Wednesday was a rough day to be a top 20 team on the road as both #13 Ole Miss and #19 Northwestern got upset.
In Houston, Rice picked up its 1st win over a top 20 opponent since 2009 when the Owls stunned Northwestern 4-1. Rice took the doubles and then picked up singles wins from Srikar Alla, Max Andrews and David Warren at 1, 2, and 5. Northwestern's Logan Staggs won at #4 singles in a losing effort and Konrad Zieba made his season debut at #3 singles for the Cats and led when the match was halted.
PlaySight
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
What's Coming Up
All the spring break tournaments are wrapped up and now its time for everybody to get into the meat of their conference schedules. Below are some of the matches that I'll be keeping an eye on - the ones in bold are the ones I plan on previewing.
3/25 (Wednesday)
#13 Ole Miss at #34 Mississippi State - 4pm est/3pm cst
3/27 (Friday)
#14 North Carolina at #8 Virginia
#11 Ohio State at #19 Northwestern
#10 TCU at #1 Oklahoma
#7 Texas at #22 Oklahoma State
#17 Vanderbilt at #5 Georgia
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tuesday Recap: Dartmouth knocks off SMU & Pepperdine beats Washington
#36 SMU opened up its new outdoor facility tonight but #60 Dartmouth spoiled the party with a 4-1 upset win. The Big Green was playing the middle match of a 5 game road trip and after losing to both TCU and Oklahoma State it definitely was a welcome win.
Dartmouth came out and won a tight doubles point by winning 7-5 at both 1 and 3 while SMU took #2 doubles 6-4. In singles, Dartmouth took the opening set on 5 of 6 courts and was able to pick up wins from Brendan Tannenbaum, Dovydas Sakinis, and Ciro Riccardi. At the time of the clinch Dartmouth's Max Schmidt was a game away up 5-2 in the 3rd.
Dartmouth came out and won a tight doubles point by winning 7-5 at both 1 and 3 while SMU took #2 doubles 6-4. In singles, Dartmouth took the opening set on 5 of 6 courts and was able to pick up wins from Brendan Tannenbaum, Dovydas Sakinis, and Ciro Riccardi. At the time of the clinch Dartmouth's Max Schmidt was a game away up 5-2 in the 3rd.
3/24 ITA Rankings Have Been Released - Top 10 Breakdown
Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA Men's rankings for the 4th week in a row and for the 5th time in the last 6 weeks. The USC women are the new #1 in the Women's rankings for the 1st time since 2003 after defeating both Cal and Stanford last weekend.
Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 6 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins that could potentially fit in down the road. You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 6 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week.
Oklahoma retained its #1 ranking after beating Columbia and Baylor last weekend at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge in Indian Wells.
Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 6 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins that could potentially fit in down the road. You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 6 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week.
Oklahoma retained its #1 ranking after beating Columbia and Baylor last weekend at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge in Indian Wells.
- 6 Best Wins: #2 Baylor (2x), #6 USC, #8 Virginia, at #11 Ohio State, at #12 Wake Forest
- Other Quality Wins: #13 Ole Miss, #14 North Carolina (2X), #18 South Florida, #19 Northwestern
- Losses: #9 Texas A&M
- What's Coming Up: #10 TCU (3/27), #7 Texas (3/29), #27 Tulsa (4/1)
- Comments: Well positioned to stay at #1 for some time with a great resume plus they get a chance to add not 1 but 2 more top 10 wins this weekend.
Monday, March 23, 2015
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.
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.
3/24 ITA Rankings Preview
The gap at the top has widened as Oklahoma continues to add more and more top 10 wins. Oklahoma now has 10 wins over teams in the Top 14 - that's a crazy figure and will likely keep OU at the top for a while. This week's rankings use each team's top 6 best wins and then next week it'll go up to 7 and then every subsequent week after that they add 1 more best win to get up to 9 by April 14th.
TCU will make the biggest jump within the top 20 as the Horned Frogs move up 8 spots from 18 to 10 after beating #2 Illinois on Monday and then defeating #48 Dartmouth on Saturday. San Diego makes the biggest jump in the top 40 as it'll rise 9 spots from 30 to 21 on the strength of wins last weekend over #32 Princeton, #33 Drake, and #43 Denver.
