Thursday Conference Tournament Results

Several conference tournaments got underway on Wednesday, with an abbreviated schedule, but they really got going on Thursday with the ACC and SEC having four matches each.

All four matches at the SEC Tournament in Columbia, South Carolina, were hotly contested with South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Kentucky the day's winners.

The four matches at the ACC were quite as suspenseful with Virginia Tech rolling over Miami 4-0, Georgia Tech pulling away from Louisville 4-1, Notre Dame holding off Duke 4-1, and NC State edging Clemson 4-2.

Both of the matches in Ojai were 4-0 shutouts with Cal and Stanford overwhelming Washington and Oregon.

Sunday recap: Georgia Knocks off Ohio State, Virginia Scalps Florida State, Oklahoma Beats Cal, Florida Blasts Ole Miss

There were several close matches on Sunday but there was only one that saw a top-five team go down. Georgia, ranked No. 19, was hosting No. 4 Ohio State on a mild and breezy day in Athens. After a week of sunny skies and temperatures in the high-70s, the conditions in Athens weren't as favorable with cloudy skies, an increasing breeze, and temperature hovering in the mid-50s. Despite the conditions a crowd of just over 1000 filled into the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and they were treated to a stellar performance by the home-standing Bulldogs.

Georgia Wins!! (Photo Courtesy of Bill Kallenberg)

I personally thought Ohio State would roll in doubles, but Georgia seemed determined to not let that happen.

Kentucky Holds Off Bama, FSU Slides Past Duke, Wisconsin Wins In Des Moines, Georgia Tech Tops NC State

Friday and Saturday brought us a ton of upsets but things leveled out on Sunday with most higher ranked teams holding court and getting the win.

Florida State capped off a nice weekend by defeating No. 66 Duke 5-2. The Seminoles claimed the doubles point by sweeping all three courts and then it took four opening sets in singles.

Friday night's hero, Marco Nunez, was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Vincent Lin at No. 2 and his teammate Jose Gracia would put the Noles up 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ryan Dickerson at No. 5.

Pham Pushes Columbia Past Stanford & Wake Forest Wallops Tennessee

What's that old saying about saving the best for last - Columbia and Stanford sure didn't disappoint in the excitement department by bringing the house down at the USTA National Tennis Center in one of the final regionals of the 2016 ITA Kick-Off Weekend. These matches were originally scheduled to be played at Columbia's Dick Savitt Tennis Center but because of worries about the weight of the snow on the roof it was moved to the USTA NTC.

Going into the match I figured Columbia had to get the doubles point to have a realistic shot because I didn't see them taking 4 singles matches from Stanford but that's just what they did.

Stanford came out ready to go in doubles and went up early breaks at #2 and #3. Just one day removed from a 6-0 loss to Minnesota, Stanford's #3 team of David Wilczynski and Yale Goldberg jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and cruised to a 6-2 win.  Stanford's #2 team of Tom Fawcett and Sameer Kumar broke early to go up 2-1 but Columbia's Mike Vermeer and Michal Rolski had a chance to get the match back on serve when Kumar served at 4-3, 15-40. Kumar and Fawcett took the next 3 points to get the hold with Columbia's best chance coming at 30-40 when Rolski let a floater at the net drop instead of taking it out of the air and his chip return was ultimately blasted past him for a winner. Fawcett served it out from 5-4 to clinch the doubles point for the Cardinal.

NCAA 1st Round Previews: USC & Duke Regionals

USC Regional
Marks Stadium - Los Angeles, CA

[7] USC (22-4) vs. [49-64] Idaho (16-11) - Friday 4pm - The Vandals are in the NCAAs for the 2nd year in a row after beating Northern Arizona 4-2 in the Big Sky Championship. #8 USC got the Pac 12's automatic bid after beating #23 Stanford 4-3 in the Pac 12 Championship.

Doubles Records: USC 15-11, Idaho 15-12

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: USC 86, Idaho 71

Thursday Recap: USC Over UCLA 4-2, Tennessee Survives Against Alabama

UCLA got off to a good start by going up early breaks on all 3 doubles courts and would cruise to wins at 2 and 3.  Singles would be a different story because USC's Eric Johnson, Roberto Quiroz, Max De Vroome, and Nick Crystal would take the opening set at 2, 3, 5, and 6 and then those 4 would pretty much run away with the 2nd sets to close out a 4-2 win.  UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald picked up the only singles point for the Bruins as he took it to #12 Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3.

