I didn't think Oklahoma and Baylor could top some of their previous meetings but they sure tried their best today. In a match that was delayed multiple times by weather it was #1 Oklahoma doing the unthinkable and beating #2 Baylor for the 4th time this year and for the 2nd time in Waco.
Baylor came out strong in doubles and jumped out to early break leads at 1 and 3 while Oklahoma got the early break lead at 2. While Baylor's #1 team of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano would pull away for a quick 6-1 win its #3 team of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios would lose its early 3-1 lead and would find itself down 4-3. After an exchange of holds Oklahoma's Jose Salazar and Axel Alvarez would break the Vince Schneider serve from 15-40 to take the match 6-4. Schneider actually double faulted on match point.
PlaySight
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Final Ranking Projections
I crunched the numbers twice and below is what I came up with. If the NCAA seeding committee goes off the rankings then UCLA would get to host with Columbia missing out by a few points.
With the at-large cutoff at 42 it appears that Tulane and Dartmouth will be the first 2 out with Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and San Diego State just sliding in.
There is still some guesswork involved because since I only know who was ranked in the top 75 if someone has a win or multiple wins over teams ranked outside the top 75 then it's possible that I could over/under estimate points. I've been pretty close all year but a small error on the first run could be compounded by the second run.
With the at-large cutoff at 42 it appears that Tulane and Dartmouth will be the first 2 out with Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and San Diego State just sliding in.
There is still some guesswork involved because since I only know who was ranked in the top 75 if someone has a win or multiple wins over teams ranked outside the top 75 then it's possible that I could over/under estimate points. I've been pretty close all year but a small error on the first run could be compounded by the second run.
Championship Sunday Preview: UVA/Wake, ILL/OSU, OU/BU Once More
Championship Sunday is here and 2 of the 3 will be available over the air with Fox Sports 2 televising the Big 12 Championship LIVE and ESPN3 covering the ACC Championship (weather permitting). The Virginia/Wake Forest match gets underway at 10am so it should be over by the time Oklahoma and Baylor tie it on for a 4th time. Illinois also has a live stream of the Big 10 Championship although they don't have sound and the picture is just so-so.
#1 Oklahoma (23-2) at #2 Baylor (21-4) - 1pm est - This will be the 4th match of the year between these 2 with Oklahoma having won the first 3. I'd expect nothing more than epic fight to the finish and at this point anything is possible. Below are the box scores of each of the previous matches starting with the most recent and working back to the National Indoors in February.
#1 Oklahoma (23-2) at #2 Baylor (21-4) - 1pm est - This will be the 4th match of the year between these 2 with Oklahoma having won the first 3. I'd expect nothing more than epic fight to the finish and at this point anything is possible. Below are the box scores of each of the previous matches starting with the most recent and working back to the National Indoors in February.
2015 Big Ten Tournament
Big Ten Conference (Champaign, IL) April 23-26 - Ohio State is defending champion. Participants: Illinois, Ohio State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan St, Penn St, Wisconsin, Michigan, Purdue
Thursday Schedule
#8 Iowa 4, #9 Wisconsin 0
#5 Indiana 4, #12 Purdue 2
#10 Nebraska 4, #7 Michigan State 3
#11 Michigan 4, #6 Penn State 2
Thursday Schedule
#8 Iowa 4, #9 Wisconsin 0
#5 Indiana 4, #12 Purdue 2
#10 Nebraska 4, #7 Michigan State 3
#11 Michigan 4, #6 Penn State 2
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Pac 12 Tournament
Pac-12 Conference (Ojai, CA) April 22-26 - UCLA is defending champion. Participants include USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona
Wednesday Schedule
#5 Oregon 4, #8 Arizona 1
#6 Washington 4, #7 Utah 0
Thursday Schedule
#4 California 4, #5 Oregon 3
#3 UCLA 4, #6 Washington 0
Wednesday Schedule
#5 Oregon 4, #8 Arizona 1
#6 Washington 4, #7 Utah 0
Thursday Schedule
#4 California 4, #5 Oregon 3
#3 UCLA 4, #6 Washington 0
Saturday Recap: Oklahoma & Baylor Win Thrillers, Blow Out City in ACC & B1G, USC Holds On, Mountain West Surprises, Buffalo Dancing
What a day of tennis in Waco - 2 semifinal matches played simultaneously on adjacent courts with both coming down to a 3rd set tiebreak to decide it and they both finished within seconds of each other.