Harvard will take the biggest fall in the top 40 by dropping 11 spots from 22 to 33 after losing to both Drake and Princeton out in San Diego.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Sunday Recap: Sooners Come Up Big Again, Ole Miss Rolls, Duke Scraps Past Wake, Hokies Charge Back
After struggling in doubles most of the year, Oklahoma came up big in the finals of the BNP Paribas Collegiate Cup and handed Baylor its first doubles loss of the year and ultimately its 3rd overall loss as the Sooners beat Baylor 4-2. The Oklahoma win was the second over Baylor in the last 5 weeks and they'll meet up against in Waco on April 10th.
Baylor's #2 team of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano won easily 6-2 but Oklahoma would win the other 2 courts 6-4 with Dane Webb and Axel Alvarez getting it done on 1 and Spencer Papa and Florin Bragusi winning on 3. It was the first win of the year for the Papa/Bragusi pairing and it couldn't have come at a better time.
Each team would take 3 1st sets but with Baylor needing 4 singles wins they would need to close out their 3 and turn 1 more - OU wouldn't let it happen. Axel Alvarez put OU up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 shellacking over Tony Lupieri at #2 and Alex Ghilea would make it 3-0 with an equally dominant 6-2 6-3 win over Vince Schneider at #4. Julian Lenz would get Baylor on the board with a 6-3, 6-2 win at #1 over Andrew Harris and Mate Zsiga was just 2 games away from winning at #5. However, Oklahoma's Florin Bragusi would put an end to any doubt and clinch the win and title by defeating Felipe Rios 7-5, 6-4 at #6 and thus snap Rios's 10-match winning streak.
Getting the doubles point was huge for Oklahoma because even though they've come back before after dropping it this was a red-hot Baylor team they were facing. If Baylor takes that opening point then it would have come down to a 3rd set at #3. Of course you can play the IF game all day; bottom line is Oklahoma keeps on winning and keeps performing when it matters that most.
Baylor's #2 team of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano won easily 6-2 but Oklahoma would win the other 2 courts 6-4 with Dane Webb and Axel Alvarez getting it done on 1 and Spencer Papa and Florin Bragusi winning on 3. It was the first win of the year for the Papa/Bragusi pairing and it couldn't have come at a better time.
Each team would take 3 1st sets but with Baylor needing 4 singles wins they would need to close out their 3 and turn 1 more - OU wouldn't let it happen. Axel Alvarez put OU up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-2 shellacking over Tony Lupieri at #2 and Alex Ghilea would make it 3-0 with an equally dominant 6-2 6-3 win over Vince Schneider at #4. Julian Lenz would get Baylor on the board with a 6-3, 6-2 win at #1 over Andrew Harris and Mate Zsiga was just 2 games away from winning at #5. However, Oklahoma's Florin Bragusi would put an end to any doubt and clinch the win and title by defeating Felipe Rios 7-5, 6-4 at #6 and thus snap Rios's 10-match winning streak.
Getting the doubles point was huge for Oklahoma because even though they've come back before after dropping it this was a red-hot Baylor team they were facing. If Baylor takes that opening point then it would have come down to a 3rd set at #3. Of course you can play the IF game all day; bottom line is Oklahoma keeps on winning and keeps performing when it matters that most.
Sunday Preview: Oklahoma/Baylor, Wake/Duke, Ole Miss/Florida + other storylines
Sunday brings us 3 matches between Top 15 teams with the headliner taking place in Indian Wells between #1 Oklahoma and #3 Baylor. The other 2 big ones are in Oxford where #13 Ole Miss hosts #15 Florida and in Durham where #6 Duke hosts #12 Wake Forest. It should also be mentioned that all 3 are rematches from earlier in the year with 2 playing each other during the Kickoff Weekend and the other meeting at the National Indoors. There's a full schedule at the bottom of this post with scoring links as well.
