2016 Season Preview - Cal Bears

When you think of ideal places to play college tennis the University of California in Berkeley has to be pretty high up on the list due to its strong academics, scenic views, and year-round mild climate. Cal has a recently renovated tennis facility, a tenured head coach, and is in one of the most fertile states for tennis but success in terms of conference and national titles has eluded them for years. The Bears have played second, third, and fourth fiddle to its in-state Pac-12 neighbors Stanford, USC, and UCLA for quite some time with Cal's last conference title coming all the way back in 1953 when the conference was known as the Pacific Coast Conference. Cal is 6-29 against the Big 3 since 2010 and the last time it beat all 3 in the same season was all the way back in 2005.

Despite its struggles against the heavy hitters this could be the season that Cal makes its mark because it'll be starting 5 ranked singles players which is something that has probably never happened before.

2016 Season Preview - Wake Forest Demon Deacons

When you're in the same conference as Virginia you know it's going to be an uphill battle to win a conference championship but Wake Forest has come as close to beating the 9-time defending champs as just about anyone else in the last few years. Wake has played for the conference championship in 2 of the last 3 seasons and one of the main reasons is because of its head coach Tony Bresky. The 1998 Western Illinois graduate was part of Brian Boland's staff during the years when the program went from an also-ran to a perennial powerhouse. Bresky learned how to recruit and put a team together and when he left Virginia after the 2010 season to take over as head coach at Cornell he immediately took the Big Red to new heights. In his one season at Cornell he led them to their first-ever Ivy League Championship, first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, and won 26 matches which blew away the schools previous best win mark of 20.

Bresky took over at Wake Forest in the fall of 2011 and with a fairly inexperienced roster he went 14-15 in his debut season but he turned things around in year two. Bresky guided the Deacs to a 20-9 record in the 2012-13 season, which was only the third time Wake had ever won 20 matches, and was named ACC Coach of the Year. Bresky had to replace his top 3 for the 2013-14 season and his young roster fought hard but they lost 8 matches that finished with a 4-3 score and ended up going 15-14 on the season.

What's Coming Up This Week

The dual-match doors have been unlocked and they are open for business - there will be 17 dual-matches this week between ranked teams plus I wouldn't be surprised to see an unranked team upset a ranked opponent.

The most intriguing matches in my opinion are #12 Texas at #62 Washington, #21 Cal at #29 Tulsa, Kentucky at #13 Duke, and #16 Virginia Tech at #65 Alabama. I'll be interested to see what lineups Texas puts out on Tuesday against some lighter foes in preparation for its trip to Seattle to face both UC Santa Barbara and Washington. Even though Kentucky is unranked I'd make their match against #13 Duke a toss-up. Duke has a lot of new faces that will be called upon to start in this one and Kentucky is coming off a strong showing against LSU, Memphis, and Florida Gulf Coast.

Alabama bulked up its roster in the off-season bringing in Mazen Osama (Fr), Grayson Goldin (FSU transfer), Matthew Rossouw (Tyler JUCO transfer), and Spencer Richey (Fr) so I think they'll be much improved this season. Virginia Tech better bring its A-game or it'll be a long trip back to Blacksburg. 

Also make sure you keep an eye on the Sherwood Cup and MLK Invitational. Oklahoma, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech will lock horns using a hidden-dual format while USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Baylor will be sending their best to Thousand Oaks for the Sherwood Cup.

Sunday Recap: Kentucky Finishes Strong, Sarkissian Wins Again, Futures Action Continues in CA & FL

The final day of the FGCU Invitational was cut short a little with LSU and Memphis leaving after doubles due to a 6-hour rain delay. Kentucky waited out the delay and played singles with the host Florida Gulf Coast with Kentucky winning 4 of 6 matches. Kentucky ended up the big winner during the 3-day tournament winning 15 of 21 singles matches and 6 of 10 doubles matches. Kentucky's Jake Stefanik, Gus Benson, and Kevin Lai each went 3-0 in singles while Ryotaro Matsamura went 2-0. Memphis's Ryan Peniston, Andrew Watson, Kai Lemke each went 2-0 as did LSU's Gabor Csonka.

Sunday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 4-2/2-0
Memphis 0-0/2-1
LSU 0-0/1-2
FGCU 2-4/1-2

Kentucky & Memphis Dominate, Sarkissian Qualifies In Sydney, Huskies Sweep Seattle

Kentucky and Memphis were the big winners on Day 2 of the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational. Kentucky went 9-2 overall including 6-1 in singles with freshman Ryotaro Matsamura rolling for a second day in both singles and doubles. Memphis's Ryan Peniston knocked off  LSU's #78 Justin Butch in 2 close sets and Memphis freshman Chris Patzanovsky picked up a win over LSU's Tam Trinh. Sunday wraps up the tournament with each starting dual-match play in the coming weeks. Below the scores are quotes from 3 of the 4 coaches.