It's too bad those FoxSports cameras weren't in operation today because it was rough trying to watch the conclusion of the Baylor/TCU match due to the streaming video being reduced to freeze-frame video. As a side note, for those that were wondering, it was confirmed today by Baylor that PlaySight will be installing new HD cameras with sound in time for the NCAAs so the viewing public won't have to be subjected to any more of the current setup. Click on this link for a preview of the kind of clarity that you'll see - choose Indian Wells during daylight hours. PlaySight operated the streaming for Virginia Tech and did the streaming for the National Indoors at the MidTown Athletic Club in Chicago and at Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Collegiate Cup.
Saturday Preview: Conference Semifinal Saturday + Pac 12 Championship
It's go time for the ACC, Big 10, and Big 12 with each conference down to the semifinals of their conference tournaments plus the Pac 12 has reached its Championship match.
ACC:
#5 [1] Virginia vs. #16 [4] North Carolina - 10am est - Virginia won both the regular season meetings with the Wahoos beating UNC 6-1 in Charlottesville and blanking them 4-0 at the National Indoors in Chicago. Neither match was particularly close though the match at UVA was the better of the two with UNC taking 3 sets and losing several 7-5.
ACC:
#5 [1] Virginia vs. #16 [4] North Carolina - 10am est - Virginia won both the regular season meetings with the Wahoos beating UNC 6-1 in Charlottesville and blanking them 4-0 at the National Indoors in Chicago. Neither match was particularly close though the match at UVA was the better of the two with UNC taking 3 sets and losing several 7-5.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday Recap: Georgia Tech Does It Again, UNC Rallies Past Duke, Big 12, Pac 12, & More
Another action packed day of college tennis is in the books and it was the ACC giving us the 2 best matches of the day as Georgia Tech and North Carolina both pulled out 4-3 thrillers.
I'm big fan of the schools that take the time to put an audio or video interview out on twitter shortly after the match finished. TCU has done a great job all year getting a 30-second interview with David Roditi out on twitter and the last few days Georgia Tech has done the same with Kenny Thorne. It's always better to hear the comments from someone as opposed to reading them. I'm also a fan of school's posting video clips of match points - just gives you a feeling that you're there and lets you see the emotion from the players after a big win.
ACC:
In one of the early matches Georgia Tech came out of the gates like a bull seeing red. GT took the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 and then took the opening set on 4 of 6 singles courts. GT's Eduardo Segura finished first with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jai Corbett at #6 but VT's Joao Monteiro would trim the GT lead to 2-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nathan Rakitt at #3. Christopher Eubanks would make it 3-1 GT with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Andreas Bjerrehus at #1.
I'm big fan of the schools that take the time to put an audio or video interview out on twitter shortly after the match finished. TCU has done a great job all year getting a 30-second interview with David Roditi out on twitter and the last few days Georgia Tech has done the same with Kenny Thorne. It's always better to hear the comments from someone as opposed to reading them. I'm also a fan of school's posting video clips of match points - just gives you a feeling that you're there and lets you see the emotion from the players after a big win.
ACC:
In one of the early matches Georgia Tech came out of the gates like a bull seeing red. GT took the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 and then took the opening set on 4 of 6 singles courts. GT's Eduardo Segura finished first with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jai Corbett at #6 but VT's Joao Monteiro would trim the GT lead to 2-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nathan Rakitt at #3. Christopher Eubanks would make it 3-1 GT with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Andreas Bjerrehus at #1.
Friday Preview: Conference Tournament Quarterfinals
Most of the conference tournaments have reached the quarterfinals so its time for the rubber to hit the road as the higher seeds start to face a little heat. Below I'll take a look at the matches in the ACC, Big 12, Pac 12, and Big 10. I'm not seeing any upsets in these 4 conferences although the match between Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech could be very, very close.
The Mountain West Network has wall-to-wall coverage of every match on both the men's and women's side and I must say that I've been very impressed with the production they've put out so far. If you haven't checked it out yet make sure you do sometime today, tomorrow, or Sunday. The announcers are knowledgeable and easy to listen to, they have decent graphics, they keep shuffling between courts, and the picture quality is very good. I've not seen anything else better this year and that includes what I've seen on the Pac 12 Network, Fox Sports, and ESPN3. Several of the conferences have done a nice job at least getting the Championship match on TV this year however no other conference have broadcast every match like the MW is doing. 2 thumbs up MW - nice work!!