#1 Oklahoma (16-1) vs. #3 Baylor (14-2) - 1pm est/10am pst - This will be a rematch from the National Indoor Semifinals which was a match Oklahoma won 4-2 (box score below). Baylor had its chances in the match and had Mate Zsiga not let a 6-4, 5-2 lead slip away at #5 singles the outcome could have been different. The only singles court which projects to be a rematch is at #1 singles and that was the only court that didn't finish last time. Baylor has been far and away the better team in doubles so the Bears will look to get that early 1-0 lead like they have in every match that the doubles point has been played. Oklahoma will look to lean on its top 3 in singles as they have all year while Baylor hopes its bottom 3 continues its recent dominance. Let's take a look at the lineups and records.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Bears Sic 'Em, Oklahoma Rallies Past Columbia, Toreros Hold Off Drake, Vandy Survives
Saturday had several close ones with both Baylor and Oklahoma pulling through in the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge while San Diego and Princeton both won tight ones in the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic. There was also a good one in Nashville where Vanderbilt won a 3rd set tiebreak in the deciding match to avoid getting upset by unranked Kentucky.
The headliner of the day was between #3 Baylor and #4 USC. It was almost a forgone conclusion that Baylor would take the doubles point with how dominant they'd been in doubles play but USC had the point well within grasp. Baylor's #3 duo of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios were first off the court with 6-3 win but USC's #1 pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz answered with a 6-4 win. So it all came down to #2 doubles where Baylor's Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano had jumped out to an early break lead on USC's Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson. USC's 2s would break back to even it at 4 then get a De Vroome hold to go up 5-4 and then would go up 0-30 on the Galeano serve. The Baylor 2s would win 4 straight points to hold for 5-5 but then Eric Johnson would hold at 40-15 to put USC up 6-5. For the second service game in a row Baylor would go down 0-30 but they'd dig themselves out again by winning 3 straight points to go up 40-30. After USC got the next point to make it 40-40, which was a deciding/break point, Lenz dropped the hammer on a 1st serve and sent to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was all Baylor as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and ended up cruising to a 7-1 win.
The headliner of the day was between #3 Baylor and #4 USC. It was almost a forgone conclusion that Baylor would take the doubles point with how dominant they'd been in doubles play but USC had the point well within grasp. Baylor's #3 duo of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios were first off the court with 6-3 win but USC's #1 pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz answered with a 6-4 win. So it all came down to #2 doubles where Baylor's Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano had jumped out to an early break lead on USC's Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson. USC's 2s would break back to even it at 4 then get a De Vroome hold to go up 5-4 and then would go up 0-30 on the Galeano serve. The Baylor 2s would win 4 straight points to hold for 5-5 but then Eric Johnson would hold at 40-15 to put USC up 6-5. For the second service game in a row Baylor would go down 0-30 but they'd dig themselves out again by winning 3 straight points to go up 40-30. After USC got the next point to make it 40-40, which was a deciding/break point, Lenz dropped the hammer on a 1st serve and sent to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was all Baylor as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and ended up cruising to a 7-1 win.
Saturday Preview: USC/Baylor + Other Storylines
What a great day it'd be to be out in Indian Wells with 4 college matches going on highlighted by USC/Baylor plus you've got Djokovic/Murray and Federer/Raonic - high quality viewing.
The Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic wraps up today with San Diego and Drake meeting in the finals plus they'll be a good 3rd place match between Ivy League powers Harvard and Princeton. Can Drake make it 3 wins in 3 days playing San Diego in the Toreros own backyard?
TCU hosts a pair of lower ranked teams with both Dartmouth and UT Arlington coming in though of course it's not that far for UT Arlington. Any chance TCU gets caught napping and drops 1?
Kentucky is still looking for its first conference win of the season after some near misses against Georgia (2-4), Tennessee (3-4), and South Carolina (1-4). Will Vanderbilt be able to follow up its win over Tennessee with another win over Big Blue?
Oklahoma takes on Columbia though you figure OU has to have its eyes set on either USC or Baylor. Will the Lions catch Oklahoma off-guard and pull off a surprise?
Now for the big one - Baylor/USC. Both teams are playing well though Baylor is definitely playing a little better right now. Can Baylor keep it up or does USC show that it's not one to be forgotten about? Let's dive in and take a look at all the #s. As a reminder in the singles matches the UTRs are after the school abbreviation.
The Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic wraps up today with San Diego and Drake meeting in the finals plus they'll be a good 3rd place match between Ivy League powers Harvard and Princeton. Can Drake make it 3 wins in 3 days playing San Diego in the Toreros own backyard?
TCU hosts a pair of lower ranked teams with both Dartmouth and UT Arlington coming in though of course it's not that far for UT Arlington. Any chance TCU gets caught napping and drops 1?