Saturday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 6-1/3-1
Memphis 5-2/2-1
LSU 2-5/1-2
FGCU 1-6/1-3

LSU Shines in Florida, BYU Wins Opener, Vukic/Norrie/Sarkissian Win Down Under, Futures Action

LSU's guys were the top performers in Day 1 of the FGCU Invitational as they went 5-2 in singles and 2-1 in doubles. Kentucky had 2 freshmen make their debuts as Ryotaro Matsumura (14.08) won in straight sets over Memphis's Felix Rauch (12.63) while Enzo Wallart (13.17) lost a tough 3-setter to Memphis's Kai Lemke (13.38).

Friday Results Singles/Doubles
LSU 5-2/2-1
Kentucky 5-3/1-3
Memphis 3-4/2-1
FGCU 2-6/2-2

2016 Season Preview - Illinois Fighting Illini

Despite its early exit in Waco I'd still consider last season a success for Illinois because after years of playing second fiddle to Ohio State the Illini beat the Buckeyes not once, not twice, but three times. Illinois won its second Big Ten Tournament Championship in the last four years and won its first regular season Big Ten Championship since 2005 though they did have to share it with Ohio State and Minnesota. The first and third wins over Ohio State came in tournament play but the second win snapped the Buckeyes 97-match Big Ten regular season winning streak which dated back to 2005.

Brad Dancer enters his 11th season as head coach of the Illini and currently sits in second on the all-time wins list with 215 wins which is only 59 behind Craig Tiley's 274 (12 seasons).

Dancer returns half of his starting 6 from last year's team but he lost some solid contributors with Farris Gosea, Tim Kopinski, Ross Guignon, and Blake Bazarnik all departing. Those 4 accounted for 38% of the Illini's dual-match singles wins and were part of 53% of Illinois's doubles wins.

Last Few Invitationals, Dual-Season Starting, Pro Action Heats Up In LA

The dual-match season gets underway in a few places this weekend while there are still a few more weeks of individual play at other schools.

BYU opens its season tonight at 5:30pm MST against Southern Utah and Washington opens up on Saturday with a doubleheader against Seattle. Washington will have live scoring and streaming video available at this link.

Florida Gulf Coast hosts the FGCU Invitational with players coming from #30 LSU, #45 Memphis, and Kentucky.

Central Florida hosts the UCF Spring Invitational with players coming from Florida A&M and The Citadel.

ITA Releases First Rankings of 2016

Earlier today the ITA released its first team and individual rankings of the 2016 season. The individual rankings are based off the computer so therefore they had several big shakeups from the initial rankings which were based solely off last season's rankings with the seniors removed.

I did my own Top 20 and took into account roster additions and subtractions from last season while the first 6 team rankings are done by the ITA's National Ranking Committee with each voter probably knowledgeable on their region but not much outside it. I highlighted all the teams below that moved at least 4 spots from the final rankings of last season and put them in green if they went up and yellow if they went down.

My Preseason Men's Top 20

The ITA's first team rankings of the season should be out shortly so here is my top 20 along with a few questions for each team. I'm thinking that both Oklahoma and Baylor will have some January roster additions and Wake Forest should have their guys added in a few days. It seems like there are more teams counting on freshman this year than I can remember in the past. I can't see anyway that Virginia isn't the preseason #1 because they've got it all. Here is my top 20 - if you've done one yourself add yours to the comment section below - I'm sure we'll all have many differences and opinions.

1. Virginia - how well will they do without Mitchell Frank?
2. Oklahoma - top 5 is strong but who is going to play #6 - waiting to see January admits?
3. TCU - how well do Alex Rybakov and Eduardo Nava adjust to the college game?
4. Ohio State - can Herkko Pollanen play in the spring like he did the fall and can Martin Joyce hold his own?
5. Georgia - can Paul Oosterbaan be a force at 3 or 4 and how does Walker Duncan perform?

2016 Season Preview - South Florida Bulls

2015 was a historic season for South Florida with the Tampa-based Bulls making its first ever appearance in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. USF started playing tennis in 1966 (school founded in 1956) and prior to last season they had made the NCAAs 10 times (not bad) but had only managed to get past the first round on 5 occasions. Head coach Matt Hill was able to get his 2014 team into the second round (beat Florida State 4-2) but after dropping a tough doubles point to Florida, and then enduring a 3-hour rain delay, the Gators were just too strong in singles and shut them out 4-0.

