The beat goes on for #4 Illinois as the Illini rolled into College Station today and rolled out several hours later with a 4-2 win over #9 Texas A&M. Illinois was without its #1 Farris Gosea for the 2nd day in a row but just as they did against Texas the rest of the guys rallied and got it done.
The day didn't start off too well for Illinois as Texas A&M rolled at 1 and 2 doubles winning both courts by a 6-2 score. Interesting comment below from Dancer about him feeling they played better doubles today than yesterday despite winning yesterday and losing today.
Both teams slightly altered their singles lineups by switching 5 and 6 but since both teams made the same moves the match-ups themselves were the same but just at a spot higher or lower than originally thought.
Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti was first off the court with a quick 6-2, 6-1 win at #5 singles over yesterday's hero Blake Bazarnik but Illinois wouldn't stay scoreless for long because Toshiki Matsuya would ring up a 6-3, 6-4 win at #6 singles over Jordi Arconada. As a side note, the Texas A&M live scoring showed Brian Page playing at #6 the entire match and it wasn't until the Illinois recap came out that it was revealed that it was really Matsuya. Those 2 guys don't exactly look like each other so you would have thought somebody would have caught that sooner.
PlaySight
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Sunday Preview - Illinois at Texas A&M + A Few Other Interesting Storylines
Another day brings another big match for Illinois as the Illini will try to make it 2 Top 10 wins in as many days after making the 100 mile trek from Austin to College Station. What's still unknown is whether we'll see the Illini's #1 Farris Gosea but I'd have to say that I would be more than surprised if he was available for action today.
For Texas A&M to take this one they'll need to play much better than they did on Friday night against a Vanderbilt team that was down its #1 while for Illinois to take it they'll need to play with the same urgency and tenacity that they played with yesterday against Texas. The biggest thing going in Illinois's favor is that they'll be taking the court with the confidence of knowing they've already beat one top 10 team on the road so why not a second.
The guys on these teams are fairly familiar with each other with Illinois having made a trip to College Station each of the last 3 years to play in the Texas A&M Conference Challenge which takes place outdoors in October. The familiarity with the courts and the potentially windy playing conditions will be a plus for Illinois as opposed to teams that only come down once every so often for a dual match. This will also be the 3rd dual match these 2 have played in the last 13 months with Illinois winning at home last year and Texas A&M winning in Houston in a consolation match at the National Indoors.
For Texas A&M to take this one they'll need to play much better than they did on Friday night against a Vanderbilt team that was down its #1 while for Illinois to take it they'll need to play with the same urgency and tenacity that they played with yesterday against Texas. The biggest thing going in Illinois's favor is that they'll be taking the court with the confidence of knowing they've already beat one top 10 team on the road so why not a second.
The guys on these teams are fairly familiar with each other with Illinois having made a trip to College Station each of the last 3 years to play in the Texas A&M Conference Challenge which takes place outdoors in October. The familiarity with the courts and the potentially windy playing conditions will be a plus for Illinois as opposed to teams that only come down once every so often for a dual match. This will also be the 3rd dual match these 2 have played in the last 13 months with Illinois winning at home last year and Texas A&M winning in Houston in a consolation match at the National Indoors.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Saturday Preview - USC/UCLA, Texas/Illinois, Northwestern/Columbia
They'll be 3 really good ones on Saturday with LA, Chicago, and Austin the places to be. What's so great is that 2 of these 3 will be on TV with the Pac 12 Network carrying the singles portion of the USC/UCLA match and with the Longhorn Network carrying the Illinois/Texas match in its entirety.
It'll be interesting to see if USC can snap out of its recent funk or if UCLA can ride the comeback of Gage Brymer to an upset win. It'll be interesting to see how Illinois looks after a 2 week layoff and whether they'll switch up 1 and 2 singles in an attempt to sweep the top 2 spots. It will also will be interesting to see how Columbia looks playing outdoors at Northwestern and who they'll play in the lower half of the lineup. Lots of questions to be answered in the next 24 hours - should be a great afternoon of tennis.