Kentucky is still looking for its first conference win of the season after some near misses against Georgia (2-4), Tennessee (3-4), and South Carolina (1-4). Will Vanderbilt be able to follow up its win over Tennessee with another win over Big Blue?
Oklahoma takes on Columbia though you figure OU has to have its eyes set on either USC or Baylor. Will the Lions catch Oklahoma off-guard and pull off a surprise?
Now for the big one - Baylor/USC. Both teams are playing well though Baylor is definitely playing a little better right now. Can Baylor keep it up or does USC show that it's not one to be forgotten about? Let's dive in and take a look at all the #s. As a reminder in the singles matches the UTRs are after the school abbreviation.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Friday Recap: Wake Too Good for VT, USC Gets Its Revenge, The Ville Rocks UNC, Several 4-3 Nailbiters
Friday brought us several close ones as 6 matches finished with a 4-3 final score though of course there were several that weren't as close most notably 3 of the 4 in Indian Wells.
The big upset of the day came in Louisville as the #29 Cardinals stunned #10 North Carolina 5-2. It looked like #7 Texas A&M might get picked off too however the Aggies rallied late and held off #35 Mississippi State 4-1. #33 Drake came back from 3-0 down to stun #22 Harvard 4-3 and #23 LSU pulled out a tight 4-3 win on the road at #60 Alabama.
In the biggest match of the day #12 Wake Forest ran its winning streak to 4 with a 5-2 win over #16 Virginia Tech. The Demon Deacons cruised past Va Tech in doubles and then Noah Rubin made it 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 beat down of Amerigo Contini at #1 singles. Jon Ho would extend the lead to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win at #4 singles over Hunter Koontz before Virginia Tech's Edoardo Tessaro would put the Hokies on the board with a come from behind 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Christian Seraphim at #5 singles. Romain Bogaerts would clinch the win for Wake Forest with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win at #2 singles over Andreas Bjerrehus and then the teams would split the 2 remaining matches after the clinch.
Wake Forest now sets its sights on #6 Duke with Wake making the short trip to Durham on Sunday.
Friday Preview - Va Tech at Wake, USC vs. Tulsa, + Other Storylines
As the excitement of the NCAA Basketball Tournament sweeps the nation I'm sure we'll see some excitement on the tennis courts this weekend as well. Wake Forest hosts Virginia Tech in a top 16 showdown, 6 top 30 teams will be in Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge, and 7 top 50 teams are in San Diego for the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Classic. If you can't make it out in person follow along with the live scoring/update links down below.
It appears they have live streaming on 2 of the courts at Indian Wells - click here for those streams.
#16 Virginia Tech (12-1) at #12 Wake Forest (11-4) - 4pm est - Virginia Tech has been the biggest surprise of the season so far winning 12 of 13 but they'll have to leave the comforts of home for just the 4th time this year. Wake Forest is on a roll as of late having won 3 straight 7-0 matches with the last 2 coming against a pair of top 30 teams (Florida St & Louisville). Wake is 11-4 in doubles but has only won once when dropping the point (Clemson); conversely they've only lost once when winning the doubles point (Texas). Virginia Tech is 8-5 in doubles and has come back to win 4 times after dropping the point (Alabama, Penn State, Notre Dame, Duke).
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.
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #55 Amerigo Contini (VT 14.42) vs. #63 Noah Rubin (WF 14.80)
2. #40 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT 13.81) vs. #12 Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.40)
3. #98 Joao Monteiro (VT 13.85) vs. #69 Jonathan Ho (WF 13.56)
4. Hunter Koontz (VT 13.62) vs. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.30)
5. Edoardo Tessaro (VT 13.04) vs. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.74)
6. Florian Nicoud (VT 13.38) vs. Maksim Kan (WF 13.28)
Projected Doubles Lineups
1. #64 Contini/Bjerrehus (VT) vs. #13 Seraphim/Mansouri (WF)
2. Monteiro/Tessaro (VT) vs. Rubin/Ho (WF)
3. Koontz/Nicoud (VT) vs. Keivon Tabrizi/Bogaerts (WF)
It appears they have live streaming on 2 of the courts at Indian Wells - click here for those streams.
