Luke Siegel Update, Bellis Commits to Stanford, Libietis and Dima Win Pro Singles Titles, Doubles Success

There was plenty of action today on the pro circuit but before I get into those results I wanted to give everyone an update on Luke Siegel who is the 10-year old son of former Texas Tech men's coach Tim Siegel. I'm sure many know the story but for those that don't Luke was involved in a golf cart accident almost a year ago (July 28, 2015) which caused serious head and chest trauma and left Luke with an anoxic brain injury. The Siegels were told that Luke would never regain the use of his limbs, eyes, or voice but he has managed to make progress over the last several months. KAMC TV in Lubbock did a story on Luke and the community support earlier this week with Tim talking about the kind of progress that Luke has made in the last couple of weeks - make sure you check out that story here.

The Lubbock and tennis community has rallied around the Siegels and raised almost $100,000 to help with medical expenses and care through this GoFundMe page. There is a Facebook page, Pray for Luke Siegel, that gives updates and posts videos about Luke's progress so if you are able to help in any way please do and make sure you keep Luke and the Siegels in your prayers.

More Conference Tournaments: South Florida Too Good For Tulsa, Charleston Beats UNCW, UT Arlington Rules The Sunbelt, & More

A good crowd of around 100 gathered in Memphis for the finals of the American Conference Championship where South Florida was looking to win the title for the third consecutive year. South Florida and Tulsa met just nine days prior with USF winning 7-0 though Tulsa sat its top singles player Or Ram-Harel so this one figured to be much closer.

The top seeded Bulls got off to a good start at No. 1 doubles while Tulsa went up an early break at No. 2.  USF's Vadym Kalyuzhnyy and Sasha Gozun broke on the no-ad point when Gozun cleaned it up the net to make it 4-2

More Upsets - Northwestern Beats #8 Illinois For First Time Since '97, Mississippi State Blanks #12 Kentucky & More

The weekend of upsets continued on Saturday with three higher ranked team going down on top of the seven that were upset yesterday. The biggest upset in terms of ranking took place in Starkville but I'll start off in Evanston where Northwestern was looking to snap a 27-match, 19 year, losing streak to in-state rival Illinois.

Even though Northwestern was shutout by the Illini earlier this season it had to be optimistic with a big home crowd on hand. Northwestern got things started off on the right foot by claiming the doubles point for the 12th time in 14 tries with a 6-4 win at No. 2 and a 6-3 win 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.

Saturday Recap: Illini Lassos The Horns, USC Takes Round 1 Over UCLA, Northwestern Storms Back

Saturday was a great day for college tennis with the 2 biggest matches of the day broadcasted on TV with The Longhorn Network showing Texas/Illinois while the Pac 12 Network showed USC/UCLA. The only thing that kind of stunk a bit was the fact that the 2 matches were being played simultaneously so while I did switch back and forth a bit I primarily stayed with the Texas/Illinois match because of how close it was throughout.

When the starting lineups were posted 30 minutes before the start of the Texas/Illinois match I had to do a double take because I didn't see Farris Gosea's name anywhere.  I was hoping the guys on the Longhorn Network would fill us in on Gosea's absence but the only thing they mentioned was that Gosea wasn't there (as in didn't make the trip to Texas).  My best guess is that he was sick and that's why he didn't travel - again totally a guess.

The one thing that I've noticed over the years, yet often forget, is that when a team is down its #1 the rest of the guys seems to rise to the occasion and perform better than you think they would.  I noticed that last night when Vanderbilt played Texas A&M without Gonzales Austin - the Dores didn't win but they fought hard on every court. Illinois did more than just fight on Saturday, they took care of business in doubles and in the middle and lower half of the lineup and came out of Austin with a win.