Below are my previews of each along with who I think will win on each court.
It'll be interesting to see if USC can snap out of its recent funk or if UCLA can ride the comeback of Gage Brymer to an upset win. It'll be interesting to see how Illinois looks after a 2 week layoff and whether they'll switch up 1 and 2 singles in an attempt to sweep the top 2 spots. It will also will be interesting to see how Columbia looks playing outdoors at Northwestern and who they'll play in the lower half of the lineup. Lots of questions to be answered in the next 24 hours - should be a great afternoon of tennis.
Below are my previews of each along with who I think will win on each court.
#14 UCLA (8-5) at #5 USC (11-2) - 2pm est - USC Live Stream - Pac 12 Network Coverage starts at 3pm with singles only. This will be the 1st of 2 regular season matches between these 2 with a 3rd highly likely in the Pac 12 Tournament. USC is 8-5 in doubles but has dropped the point the last 2 times out against Tulsa and San Diego while UCLA is 10-3 and has won the point in 7 of its last 8 matches. I'm going to take the Bruins in doubles with wins at 1 and 3.
Friday Recap - Aggies Over Short-Handed Vandy, Wake Hammers FSU, Louisville Get A Big Road W
Well the big match of the day was actually a good bit closer than I thought it would be after noticing that Vanderbilt was without its #1 singles player #10 Gonzales Austin who also makes up the #1 doubles team in the country with Rhys Johnson. I still haven't seen anything official from anyone on why AJ didn't play but if I had to guess I'd say he was under the weather which I can relate to.
The one thing I don't get is how neither of the school's press releases bothered to even mention the fact that Austin didn't play. I mean if the starting quarterback on the football team didn't play it'd have to be addressed by somebody, right? If you are the person conducting the post match interviews wouldn't question #1 be "How do you think the absence of Vandy's #1 effected the match?" It sure would be my first question.
Back to the match itself it was admirable that Vanderbilt was able to take the doubles point despite moving its #2 team up to #1 and putting together a make-shift team at #2 with both of those teams winning.
In singles play, Texas A&M took 5 of 6 1st sets with AJ Catanzariti, Arthur Rinderknech, and Jeremy Efferding able to close them out in straights at 6, 4, and 1. On the 2 remaining courts Vandy had just got a split at #2 and was up a set and on serve at #3.
Friday Preview
Friday will be a fairly light day of activity with just 8 teams in the Top 20 in action and with the only matchup between top 20 teams taking place in College Station as #9 Texas A&M hosts #11 Vanderbilt.
Before I preview that one here are a few others to keep an eye on today:
#31 San Diego (8-3) at #34 Texas Tech (12-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - San Diego is coming off a hard fought loss against USC and has wins on the year over South Carolina and South Florida while Texas Tech has only played 1 match in the last 3 weeks though has wins this year over Auburn and Mississippi State.
#24 Florida State (10-4) at #19 Wake Forest (9-4) - 4pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming - FSU is coming off a weekend where the Noles beat Louisville and gave North Carolina all it wanted despite FSU playing without its #1 Benjamin Lock who was playing in the Davis Cup. Wake has played its last 3 matches without its #1 Noah Rubin (wrist) going 1-2 in that stretch with respectable losses to Texas and Virginia and a win over TCU. This should be a very competitive match that probably finishes 4-3 on way or the other.
Before I preview that one here are a few others to keep an eye on today:
#31 San Diego (8-3) at #34 Texas Tech (12-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - San Diego is coming off a hard fought loss against USC and has wins on the year over South Carolina and South Florida while Texas Tech has only played 1 match in the last 3 weeks though has wins this year over Auburn and Mississippi State.