This match was supposed to be shown on TV on the Pac 12 network but the USC/UCLA women's match ran 90 minutes long and with the singles portion of this one only lasting 80 minutes that meant it was over before the broadcast ever started.

Normally you'd think a USC/UCLA match would pack them in but when you play it on a Thursday at 2pm local time this is the kind of crowd you get.

Let's go SC! @USCMensTennis at UCLA to end the regular season. #FightOn pic.twitter.com/E4b71YtSDt
— Aubrey Kragen (@aubreykragen) April 16, 2015

Thursday Recap: TCU Clips Texas Tech, Ole Miss Blanks Tennessee, Kentucky Upends Arkansas

The match of the day took place in Fort Worth as #10 TCU held on to beat #21 Texas Tech 4-2. TCU had a dominant performance in doubles and then picked up a couple of quick wins from Facundo Lugones and Will Stein at 5 and 6 before having to withstand a Red Raider rally on the other 4 courts. Texas Tech pulled to within 3-2 after Jolan Cailleau and Felipe Soares won in straight sets at 4 and 1 and Alex Sendegeya was a game away from a win at 5 leading 5-3 in the 3rd.  However TCU's Cameron Norrie would fight off a set point in the 2nd set tiebreaker and close out his match in straight sets to clinch the TCU win.

TCU recap with comments and video clip from David Roditi (courtesy of TCU)

"That was a great college battle," head coach David Roditi said. "Our boys had to dig in deep. We had many opportunities to finish the match earlier and I'm proud of our guys for continuing to dig and fight for every point.

"There was a great doubles performance at No. 2 and a great clinch for our No. 1 doubles team. When we win the doubles point and then get quick wins on courts five and six, it puts us in a very good position and puts a lot of pressure on our opponents. Now we take care of our bodies and be ready for another top-25 battle on Saturday."

Thursday Recap: Vandy Owns The Volunteer State + Full Day of Action in San Diego

Vanderbilt ran its record to 4-0 against teams from the state of Tennessee with an impressive 4-1 win over #40 Tennessee.  The Vols took the doubles point but Vandy took 5 opening sets and ended up getting wins from Gonzales Austin, Danny Valent, Baker Newman, and Suresh Eswaran.

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of March 19th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

#17 Vanderbilt 4, #40 Tennessee 1

Singles

1. #10 Gonzales Austin (VU 14.40) def. #14 Mikelis Libietis (UT 14.23) 6-4, 6-2

2. Hunter Reese (UT 13.28) vs. Rhys Johnson (VU 13.45) 5-7, 6-1, 2-3 unf.

3. Danny Valent (VU 13.75) def. Jack Schipanski (UT 13.13) 6-2, 6-0

4. Luis Valero (UT 13.24) vs. Kris Yee (VU 13.58) 7-6 (6), 4-6, 2-0

5. Baker Newman  (VU 12.87) def. Igor Smelyanski (UT 13.43) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4

6. Suresh Eswaran (VU 12.89) def. Brandon Fickey (UT 12.10) 6-1, 6-3

Doubles

1. #2 Reese/Libietis, UT, def. #1 Austin/Johnson, VU, 6-2

2. Dromsky/Smelyanski, UT, def. Newman/Binet, VU, 7-5

3. Schipanski/Valero, UT, vs. Eswaran/Smith, VU, 6-6 unf.

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,2,1,5).

Thursday Recap & Notes: Georgia, South Carolina, & Texas all winners

This morning I got a chance to watch the Fox Sports Oklahoma telecast of Tuesday's Oklahoma/Virginia match and I must say I was impressed with the production of the match and the quality of the announcing.  The version I watched was taped and edited but they did a good job bouncing around from court to court.  They started the telecast a few games into singles and started showing the match at #1 singles but they also showed several games of the Alvarez/Shane match at #2 singles.  After those 2 matches finished up they showed the last 3 games of the Webb/Kwiatkowski match and then showed the last several games of the Bragusi/Aragone match. The only 2 courts they didn't go to were #4 and #5 singles.  I know the match was viewable live for a fee through Oklahoma's site though I don't know if that version had announcers or was just plain old streaming.  I also saw where the match was going to be replayed several times on Fox College Sports so if you have that channel check out a few minutes of the replay.

Today's match between Georgia and Tennessee was originally scheduled to be broadcasted on ESPN3 however recent weather delayed installation of the proper cables back to the Tennessee studio (per UT blog).

