (10-3) - 12pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming - Ohio State goes for #200 in a row at home (according to my records) though it won't be easy as Notre Dame usually gives Ohio State a tough match just about every year.  Ohio State has won 10 straight in the series and leads the all-time series 28-27.  A year ago in South Bend, Notre Dame jumped out to a 2-0 lead only to see Ohio State win 4 straight singles matches with the final 2 both being 7-6 in the 3rd.  If the projected lineups below hold up there will be just 1 rematch from last year with that being the match at 1 where Diaz knocked off Monaghan 7-6, 6-4.  Ohio State is 11-2 in doubles while Notre Dame is 6-1.  The Irish must take the doubles point to have a realistic chance at stopping the streak but I think Ohio State gets the point and picks up wins from the bottom 3 of Steinbach, Callahan, and Metka to pull it out.  Prediction:  Ohio State 4-1

Projected Lineup:
1. #29 Quentin Mongahan (ND 14.28) vs. #53 Chris Diaz (OSU 13.80)
2. #92 Josh Hagar (ND 13.74) vs. #30 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU 13.95)
3. Eddy Covalschi (ND 13.13) vs. Herkko Pollanen (OSU 13.58)
4. Eric Schnurrenberger (ND 13.45) vs. #68 Ralf Steinbach (OSU 13.91)
5. Billy Pecor (ND 12.98) vs. #110 Hunter Callahan (OSU 13.90)
6. Nicolas Montoya (ND 12.48) vs. Kevin Metka (OSU 13.80)

Down Goes #1, UNC unable to finish, Vandy wins 4-3 again, & a look ahead to Saturday

What a start to the weekend it was with 2 thrillers taking place 100 miles apart as Texas A&M took out the new #1 Oklahoma 4-3 in College Station while Texas's Lloyd Glasspool refused to lay down as Texas knocked off North Carolina 4-3 in Austin.  

We'll start off in College Station where #1 Oklahoma came to town expecting to waltz all over Texas A&M but the Aggies had other plans as they took the all important doubles point and were then able to pick up 3 1st sets and ultimately pulled off the stunner when freshman Arthur Rinderknech came back from a set down to knock off Oklahoma freshman Spencer Papa 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 at the #4 spot. Oklahoma swept the top 3 spots in the lineup and usually if you do that you've got to feel pretty good about your chances but Texas A&M was able to lock down the bottom 3 plus take the doubles point so there you have it - upset city.  

aTm recap
OU recap

#13 Texas A&M 4, #1 Oklahoma 3

George P Mitchell Tennis Center

Singles competition

1. #11 Axel Alvarez (OU) def. #45 Shane Vinsant (TAMU) 6-4, 6-2

2. #26 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #43 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) 6-4, 6-1

3. #31 Dane Webb (OU) def. #36 Harrison Adams (TAMU) 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 7-5

*4. Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU) def. Spencer Papa (OU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-1

5. #51 AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) def. #63 Alex Ghilea (OU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1

6. Max Lunkin (TAMU) def. Jose Salazar (OU) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition

1. #8 Shane Vinsant/Harrison Adams (TAMU) def. #5 Dane Webb/Axel Alvarez (OU) 6-4

2. Andrew Harris/Alex Ghilea (OU) def. #13 Jeremy Efferding/Jordan Szabo (TAMU) 6-3

3. AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU) def. Spencer Papa/Florin Bragusi (OU) 7-5

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,2,6,5,3,4)

*Clinched Match

Friday Preview

It's the weekend after the National Indoors and the start of the outdoor season though play in many parts of the country will still be indoors. Below are some of the bigger matches taking place this weekend with my thoughts on who I like in each one.  

#23 Vanderbilt (7-2) vs. #34 Minnesota (7-1) (@Harvard) - 1pm est - Vandy Twitter & Video - Vanderbilt has been involved in more close matches than just about anyone in the country with 5 of the Dores 9 matches finishing with a 4-3 final with Vandy winning 3 of those 5.  This will be the 4th Big 10 school that Vandy has faced in the last month with them all going to a 4-3 result so they better expect the same today.  Minnesota on the other hand hasn't had a match closer than 4-1 so if it comes down to the final court things could get interesting. The 1 & 4 spots have been Vandy's strength with both Gonzales Austin and Danny Valent each a perfect 8-0 in dual match play while Vandy has struggled to find consistency at 2, 3, and 5 with Johnson (2-4), Yee (3-4), and Newman (1-3) a combined 6-11.  Eswaran is 5-3 and has been the final guy left on the court in just about every match he's played due to Vandy's indoor facility having 5 courts.  Minnesota has seen good play out of just about everyone in the lineup with Toledo (6-1), Hamburg (4-3), Weber (4-1), Spec (7-0), Corwin (5-1) a combined 26-6 while the 6 spot is just 3-4 with Froment 0-2.  Minnesota is a perfect 8-0 in doubles while Vanderbilt is 6-2.  While Minnesota is on the way up I think Vandy is a little more battle tested and will scrap out the close courts.  I like Vandy in doubles and Austin, Yee, and Valent in singles.  Prediction:  Vanderbilt 4-3