#24 Florida State (10-4) at #19 Wake Forest (9-4) - 4pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming - FSU is coming off a weekend where the Noles beat Louisville and gave North Carolina all it wanted despite FSU playing without its #1 Benjamin Lock who was playing in the Davis Cup. Wake has played its last 3 matches without its #1 Noah Rubin (wrist) going 1-2 in that stretch with respectable losses to Texas and Virginia and a win over TCU. This should be a very competitive match that probably finishes 4-3 on way or the other.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
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).
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).
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
What's Coming Up
Tuesday was a great night for college tennis with both Oklahoma/Virginia and Baylor/Ole Miss delivering two great matches. The lineup for this coming weekend is a little light with many teams starting to take some time off for spring break. However there are a few notable matches with the interesting ones listed below.
The match tomorrow between Georgia and Tennessee will be on ESPN3 so make sure you tune in catch the broadcast. What is really odd is there is no mention of the telecast on Tennessee's website and in fact the only reason I know it's on ESPN3 is because I saw this tweet - CORRECTION - another tweet said this morning the match would NOT be streamed online.
Thursday's match vs. @Vol_Tennis will be shown on the SECN+ digital platform. Save this link to watch the match live: http://es.pn/1KePRZR
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Oklahoma Too Much For Virginia, Ohio State Overpowers Florida, Baylor Too Deep for Ole MIss
The headlining match of the day lived up to its billing as #1 Oklahoma came from behind to knock off #7 Virginia 4-3. This showdown was played using the traditional scoring system which had doubles play a pro set to 8 and had ad scoring used in both doubles and singles.
Oklahoma jumped out to early 4-2 leads at 1 and 3 doubles and would actually lead 6-3 at #1 before Virginia started turning it around. Virginia's #1 team of Corinteli/Shane broke at 4-6 to get it back on serve and it stayed that way until the tiebreak. In the tiebreak the UVA #1s would win the final 2 points to take it 8-6. Virginia's #2 team of Kwiatkowski/Aragone broke to go up 4-3 and never let the lead go as they finished off Harris/Ghilea 8-6. Virginia's #3 team of Frank/Altamirano came back from 4-2 down and would lead 7-5 at the time of the clinch.
In singles play, Virginia jumped out to early leads on several courts and would take the opening sets at 1, 3, 4, and 6 while Oklahoma picked up 1st sets at 2 and 5. Virginia freshman Collin Altamirano was the first to finish as he knocked off Spencer Papa 6-4, 6-4 at #4 singles in a match where Altamirano was never broken. Oklahoma's Axel Alvarez would put the Sooners on the board with a 6-4, 7-5 win at #2 singles while all the other matches would head to a 3rd set.
3/10 ITA Rankings Have Been Released
The new rankings are out and if you scroll all the way down I've got both the men's and women's team rankings along with singles and doubles listed too.
Baylor comes up 3 spots to #2 this week with the win over TCU giving them the boost they needed. BU's 5 best wins for these rankings were against Duke, Virginia (2X), TCU, and UCLA. For next week's rankings BU will lose points with Duke and TCU both falling 4 spots however Virginia is up 5 spots (2X) and UCLA is up 2 spots plus the Bears will have a chance to add a road win tonight over #13 Ole Miss.
Oklahoma retains its spot at #1 and widens its gap after picking up an impressive road win at Ohio State last week. The Sooners now have 9, yes 9, top 20 wins so they are going to be up near the top for quite a while. The 5 best wins used for these rankings were the road wins at Wake Forest and Ohio State, and neutral court wins against Baylor, USC, and Ole Miss. For next week's rankings OU will have wins over #2 Baylor, #5 USC, at #10 Ohio State, and 2 wins over #12 North Carolina plus they play #7 Virginia tonight so a win in that one would push out one of the UNC wins.
Baylor comes up 3 spots to #2 this week with the win over TCU giving them the boost they needed. BU's 5 best wins for these rankings were against Duke, Virginia (2X), TCU, and UCLA. For next week's rankings BU will lose points with Duke and TCU both falling 4 spots however Virginia is up 5 spots (2X) and UCLA is up 2 spots plus the Bears will have a chance to add a road win tonight over #13 Ole Miss.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Tuesday Preview - Oklahoma/Virginia, Baylor/Ole Miss, Ohio State/Florida
Tuesday should be a terrific day of tennis with 6 of the top 12 in action with Norman (OK), Oxford (MS), and Gainesville (FL) the place to be at 3 and 6pm. Usually matches like these are reserved for the weekend but we get 3 blockbusters early in the week.