#16 Virginia Tech (12-1) at #12 Wake Forest (11-4) - 4pm est - Virginia Tech has been the biggest surprise of the season so far winning 12 of 13 but they'll have to leave the comforts of home for just the 4th time this year. Wake Forest is on a roll as of late having won 3 straight 7-0 matches with the last 2 coming against a pair of top 30 teams (Florida St & Louisville). Wake is 11-4 in doubles but has only won once when dropping the point (Clemson); conversely they've only lost once when winning the doubles point (Texas). Virginia Tech is 8-5 in doubles and has come back to win 4 times after dropping the point (Alabama, Penn State, Notre Dame, Duke).
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.
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #55 Amerigo Contini (VT 14.42) vs. #63 Noah Rubin (WF 14.80)
2. #40 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT 13.81) vs. #12 Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.40)
3. #98 Joao Monteiro (VT 13.85) vs. #69 Jonathan Ho (WF 13.56)
4. Hunter Koontz (VT 13.62) vs. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.30)
5. Edoardo Tessaro (VT 13.04) vs. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.74)
6. Florian Nicoud (VT 13.38) vs. Maksim Kan (WF 13.28)
Projected Doubles Lineups
1. #64 Contini/Bjerrehus (VT) vs. #13 Seraphim/Mansouri (WF)
2. Monteiro/Tessaro (VT) vs. Rubin/Ho (WF)
3. Koontz/Nicoud (VT) vs. Keivon Tabrizi/Bogaerts (WF)
Thursday, March 19, 2015
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.
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).
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
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.
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)
_______________________________________________________
What's Coming Up
There are 2 big tournaments that get started over the next 2 days with both in the state of California.
The higher profile one is in Indian Wells where 3 of the top 4 teams in the country will be in action at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge. Play starts on Friday and finishes on Sunday.
Current ITA Rankings of Participants: #1 Oklahoma, #3 Baylor, #4 USC, #20 Tulsa, #28 California, #29 Columbia, and both BYU and Purdue are unranked.
The higher profile one is in Indian Wells where 3 of the top 4 teams in the country will be in action at the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge. Play starts on Friday and finishes on Sunday.
Current ITA Rankings of Participants: #1 Oklahoma, #3 Baylor, #4 USC, #20 Tulsa, #28 California, #29 Columbia, and both BYU and Purdue are unranked.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Longhorns Roast the Buckeyes & Red Raiders Take The Luck Out Of The Irish, LMU Upsets Utah
After dropping a 4-3 thriller to Ohio State earlier in the year at the National Indoors, Texas reversed its fortune today and took out #11 Ohio State 4-1 in a match that the Horns seemed in control of just about the entire way. Ohio State was 15-3 in doubles coming into this one but Texas got the point by winning at 2 and 3 by scores of 6-4 and 6-2.
With the nearly unbeatable Soren Hess-Olesen at 1, Texas knew it had at least 1 point in the bag and Soren quickly delivered that point with his 17th consecutive win with a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of Chris Diaz. The Buckeye junior had one opening in the match after going up 2-0 in the 2nd but Hess-Olesen came back and won 6 of the next 7 games to close it out.
Ralf Steinbach would get Ohio State on the board at #5 singles with a 7-6(4), 6-1 over Nick Naumann. Naumann had 3 chances to take the opening set when Steinbach served at 5-6, 15-40 but Steinbach forced his way to the net on each of the 3 points and managed to put 2 away with Naumann going long on a lob on the other. In the 1st set tiebreak after Steinbach got the early mini-break to go up 1-0, Naumann got overruled on a Steinbach serve, which happened right in front of the chair, and Naumann never really seemed to recover.
With the nearly unbeatable Soren Hess-Olesen at 1, Texas knew it had at least 1 point in the bag and Soren quickly delivered that point with his 17th consecutive win with a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of Chris Diaz. The Buckeye junior had one opening in the match after going up 2-0 in the 2nd but Hess-Olesen came back and won 6 of the next 7 games to close it out.
Ralf Steinbach would get Ohio State on the board at #5 singles with a 7-6(4), 6-1 over Nick Naumann. Naumann had 3 chances to take the opening set when Steinbach served at 5-6, 15-40 but Steinbach forced his way to the net on each of the 3 points and managed to put 2 away with Naumann going long on a lob on the other. In the 1st set tiebreak after Steinbach got the early mini-break to go up 1-0, Naumann got overruled on a Steinbach serve, which happened right in front of the chair, and Naumann never really seemed to recover.