Now to the conference previews:
#9 [5] Duke (22-5) vs. #16 [4] North Carolina (20-9) - 12pm est - These teams met just 2 weeks ago with North Carolina pulling off the mild upset 5-2. Both teams look like they'll have the same singles lineup though Josh Levine will likely play at #6 for Duke instead of TJ Pura who lost 6-0, 6-1 in the last meeting. Duke definitely didn't enter the ACC Tourney with much momentum after getting stunned by Georgia Tech 4-3 last Sunday. Duke's #1 Nicolas Alvarez didn't play on Thursday against Miami and it's possible he won't play in this one due to an injury. The Mountain West Network has wall-to-wall coverage of every match on both the men's and women's side and I must say that I've been very impressed with the production they've put out so far. If you haven't checked it out yet make sure you do sometime today, tomorrow, or Sunday. The announcers are knowledgeable and easy to listen to, they have decent graphics, they keep shuffling between courts, and the picture quality is very good. I've not seen anything else better this year and that includes what I've seen on the Pac 12 Network, Fox Sports, and ESPN3. Several of the conferences have done a nice job at least getting the Championship match on TV this year however no other conference have broadcast every match like the MW is doing. 2 thumbs up MW - nice work!!
Now to the conference previews:
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Thursday Action: Early Upsets in the ACC & Mountain West & Late Drama in the Pac 12 and B1G
It was a day of close matches as we saw several lower seeds pull off upsets. In the ACC, #75 Clemson beat #32 Louisville 4-3 and #55 Georgia Tech hammered #35 Notre Dame 4-0. In the Mountain West unranked Nevada sent #67 Utah State packing win a 4-2 win and Boise State did the same to #69 Fresno State by knocking them off 4-0. In the Big Ten, Michigan beat #48 Penn State 4-2 and Nebraska came from behind to beat Michigan State 4-3. In the Pac 12, #50 Oregon looked like it was going to upset #25 Cal but the Bears rallied to win 4-3. Read about each match below.
Clemson lost the regular season meeting against Louisville at home by a 5-2 score though none of the singles matches were repeats this time around. Louisville won the doubles point last time with Clemson taking it this time. Clemson got wins from Alejandro Augusto, Luke Johnson, and Hampton Drake with the freshman from Hilton Head providing the clincher at #6 singles by taking the 3rd set 6-0. Below are some interviews from Clemson's youtube:
Clemson lost the regular season meeting against Louisville at home by a 5-2 score though none of the singles matches were repeats this time around. Louisville won the doubles point last time with Clemson taking it this time. Clemson got wins from Alejandro Augusto, Luke Johnson, and Hampton Drake with the freshman from Hilton Head providing the clincher at #6 singles by taking the 3rd set 6-0. Below are some interviews from Clemson's youtube:
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Winthrop Is Dancing & A Look Ahead Towards The Weekend
Winthrop won the Big South Championship for the 2nd year in a row with each of those Championship matches coming against Campbell and both finishing with a 4-2 final score. All 3 doubles courts went to a tiebreak with Winthrop pulling through at 1 and 2. 5 of 6 singles courts went 3 sets with Winthrop's #1 Tremayne Mitchell and #2 Dylan Comerford pulling away late and it was freshman Ruben Franzanti providing the clincher at #5 by winning a 3rd set tiebreak 7-1 over Jonathan O'Neal. Campbell got a straight set win from Marthinus Visser at #6 and a 3-set win from Nicolas Rakitin at #3 in a losing effort.
BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS! Men's Tennis captures second straight conference crown. #ProtectTheNest pic.twitter.com/o3ZHGPuOAe
— Winthrop Athletics (@WUEagles) April 21, 2015
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
4/21 ITA Rankings Have Been Released - Top 10 Breakdown (All Rankings On Same Page)
Oklahoma stays at #1 in the ITA Men's rankings for the 8th week in a row and for the 9th time in the last 10 weeks.
The top 2 (UNC/USC) stays the same in the women's rankings but Cal moves up from 4 to 3, Vanderbilt moves up from 9 to 4, and Florida falls from 3 to 5. .
Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 9 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins. You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 9 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week. I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.