#12 Virginia (9-2) at #1 Oklahoma (13-1) - 6pm est (Calm - Temps in 60s) - This is the premier match of the day with both of these teams expected to be national title contenders come May. Despite the #12 ranking many consider Virginia to be a top 5, if not top 2 or 3, team because they are loaded with talent but have had a few spots in the lineup that haven't produced quite as well as originally expected. Oklahoma of course if coming off the huge road win in Columbus that ended Ohio State's 200-match home court winning streak so the Sooners are going to be playing with a ton of confidence. Virginia is 9-2 in doubles while Oklahoma is 8-6 so you'd have to consider Virginia the favorite to take the doubles point but Oklahoma has won the point a few times when many weren't expecting it (USC 2X).
3/10 ITA Rankings Preview
Another crazy week of upsets is behind us so now we get to see what the rankings will look like on Tuesday. This week's rankings are using each team's top 5 best wins as will next weeks. The March 24th rankings will use each team's 6 best wins and then every subsequent week after that they add 1 more best win to get up to 9 by April 14th.
Virginia Tech will be the biggest riser in the Top 50 by jumping from 44 up to 17 after knocking off Notre Dame and Duke over the weekend.
Notre Dame will take the biggest fall by dropping from 23 to 36 after losing to both Virginia Tech and Louisville.
Others Coming Up:
- Virginia comes up 5 spots from 12 to 7 by picking up 2 roads wins at Wake Forest and NC State.
- North Carolina comes up 7 spots from 19 to 12 by picking up wins at home over NC State and Florida State and they won both those matches without its #1 Brayden Schnur
- Northwestern comes up 6 spots from 21 to 15 by picking up a road win over Indiana.
- Minnesota comes up 11 spots from 34 to 23 by picking up ranked wins over Washington and Drake.
- Louisville comes up 6 spots from 33 to 27 due to its win over Notre Dame
- Oklahoma State comes up 6 spots from 37 to 31 largely due to 1 of its 5 best wins (Tulsa) jumping up so much last week
Sunday, March 8, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
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.
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.
The Streak Is No More - Sooners over the Buckeyes 4-3 & Georgia clips Texas A&M 4-1
What a match tonight in Columbus with #1 Oklahoma coming in and knocking off #8 Ohio State 4-3 and thus snapping the Buckeyes unbelievable home court winning streak at 200.
Early on it looked like the streak would live on as Ohio State came out strong and took the doubles point by winning 6-4 at #1 and 6-2 at #3. Ty Tucker decided to change up the singles lineup a bit by moving freshman Mikael Torpegaard up from 2 to 1 while moving Chris Diaz from 1 to 2 and Tucker also switched up Ralf Steinbach and Hunter Callahan by moving Steinbach up to 4 and dropping Callahan down to 5.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Friday Preview - Sooners/Buckeyes, Hoos/Deacs, Aggies/Dawgs, Gators/Dores
It should be a fabulous Friday of college tennis and if you happen to be in close proximity to Athens (GA), Columbus (OH), Winston-Salem (NC), or Nashville (TN) I suggest you find a way to make it over to campus and watch some great high-level tennis.
If you can't make it out in person then at least make sure you take advantage of the free live streaming video that Georgia, Wake Forest, and Ohio State will be offering up for the matches.
I think we'll see at least 1 upset in the 4 big matches though I'd be surprised if we saw more than 1.
FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of today's (3/5) date and the numbers beside that are the player's dual match record for this season. For more details about UTR check out their website.