USC too much for Stanford, LSU hammers Tennessee, Texas A&M beats up Kentucky

Stanford came out strong and took the doubles point over USC but once singles got going so did Stanford's chances of an upset.

USC grabbed 4 1st sets and would finish each of them in straight sets with Eric Johnson putting the first point on the board with his 6-3, 6-1 blowout over David Wilczynski at #3 singles.  Nick Crystal would finish off David Hsu 6-1, 6-3 at #6 singles a few minutes later which then set the stage for USC to close it out on the top 2 courts. After Stanford's Tom Fawcett fought off a match point on the deciding point of his serve, USC's Yannick Hanfmann would hold serve at love to close out the Cardinal freshman at #1 singles by a 6-4, 6-4 score.  With the score now 3-1, Roberto Quiroz would provide the final dagger by finishing off John Morrissey 6-4, 6-4 at #2 singles. The coaches agreed to play out the final 2 courts and USC would take them both with Max De Vroome coming from a set down to win 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 at #5 singles over Nolan Paige and Jonny Wang doing the same at #4 singles and winning 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (6) over Maciek Romanowicz.

Gators pull one out, Bulldogs bring the bite, Duke too tough, Big 12 rolls

The weekend is here and it was a fantastic Friday of tennis with the match of the day taking place in front of a national ESPN3 audience as Florida went into Tallahassee and pulled out a 4-2 win.

Florida State picked up the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 but Florida came out swinging in singles taking 4 1st sets.  After FSU extended the lead to 2-0 with a Cristian Gonzalez Mendez win at 5, Florida started finishing off courts 1 by 1 with Gordon Watson winning at 4 then Chase Perez-Blanco at 6.  With the score tied at 2-2, each of the remaining matches went to a 3rd set and after Elliott Orkin closed out Michael Rinaldi at #3 to give Florida its first lead at 3-2 it appeared that Maxx Lipman would be the one to seal the victory.  Lipman was serving up 4-2 in the 3rd but Benjamin Lock got the break, then held, then broke again and served for the match up 5-4 40-15. Lock hit a serve out wide in the deuce court that Lipman returned from outside the doubles alley and with the ball floating back towards the singles line Lock decided to let it go thinking it would fall out. The ball ended up landing right on the middle of the line and 2 points later Lipman had it back on serve. With that match into a 3rd set tiebreak over at #2 singles Florida's Diego Hidalgo was serving for the match up 6-5 40-0.  FSU's Marco Nunez fought off 1 match point but on the next point he sliced a shot down the line and followed it in to the net and then watched as Hidalgo hit a forehand cross court to win it for Florida.  Gators 4 Seminoles 2 FINAL

Look ahead to Friday - GT/UGA, FSU/FLA, TN/DUKE, and more

After a slow week things kick back into high gear tomorrow with the start of the Women's National Team Indoors and with a fairly full slate on the men's side.

Georgia at Georgia Tech (5pm est) - The Bulldogs have won 27 of the last 28 in the series but Georgia Tech looks better this year than they have in a while. These teams just met 2 weeks ago at the MLK Invitational in Atlanta with Georgia Tech taking 4 of 7 singles matches and 2 of 3 in doubles in the hidden dual format.  Georgia's Wayne Montgomery didn't participate in the weekend event so with him back in the lineup and possibly playing at #1 I think the Bulldogs will find a way to get to 4 points first however I think Georgia Tech will make it interesting and puts some pressure on Georgia especially at the 5 and 6 spots.  

Projected Line-Up

1.  Wayne Montgomery (UGA) vs. Nathan Rakitt (GT)

2.  Nathan Pasha (UGA) vs. Chris Eubanks (GT)

3.  Austin Smith (UGA) vs. Eduardo Segura (GT)

4.  Nick Wood (UGA) vs. Michael Kay (GT)

5.  Ben Wagland (UGA) vs. Carlos Benito (GT)

6.  Paul Oosterbaan (UGA) vs. Cole Fiegel (GT)

Florida State at Florida (5pm est) - The Gators have won 55 of 75 in the series and 7 in a row going back to 2007.  I could easily see each team picking up 3 points in singles so if that happens whoever takes the doubles point could win a tight one.  I'm leaning toward Florida at 1, 2, and 4 singles and FSU at 3, 5, and 6. I'll go with Florida in a squeaker.   