The top 2 (UNC/USC) stays the same in the women's rankings but Cal moves up from 4 to 3, Vanderbilt moves up from 9 to 4, and Florida falls from 3 to 5. .
Below I'll breakdown the Top 10 on the men's side looking at the 9 best wins that were used in the rankings this week along with other quality ranked wins. You'll notice some of the quality wins are ranked higher than a top 9 win and that is because I used the new ranking so that you can see what changes will be made next week. I also listed the point totals gained from the best wins and losses to come up with the computer score.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Sun Shining On Florida Gulf Coast + A Look Back At A Few More From Sunday
Florida Gulf Coast was the big winner today as the Eagles earned its first ever NCAA berth by defeating North Florida 4-3 in the finals of the Atlantic Sun. The teams met in the regular season 2 weeks ago with FGCU winning 7-0 but FGCU figured it wouldn't be as easy this time around despite UNF playing without its injured #1 Jack Findel-Hawkins (13.32). The match, held in Jacksonville at UNF, started on Sunday but before the rain came UNF captured the doubles point by winning a pair of tiebreaks at 2 and 3. Usually when you have the top 2 seeds playing for a conference championship you expect several 3-setters but all 6 singles matches finished in straight sets with no set closer than 6-4.
4/21 ITA Rankings Preview
The top 2 stays the same though Baylor narrowed the gap from 10 points to 7 points after picking up wins over Texas and Texas Tech last week. Texas A&M surged up from 6 to 3 by adding 3 top 25 wins after beating LSU, Mississippi State, and Georgia in route to the SEC Championship. Illinois drops 1 spot from 3 to 4 after getting stunned by Minnesota - had the Illini not lost they would have been #3 with 70.44 points. Virginia drops 1 spot from 4 to 5 though they'll have a chance to add some top 15 wins next week in the ACC Tournament.
This week's rankings use each team's top 9 best wins and they will be the last set of published rankings before the NCAA Tournament field is announced on April 28th. The rankings will be run next week by the ITA but they just won't be published until May 1st - I guess this is done so everyone won't know if they deviated from the rankings when doing the seeding. I'll do my best to run them next week but it's the toughest of the year because they actually get run twice - once like normal using the 4/21 rankings as a base - then after finishing those they re-run them using the new rankings as a base. I should be able to narrow down the Top 20 with pretty good accuracy because most of their wins are over top 30-40 teams.
This week's rankings use each team's top 9 best wins and they will be the last set of published rankings before the NCAA Tournament field is announced on April 28th. The rankings will be run next week by the ITA but they just won't be published until May 1st - I guess this is done so everyone won't know if they deviated from the rankings when doing the seeding. I'll do my best to run them next week but it's the toughest of the year because they actually get run twice - once like normal using the 4/21 rankings as a base - then after finishing those they re-run them using the new rankings as a base. I should be able to narrow down the Top 20 with pretty good accuracy because most of their wins are over top 30-40 teams.
Minnesota was the big winner last week moving up 10 spots from 33 to 23 after picking up wins over then #3 Illinois and #27 Northwestern with both matches decided by a 3rd set tiebreak.
Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Weathers The Storm & Drake Rises Out Of The Valley
Championship Sunday (Part 1) lived up to the advance billing with the SEC and Missouri Valley delivering heart pounding thrillers.
When #1 and #2 play you expect to see a great match and that's what Georgia and Texas A&M delivered on Sunday afternoon in College Station. Texas A&M got off to a fast start in doubles by going up early breaks at 2 and 3 and once A&M had the lead on those courts they would not relinquish it the rest of the way. The A&M #3 duo of AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech finished first winning 6-3 then just as Georgia's #1 team of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland were 6-3 winners A&M's #2 team of Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo would clinch the point with a 6-3 win themselves.
Texas A&M carried the momentum from doubles over to singles as they jumped out to early break leads at #1, #5 and #6 singles while Georgia got the early break lead at #4. Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti would take the first set at #5 and Shane Vinsant and "Artillery" Arthur Rinderknech would get late breaks to take the opening set 6-4 at #2 and #3. Georgia's Ben Wagland cruised to a 6-2 opening set at #4 and both Austin Smith and Paul Oosterbaan would come back from a break down to claim the opening sets at #1 and #6. Smith was down 4-2 before rallying to win the set 7-6(5) while Oosterbaan came back from 5-2 down to take the set 7-5.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
2015 SEC Tournament Central
The SEC Tournament which will be held in College Station, Texas starts on Wednesday, April 15th and runs through Sunday, April 19th. The Championship match will be shown on ESPN3.