#10 Texas A&M (6-1) at #4 Georgia (9-2) - 2:30pm est - A year ago Texas A&M handed Georgia its only regular season conference loss when the Aggies won 4-1 in College Station but this year they'll be in Athens and most likely playing outdoors. Georgia is 8-3 in doubles but 6-0 since they changed pairings before the National Indoors while Texas A&M is a perfect 7-0 and in fact the Aggies have only dropped 1 individual court. This will be the first time this season that Texas A&M has ventured away from home while it'll likely be the 1st time this year that Georgia has played a whole match outdoors at home. There won't be any individual rematches from last year and the only pairing that will have met before at the collegiate level are Adams and Pasha at #3 - they split matches back in 2013. Doubles is too close to call so I'll look at the singles matches.
If you can't make it out in person then at least make sure you take advantage of the free live streaming video that Georgia, Wake Forest, and Ohio State will be offering up for the matches.
I think we'll see at least 1 upset in the 4 big matches though I'd be surprised if we saw more than 1.
FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of today's (3/5) date and the numbers beside that are the player's dual match record for this season. For more details about UTR check out their website.
#10 Texas A&M (6-1) at #4 Georgia (9-2) - 2:30pm est - A year ago Texas A&M handed Georgia its only regular season conference loss when the Aggies won 4-1 in College Station but this year they'll be in Athens and most likely playing outdoors. Georgia is 8-3 in doubles but 6-0 since they changed pairings before the National Indoors while Texas A&M is a perfect 7-0 and in fact the Aggies have only dropped 1 individual court. This will be the first time this season that Texas A&M has ventured away from home while it'll likely be the 1st time this year that Georgia has played a whole match outdoors at home. There won't be any individual rematches from last year and the only pairing that will have met before at the collegiate level are Adams and Pasha at #3 - they split matches back in 2013. Doubles is too close to call so I'll look at the singles matches.
Aztec Empire too strong for Bears, Trojans pushed by Toreros, Cowboys lasso in the Runnin' Rebs
The San Diego area was a hotbed of activity on Thursday with close to a dozen college teams in town to participate in the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships. Several of them decided to take advantage of the warm sunny weather by scheduling a dual match the day before the individual tournament started and the results were pretty close across the board.
The biggest upset came at San Diego State where the 60th ranked Aztecs upset #22 Cal 4-2. Cal made a shift in the singles lineup and moved Greg Bayane up to 3 from his usual spot at 5/6 and with that Billy Griffith and J.T. Nishimura each played 1 spot lower than normal. The changes didn't pay off as SDSU swept all 3 spots in addition to taking the all important doubles point.
The biggest upset came at San Diego State where the 60th ranked Aztecs upset #22 Cal 4-2. Cal made a shift in the singles lineup and moved Greg Bayane up to 3 from his usual spot at 5/6 and with that Billy Griffith and J.T. Nishimura each played 1 spot lower than normal. The changes didn't pay off as SDSU swept all 3 spots in addition to taking the all important doubles point.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Look Ahead + A Nice Comeback Story
Wednesdays are always a little quiet so I'll look ahead a little to show you what's in store for the rest of the week.
Also make sure you click on the link and read the nice comeback story about William Jewell College's Men's and Women's Head Coach Paul Worstell who has overcome acute lymphoblastic leukemia and made a successful return to the courts. It wasn't an easy road for Worstell who endured 9 rounds of chemotherapy and eventually had a life saving stem cell transplant but has come through it all . Worstell's Cardinals are currently 2-3 with a home match coming up this Saturday against Cowley County Community College.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Baylor & UCLA Both Win Going Away
Tulsa showed up at the LA Tennis Center with nothing to lose after upsetting USC and Pepperdine and lose is exactly what they did. Billy Martin's boys came to play and they gave Tulsa a pretty thorough beating in every facet of the match. UCLA's #1 and #3 doubles teams both posted 6-0 shutouts to seal the doubles point and give UCLA the early 1-0 lead.