3/17 ITA Rankings Have Been Released
Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA rankings for the 3rd week in a row and for the 4th time in the last 5 weeks. OU's win last Tuesday over Virginia kept it atop the rankings because had they lost Illinois would have moved to #1. Oklahoma's top 5 best wins are over #3 Baylor, #4 USC, #9 Virginia, #10 North Carolina, and at #11 Ohio State. The Sooners also own wins over #12 Wake Forest, #13 Ole Miss, #14 Northwestern, plus a 2nd win over #10 North Carolina so that means they have wins over everyone ranked from 9-14 which means they are positioned very well for the next several rankings where an additional best win is added each week starting next week. Oklahoma also gets an opportunity to pad its resume this weekend when they head to Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge and it's likely that they'll face either #3 Baylor or #4 USC in the Championship on Sunday.
Illinois moves up 2 spots to #2 on the strength of a pair of Top 10 road wins last weekend over Texas and Texas A&M. The Illini's best 5 wins for this week are the road wins at #3 Baylor, #8 Texas, and #7 Texas A&M along with home/neutral court wins over #10 North Carolina and #11 Ohio State. Illinois dropped its match yesterday to #18 TCU so that loss will count against them next week and with Illinois now idle until March 27th that means it's points average will probably drop slightly with its 6th best against #14 Northwestern.
Illinois moves up 2 spots to #2 on the strength of a pair of Top 10 road wins last weekend over Texas and Texas A&M. The Illini's best 5 wins for this week are the road wins at #3 Baylor, #8 Texas, and #7 Texas A&M along with home/neutral court wins over #10 North Carolina and #11 Ohio State. Illinois dropped its match yesterday to #18 TCU so that loss will count against them next week and with Illinois now idle until March 27th that means it's points average will probably drop slightly with its 6th best against #14 Northwestern.
Monday, March 16, 2015
TCU Derails the Illini Train
In terms of rankings today's TCU win over Illinois was an upset, but I don't think too many would call it completely unexpected with Illinois playing its 3rd Top 20 opponent on the road in as many days. I'm guessing the Illini's energy tank was much closer to E than it was to F while TCU was likely beyond ecstatic having the chance to host a top 5 team on its home courts.
TCU did play on Sunday against Michigan and while the score-lines today were a little closer they really wasn't much of a difference. They are both listed below so you can take a look at them.
TCU took the doubles point without too much resistance by winning 6-3 and 6-1 at 1 and 2. In singles, TCU moved Cameron Norrie down to #3 for the 1st time this year after he'd played all but 1 match at #1. David Roditi also moved Guillermo Nunez up to #2 for the 1st time in his career and Nunez rewarded the coach's decision with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of #32 Tim Kopinski. Arnau Dachs and Facundo Lugones would also pick up quick wins at 5 and 6 and in under 1 hour and 45 minutes TCU had its 4-0 shutout over Illinois.
TCU did play on Sunday against Michigan and while the score-lines today were a little closer they really wasn't much of a difference. They are both listed below so you can take a look at them.
TCU took the doubles point without too much resistance by winning 6-3 and 6-1 at 1 and 2. In singles, TCU moved Cameron Norrie down to #3 for the 1st time this year after he'd played all but 1 match at #1. David Roditi also moved Guillermo Nunez up to #2 for the 1st time in his career and Nunez rewarded the coach's decision with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of #32 Tim Kopinski. Arnau Dachs and Facundo Lugones would also pick up quick wins at 5 and 6 and in under 1 hour and 45 minutes TCU had its 4-0 shutout over Illinois.
3/17 ITA Rankings Preview
Definitely going to be some big movement in the rankings this week with several teams picking up keys wins while some took some rough losses. This week's rankings are the last set to use each team's top 5 best wins and then starting next week with the March 24th rankings they'll 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.
Wake Forest will have the biggest jump within the top 20 as the Demon Deacons will move up from 19 to 12 on the strength of a pair of wins over Florida State and Louisville. Tulsa also makes a big move from 29 to 20 after knocking off Ohio State yesterday.
Indiana will take the biggest fall in the top 40 by dropping from 30 to 39 after losing to Texas Tech and having some of its best wins drop in the rankings from the week before.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Sunday Recap - Illini Downs The Aggies, Tulsa Upsets Ohio State, LSU Upends Vandy, Wake Impresses
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.
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.
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.