The lineups listed below are the official submitted lineups by each time with the only changes coming from injuries.
The lineups listed below are the official submitted lineups by each time with the only changes coming from injuries.
Sunday Preview: SEC Championship + Daily Schedule
It all comes down to today in the SEC with the regular season co-champs meeting in the finals of the conference tournament. Texas A&M has the big advantage of playing at home but Georgia has already beat A&M once this year though that was in Athens. The winner will move up to #3 in the rankings next week in addition to having the title of SEC Tournament Champions. It ought to be a good one so let's take a look at the numbers.
#1 Georgia (21-3) at #2 Texas A&M (20-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring & ESPN3 & Georgia Blog - Georgia won the regular season meeting in Athens 4-1 (box score below) but only 1 of the singles matches will be a repeat. Texas A&M will definitely have the crowd behind it since the tournament is in College Station but whether that'll be enough to push Texas A&M to the top won't be known until later today.
#1 Georgia (21-3) at #2 Texas A&M (20-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring & ESPN3 & Georgia Blog - Georgia won the regular season meeting in Athens 4-1 (box score below) but only 1 of the singles matches will be a repeat. Texas A&M will definitely have the crowd behind it since the tournament is in College Station but whether that'll be enough to push Texas A&M to the top won't be known until later today.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Saturday Recap: TCU Plows Over Texas, UGA/aTm Win In SEC Semis, Cal Wins The Big Slam + Conference Tournaments
Saturday was another great day of college tennis action with more than 2000 fans filling the stands in Fort Worth for the TCU/Texas match. TCU hadn't beaten Texas since 1996 but that slump came to an end as TCU got it done 4-1.
TCU started off by taking the doubles point with a 6-1 win at #2 (Trevor Johnson & Cameron Norrie) and 7-6(4) win at #3 (Guillermo Nuñez & Hudson Blake) . It looked like TCU would take the point a bit easier but Texas's #1 team of Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool came back from 5-3 down to win 7-6(5) which made the match at #3 the decider.
TCU kept the momentum flowing in singles by taking 4 opening sets and they'd get the 3 singles victories they needed with all 3 coming in straight sets. Cameron Norrie was off first with a 6-4, 6-0 win at #3 then Arnau Dachs rolled Clement Homs 6-1, 6-3 at #5. Texas's Soren Hess-Olesen would win at #1 singles 6-3, 6-4 to pull Texas to within 3-1 but a short while later TCU senior Will Stein would clinch the historic win with a 6-4, 7-6(8) at #6 singles over Nick Naumann.
TCU started off by taking the doubles point with a 6-1 win at #2 (Trevor Johnson & Cameron Norrie) and 7-6(4) win at #3 (Guillermo Nuñez & Hudson Blake) . It looked like TCU would take the point a bit easier but Texas's #1 team of Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool came back from 5-3 down to win 7-6(5) which made the match at #3 the decider.
TCU kept the momentum flowing in singles by taking 4 opening sets and they'd get the 3 singles victories they needed with all 3 coming in straight sets. Cameron Norrie was off first with a 6-4, 6-0 win at #3 then Arnau Dachs rolled Clement Homs 6-1, 6-3 at #5. Texas's Soren Hess-Olesen would win at #1 singles 6-3, 6-4 to pull Texas to within 3-1 but a short while later TCU senior Will Stein would clinch the historic win with a 6-4, 7-6(8) at #6 singles over Nick Naumann.
Saturday Preview: SEC Semis + 2 Big Ones In the Big 12
Texas is the place to be today with 4 matches taking place between Top 20 teams. It is semifinal Saturday at the SEC Tournament in College Station with the top 4 seeds set to meet up. There's been a threat of rain each of the last 2 days which has forced matches to be moved up but as of now it looks like the rain should stay away until later in the day.
In Fort Worth, #7 TCU will host #10 Texas and over in Lubbock #16 Texas Tech will try to make it 2 huge upsets in the last week as they host #2 Baylor.
#2 Texas A&M (19-4) vs. #3 Mississippi State (19-6) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - Texas A&M won the regular season meeting 4-1 in Starkville (box score below) but it was a match that came down to the wire with Mississippi State in a winning position on the 2 courts that didn't finish. State gutted one out yesterday against Florida while Texas A&M rolled over LSU so the Aggies probably have some fresher legs.