Things never got any closer in singles as UCLA cruised to 5 1st sets and the 2nd sets went just as quickly with Mackenzie McDonald, Dennis Mkrtchian, Martin Redlicki, and Karue Sell all winning in straight sets. The only positive for Tulsa was Mitchell Pritchard taking the 1st set at #5 singles.
3/3 ITA & D1 Men's Coaches Rankings Have Been Released
The new ITA rankings are out and Oklahoma is back at the top spot due to its 5 Top 20 wins over USC, Baylor, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, and North Carolina. The Sooners will have a chance to buffer the resume this Friday when they play at #8 Ohio State. A win over the Buckeyes would bump the Wake Forest win and give OU an even bigger cushion at #1.
Duke moves up 2 spots to #2 as a result of its 5 Top 20 wins over Illinois, Ole Miss, TCU, Wake Forest, and Northwestern with the road wins at Illinois and Northwestern adding in the extra 10% bonus. Duke's only match this week is at #44 Virginia Tech so they'll still have the same best 5 wins for next week's rankings and while Illinois and Northwestern stayed in the same spot, Ole Miss came up 1 spot, TCU came up 2, and Wake dropped 8.
Illinois holds firm at #3 with it also having 5 Top 20 wins over Baylor, Ohio State, Cal, Notre Dame, and North Carolina with the win over Baylor in Waco. Illinois is off for the next 2 weeks so they won't be able to add to the win column so any ranking change next week would be due to their best wins going up or down in the rankings. Baylor, Ohio State, and North Carolina stayed the same this week while Cal dropped 4 spots and Notre Dame dropped 9 spots.
Georgia moves up to #4 off the strength of a pair of road wins over the weekend against Florida and Auburn. In my projections I had Georgia at 5 because I forgot to give them the 10% road bonus for the win at Auburn (sorry guys) - those extra points were enough to push them pass Baylor. Georgia's other best wins are against Illinois, Columbia, and UCLA and even though Columbia fell 2 spots this week, UCLA came up 5, plus Florida came up 6 spots. Georgia hosts #10 Texas A&M this Friday so a win would bump their 5th best win (Auburn) and give the Bulldogs a nice points jump.
Duke moves up 2 spots to #2 as a result of its 5 Top 20 wins over Illinois, Ole Miss, TCU, Wake Forest, and Northwestern with the road wins at Illinois and Northwestern adding in the extra 10% bonus. Duke's only match this week is at #44 Virginia Tech so they'll still have the same best 5 wins for next week's rankings and while Illinois and Northwestern stayed in the same spot, Ole Miss came up 1 spot, TCU came up 2, and Wake dropped 8.
Illinois holds firm at #3 with it also having 5 Top 20 wins over Baylor, Ohio State, Cal, Notre Dame, and North Carolina with the win over Baylor in Waco. Illinois is off for the next 2 weeks so they won't be able to add to the win column so any ranking change next week would be due to their best wins going up or down in the rankings. Baylor, Ohio State, and North Carolina stayed the same this week while Cal dropped 4 spots and Notre Dame dropped 9 spots.
Georgia moves up to #4 off the strength of a pair of road wins over the weekend against Florida and Auburn. In my projections I had Georgia at 5 because I forgot to give them the 10% road bonus for the win at Auburn (sorry guys) - those extra points were enough to push them pass Baylor. Georgia's other best wins are against Illinois, Columbia, and UCLA and even though Columbia fell 2 spots this week, UCLA came up 5, plus Florida came up 6 spots. Georgia hosts #10 Texas A&M this Friday so a win would bump their 5th best win (Auburn) and give the Bulldogs a nice points jump.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Tuesday Preview - TCU/Baylor & Tulsa/UCLA
Nothing like a little mid-week tennis to get everybody excited and that's what we'll have Tuesday evening with #5 Baylor hosting #15 TCU and #21 UCLA hosting #51 Tulsa.