Projected Line-Up

1.  Benjamin Lock (FSU) vs. Maxx Lipman (FLA)

2.  Marco Nunez (FSU) vs. Elliott Orkin (FLA)

3.  Michael Rinaldi (FSU) vs. Gordon Watson (FLA)

4.  Cristian Gonzalez Mendez (FSU) vs. Diego Hidalgo (FLA)

5.  Jose Gracia (FSU) vs. Oliver Landert (FLA)

6.  Terrell Whitehurst (FSU) vs. Chase Perez-Blanco (FLA)

Tennessee at Duke (6pm est) - Tennessee has won 13 of 21 in this series with 2 of those wins coming last year with the latter coming in the 2nd round of the NCAAs.  Tennessee comes into this one on a 2 match losing streak after losing a heartbreaker to Columbia and then dropping one to Oklahoma State while Duke comes in undefeated and coming off back-to-back road wins last weekend over Illinois and Northwestern.  Tennessee is starting 4 freshmen while Duke starts 3 seniors and 2 juniors so I think Duke's experience comes through in this one and they get it done at home in a 4-1/4-2 type of score.

Projected Line-Up
1.  Mikelis Libietis (TN) vs. Jason Tahir (DU)
2.  Hunter Reese (TN) vs. Nicolas Alvarez (DU)
3.  Igor Smelyanski (TN) vs. Raphael Hemmeler (DU)
4.  Luis Valero (TN) vs. Bruno Semenzato (DU)
5.  Jack Schipanski (TN) vs. Chris Mengel (DU)
6.  Jess Jones (TN) vs. Josh Levine (DU)

South Florida at Oklahoma (6:30pm est) - South Florida came into this season with some high expectations but they've hit a rough patch and lost 2 of its last 3 while Oklahoma has won easily each time out.  I don't see Oklahoma letting up and they'll win going away.

Projected Line-Up
1.  Roberto Cid (USF) vs. Andrew Harris (OU)
2.  Ignacio Gonzalez (USF) vs. Axel Alvarez (OU)
3.  Oliver Pramming (USF) vs. Dane Webb (OU)
4.  Sasha Gozun (USF) vs. Spencer Papa (OU)
5.  Justin Roberts (USF) vs. Jose Salazar (OU)
6.  Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF) vs. Alex Ghilea (OU)


To follow each of these matches click on the live scoring links below and as you can see you'll have tennis coverage going on from 9am to probably 10 or 11pm in Charlottesville at the NTIs so get those browsers set up to have multiple courts streaming at the same time.  

As a reminder there is a tab at the top that will always have the most updated live scoring links.

Women's National Team Indoors - Charlottesville, VA

Live Scoring Link 1
Live Scoring Link 2
Live Video Link for courts with *
ITA Event Page
Master Lineups

[6] Alabama vs. Miami - 9am est.
*[3] North Carolina vs. Oklahoma State - 9am est.
*[4] Duke vs. TCU - 12pm est.
[5] California vs. Vanderbilt - 12pm est.
*[1] UCLA vs. Kentucky - 3:30pm est.
[8] Georgia vs. Michigan - 3:30pm est.
[2] Florida vs. Clemson - 6:30pm est.
*[7] Virginia vs. USC - 6:30pm est.

*Live streaming video only available on main courts

Men's Matches:
Murray State at Indiana - 9am est - Live Scoring
UAB at Auburn - 12pm est - Live Scoring
Northern Arizona at Arizona - 12pm est - Live Scoring
Middle Tennessee State at Vanderbilt - 3pm est - Live Scoring
Wake Forest at South Carolina - 4pm est - Live Scoring
Florida at Florida State - 5pm est - Live Scoring & ESPN3
Georgia at Georgia Tech - 5pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming
Boise State at Northwestern - 5:30pm est - Live Scoring
Tennessee at Duke - 6pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming & Tennessee Blog 
UAB at Auburn - 6pm est - Live Scoring
Oregon at Indiana - 6pm est - Live Scoring
South Florida at Oklahoma - 6:30pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming 
New Mexico at TCU - 6:30pm est - Live Scoring
Kentucky at Illinois - 7pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming
Washington at Texas - 7pm est - Live Scoring
Baylor at Tulsa - 7pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming
Marquette at Iowa - 7pm est - Live Scoring
Cal vs. San Francisco (Bay Club SF) - 12:30am est/9:30pm pst - Cal Twitter