In Fort Worth, #7 TCU will host #10 Texas and over in Lubbock #16 Texas Tech will try to make it 2 huge upsets in the last week as they host #2 Baylor.
#2 Texas A&M (19-4) vs. #3 Mississippi State (19-6) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - Texas A&M won the regular season meeting 4-1 in Starkville (box score below) but it was a match that came down to the wire with Mississippi State in a winning position on the 2 courts that didn't finish. State gutted one out yesterday against Florida while Texas A&M rolled over LSU so the Aggies probably have some fresher legs.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday Recap: Gophers Shock Illini & SEC Tournament Follows Form
Just when you thought it was safe to go outside at night the Minnesota Golden Gophers jumped out from behind the tree and yelled boo and shocked #3 Illinois 4-3.
Minnesota took the doubles point for the 20th time in 24 matches by getting wins at #1 (Jack Hamburg/Mathieu Froment) and #2 (Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo) with the win at #2 coming in the tiebreak. Illinois had won the doubles point in the previous 6 matches but is now just 15-10 on the year in doubles.
Despite falling behind, many people including myself thought Illinois would turn it on in singles and still get it done but Minnesota said not tonight.
The biggest singles upset came in the first match to finish as Minnesota's Jack Hamburg snapped #57 Aleks Vukic's 14-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles. Vukic hadn't dropped a set since March 15th. For those that like tracking the UTRs of each player you'll notice that there was a difference of more than 1.00 which means this is definitely an upset.
Minnesota took the doubles point for the 20th time in 24 matches by getting wins at #1 (Jack Hamburg/Mathieu Froment) and #2 (Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo) with the win at #2 coming in the tiebreak. Illinois had won the doubles point in the previous 6 matches but is now just 15-10 on the year in doubles.
Despite falling behind, many people including myself thought Illinois would turn it on in singles and still get it done but Minnesota said not tonight.
The biggest singles upset came in the first match to finish as Minnesota's Jack Hamburg snapped #57 Aleks Vukic's 14-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles. Vukic hadn't dropped a set since March 15th. For those that like tracking the UTRs of each player you'll notice that there was a difference of more than 1.00 which means this is definitely an upset.
Friday Preview - Conference Tournaments Heating Up
12 conference tournaments are in progress on the men's side with the quarterfinals taking place today in many of them.
If you haven't checked it out yet take a look at my Conference Tournament Central page which has details on all the conference tournaments plus live scoring links (if available). The tab is at the top of my blog as well.
I also have a page just for the SEC Tournament which shows all the results, schedules, universal tennis ratings of the players, and the results from the regular season meeting.
If you haven't checked it out yet take a look at my Conference Tournament Central page which has details on all the conference tournaments plus live scoring links (if available). The tab is at the top of my blog as well.
I also have a page just for the SEC Tournament which shows all the results, schedules, universal tennis ratings of the players, and the results from the regular season meeting.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
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.
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
USC/UCLA Preview
The last several years this has been the biggest match of the season but this year these LA neighbors have taken a back seat to the big time tennis that's been taking place in the state of Texas. USC and UCLA have an uncharacteristic 11 losses between them and both struggled last week in Northern California against Stanford and Cal.
Usually when these two play at the end of the season the #1 seed in the Pac 12 Tournament is at stake however Stanford has already locked that up so the winner of this takes the #2 seed and the loser falls to #3.
The Pac 12 Network will televise the singles portion starting at 6pm eastern/3pm pacific so tune in to hear the call from Paul Sunderland and Justin Gimlestob.
#9 USC (19-4) at #19 UCLA (14-7) - 5pm est/2pm pst - Live Scoring - Pac 12 Network - In this first meeting back on March 14th, USC took the doubles point and then cleaned up at the bottom 3 and if USC wants to win today they may have to do the same thing again. USC has struggled in doubles this year going just 14-9 and the Trojans have dropped the point the last 2 times out. UCLA has played better in doubles going 15-6 and has won the point in 5 of the last 6 matches.
Usually when these two play at the end of the season the #1 seed in the Pac 12 Tournament is at stake however Stanford has already locked that up so the winner of this takes the #2 seed and the loser falls to #3.
The Pac 12 Network will televise the singles portion starting at 6pm eastern/3pm pacific so tune in to hear the call from Paul Sunderland and Justin Gimlestob.