#15 TCU (8-3) at #5 Baylor (9-2) - 7pm est - Live Scoring & Blog + Video (if played outdoors) - This will be the Big 12 opener for both schools with Baylor fresh off a win over Virginia while TCU swept a pair of matches on Sunday against Wisconsin and Incarnate Word. TCU started off the year with 5 straight wins including wins over Texas A&M and LSU but then got swept at the National Indoors by Duke, Virginia, and UCLA. Baylor lost its opener at home to Illinois but since then they've beaten Tulsa, Duke, UCLA, and Virginia twice with just the 1 other loss to Oklahoma at the National Indoors semifinals. Baylor is a perfect 11-0 in doubles and has only dropped 3 individual courts while TCU is just 4-5 so I can't see anyway that Baylor doesn't win this point. TCU has used 7 different guys in singles with Trevor Johnson (13.38) also seeing plenty of action at 6 so it's possible he could play at 6 if either Dachs or Lugones can't play. Diego Galeano has sat out the singles portion for the last 2 matches so it sounds like he isn't 100% so with the way the other guys have been playing I'd be surprised to see him singles in this one.
3/3 ITA Rankings Preview
Oklahoma will return to the top of the rankings tomorrow and in fact they would have been back at #1 even if USC hadn't lost to Tulsa. Unlike last weeks rankings which used each teams 4 best wins, the next 3 sets of rankings will use each teams 5 best wins. OU has 5 Top 20 wins and just the 1 loss to a top 10 Texas A&M.
Duke keeps climbing due to 5 Top 20 wins including road wins at #3 Illinois and #20 Northwestern. As a reminder the rankings reward road wins by giving a 10% points bonus.
Baylor's win over Virginia yesterday bumped them up to #4 just ahead of Georgia.
USC would have been #3 had they beaten Tulsa with the drop due to USC's 5th best win being over #37 Stanford. The Tulsa loss pushed them down from #3 to #6.
Duke keeps climbing due to 5 Top 20 wins including road wins at #3 Illinois and #20 Northwestern. As a reminder the rankings reward road wins by giving a 10% points bonus.
Baylor's win over Virginia yesterday bumped them up to #4 just ahead of Georgia.
USC would have been #3 had they beaten Tulsa with the drop due to USC's 5th best win being over #37 Stanford. The Tulsa loss pushed them down from #3 to #6.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
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:
Sunday Update
A surprise to start the day as Virginia has shaken up its lineup, I'm guessing due to illness, with neither the ITA #1 Thai Son Kwiatkowski or UVA's #5 Alexander Ritschard are listed in singles. The seldom used Jonathan Cornish is playing doubles for the first time this year at #3 along with Mac Styslinger. Both Styslinger and Henrik Wiersholm are listed in the singles lineup at 4 and 6.
Sunday Preview - UVA at Baylor & Wake Forest at Texas, Vandy at Ole Miss
Sunday will bring us some big time showdowns as #5 Baylor hosts #11 Virginia in Waco, #6 Texas hosts #12 Wake Forest in Austin, and #10 Ole Miss hosts #16 Vanderbilt in Oxford. All 3 of these matches will be played indoors due to poor weather.
#11 Virginia (7-1) at #5 Baylor (8-2) - 2pm est - Live Scoring & Video (if outside) & Blog - It was just 2 weeks ago that Baylor upset Virginia 4-3 in the National Indoors Quarterfinals and with temperatures expected to be in the 40s with a chance of rain this one will likely end up indoors too. I expect both Brian Boland and Matt Knoll to do some tinkering with their respective lineups to try to avoid some unfavorable rematches. I'd be surprised if Mitchell Frank was back at #1 to face Julian Lenz with Lenz having rolled in their last 2 encounters. In my opinion I think Ryan Shane will get the call to step up to #1 with Frank dropping to #2. Even though Tony Lupieri knocked off Thai Son Kwiatkowski in the last meeting I think Lupieri will probably play at #2 like he did against UCLA last weekend. I'd also be a little surprised if Matt Knoll stuck with the same bottom 3 that he had in the last meeting since Virginia won at #4 and #6 in routine fashion.