#9 USC (19-4) at #19 UCLA (14-7) - 5pm est/2pm pst - Live Scoring - Pac 12 Network - In this first meeting back on March 14th, USC took the doubles point and then cleaned up at the bottom 3 and if USC wants to win today they may have to do the same thing again. USC has struggled in doubles this year going just 14-9 and the Trojans have dropped the point the last 2 times out. UCLA has played better in doubles going 15-6 and has won the point in 5 of the last 6 matches.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Baylor Eases Past Texas 4-1 + What's Coming Up
What was expected to be a pretty close match turned into a fairly routine victory for #2 Baylor as they pushed past #10 Texas 4-1.
Baylor started things off by taking the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 despite having Tony Lupieri and Max Tchoutakian playing together for the first time at #3. Lupieri's normal doubles partner Mate Zsiga did not play doubles but did play singles. Baylor's Diego Galeano was also serving for the match at #1 doubles when the point was clinched.
Packed house at Caswell Tennis Center pic.twitter.com/4BNR8zOssW
— Texas Tennis (@TexasMTN) April 15, 2015
Baylor started things off by taking the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 despite having Tony Lupieri and Max Tchoutakian playing together for the first time at #3. Lupieri's normal doubles partner Mate Zsiga did not play doubles but did play singles. Baylor's Diego Galeano was also serving for the match at #1 doubles when the point was clinched.
Wednesday Preview: Baylor/Texas
Another big match tonight in the Big 12 though technically they're all big matches since all 6 teams are ranked inside the top 30. I think the doubles point will play a big role in deciding the winner because I'm looking for many of the Texas seniors to rise to the occasion tonight on Senior Day.
Baylor is running its blog for the match, even though it's in Austin, so make sure you log on and contribute your comments to Kim Gorum. The BU blog always gives you some inside information that you wouldn't find elsewhere so make sure follow from start to finish. Kim told us about the 2 overrules on the 2 match points in the Tchoutakian/Webb match and in the Oklahoma State match he mentioned that there's a good chance that Baylor will be getting new a new streaming video system through Playsight in time for the NCAAs since the current cameras don't have the best clarity and seem to freeze up too frequently. He said the deal with Playsight isn't a done deal yet but there's been talks between the two. Let's keep our fingers crossed so we can watch the NCAAs with the same clarity that we've seen at Virginia Tech, the National Indoors, and the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge.
#2 Baylor (18-4) at #10 Texas (18-3) - 6pm est/5pm cst - Live Scoring & Baylor Blog - This will be the final home match for 4 of Texas's starters with Soren Hess-Olesen, Lloyd Glasspool, Adrien Berkowicz, and Clement Homs all set to depart after this year. Texas definitely leads the overall series (79-20-1 according to UT & 40-19 according to BU) but Baylor has been the dominant team recently winning 4 straight in the series and 16 of the last 19. This will only be Baylor's 4th road match this year and first road match played outdoors. Temperature at match time should be right around 80 with close to 50% humidity.
Baylor is running its blog for the match, even though it's in Austin, so make sure you log on and contribute your comments to Kim Gorum. The BU blog always gives you some inside information that you wouldn't find elsewhere so make sure follow from start to finish. Kim told us about the 2 overrules on the 2 match points in the Tchoutakian/Webb match and in the Oklahoma State match he mentioned that there's a good chance that Baylor will be getting new a new streaming video system through Playsight in time for the NCAAs since the current cameras don't have the best clarity and seem to freeze up too frequently. He said the deal with Playsight isn't a done deal yet but there's been talks between the two. Let's keep our fingers crossed so we can watch the NCAAs with the same clarity that we've seen at Virginia Tech, the National Indoors, and the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge.
#2 Baylor (18-4) at #10 Texas (18-3) - 6pm est/5pm cst - Live Scoring & Baylor Blog - This will be the final home match for 4 of Texas's starters with Soren Hess-Olesen, Lloyd Glasspool, Adrien Berkowicz, and Clement Homs all set to depart after this year. Texas definitely leads the overall series (79-20-1 according to UT & 40-19 according to BU) but Baylor has been the dominant team recently winning 4 straight in the series and 16 of the last 19. This will only be Baylor's 4th road match this year and first road match played outdoors. Temperature at match time should be right around 80 with close to 50% humidity.