The experience of making it to the second round had to give the team a belief that they belonged with the big boys but after winning its first 3 matches in 2015 the Bulls dropped 4 of its next 5.  The toughest loss of the 4 came when Penn State beat them 4-1 which denied them a shot at qualifying for the National Team Indoors for the first time in school history.  Instead of packing it in the team rallied and won 9 straight before losing a 4-3 heartbreaker at Tulsa. The Bulls would avenge that loss to Tulsa in the finals of The American Conference Tournament and rise to #18 but they'd just miss out on hosting a NCAA regional. South Florida traveled to Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech regional and after shutting out Boise State in the first round they'd surprisingly do the same to the host Hokies in the second round. South Florida drew Baylor in the Sweet Sixteen and stood toe to toe with the hosts before falling 4-1 (more on this match at the very bottom of this post).

SEC To Stream Again

When I was in Naples at the ITA Coaches Convention I heard someone mention that the SEC schools would be able to stream matches again this year after not being able to last year due to ESPN/SEC Network holding the streaming rights. I reached out to Tammy Wilson, the SEC's Director of Communications, and she told me that the SEC schools can stream tennis this year as long as the following guidelines are met.   

* Production must involve a multi-channel, multi-court offering for the viewer

* Distribution must take place via the institution's official athletic department website

* Any single-feed production will remain the property of SECN and be distributed via SECN+

* ESPN shall have the nonexclusive right to distribute highlights of any tennis event programs produced by SEC member institutions on any SEC-ESPN Platforms (or any other media)

* ESPN shall retain the nonexclusive right to produce and distribute any SEC tennis events (regardless of whether the SEC member institution is also producing their own program) for Distribution on any SEC-ESPN Platforms (or any other media)  

2016 Season Preview - North Carolina Tar Heels

North Carolina has a lot of tradition (been playing tennis since 1908) but prior to last season it had never made the NCAA quarterfinals in consecutive years. Sam Paul had to feel confident going into the 2015 season, due to having an experienced starting 6, but as the season rocked on the injury bug took turns biting his starters and some of his reserves. Throughout the course of the season Brayden Schnur (knee-7), Ronnie Schneider (shoulder-3), Esben Hess-Olesen (back-21), and Oystein Steiro (foot-11) would miss a combined 51 starts which meant Paul constantly had to shuffle both his singles and doubles lineups. Despite all the changes the Tar Heels still managed to win 24 matches including an upset of #4 Illinois in the Sweet Sixteen before losing a tough 4-1 match to TCU in the Elite 8.

Sam Paul is back for his 23rd season as head coach of the Tar Heels and with his top 5 singles starters returning (all ranked) he's probably hoping for a little smoother ride this year. Esben Hess-Olesen and Oystein Steiro both graduated so Paul will have to replace those 16 dual-match singles wins and his top 2 choices to do so are both freshmen. Anu Kodali, who was a Top 15 Blue Chip, picked up his first career ranked win when he beat NC State's #71 Simon Norenius at the Duke Bonk Invitational while Bo Boyden, a Top 25 5-star, posted a 4-4 singles record this fall. I'd say Kodali definitely has the inside track to the #6 spot with Boyden likely the first off the bench at #7.

2016 Season Preview - Texas A&M Aggies

When Texas A&M made the transition from the Big 12 to the SEC in the summer of 2012 they were coming off their first losing season since 1997 and it had been 10 years since the Aggies had won a conference or division title.  Fast forward to the summer of 2015 and in the past 3 years the Aggies have won a West Division title (2013), a Conference Tournament title (2014), and another Conference Tournament title with a share of the Regular Season title (2015) to boot. (Note: SEC discontinued divisions after the 2013 season and combined everyone into one group)

I don't know if it was the SEC branding or the incoming talent (latter) but the Aggies have quickly turned into a juggernaut in the SEC with no opposing team wanting to go to College Station on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.  Texas A&M is 32-3 at home over the last 2 years and a perfect 15-0 against the SEC with windy conditions and rowdy crowds the norm for incoming opposition.

Steve Denton's teams have made the NCAA tournament each of the past 9 years but they've yet to make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Round of 16 but I have to think Denton likes his chances this year.  Last year's run to the Elite 8 marked only the second time in school history that A&M had made it that deep with the first time coming back in 2001.

2016 Season Preview - Georgia Bulldogs

When you talk about the greatest college tennis programs in the land, Georgia is always going to be in the conversation.  Georgia boasts 6 NCAA National Titles (85, 87, 99, 01, 07, 08) with current head coach Manny Diaz, who is now in his 28th year as head coach of the Bulldogs, the architect of the last 4. The last time Tulsa hosted the NCAAs (2008) Georgia won it all so Manny Diaz is probably hoping that lighting strikes again this year.

Diaz returns 5 singles starters from last year's team which finished ranked #8 after falling to then #1 Oklahoma 4-2 in the NCAA quarterfinals. Georgia and Texas A&M shared the SEC regular season title after both went 11-1 (UGA won regular season match in Athens 4-1) however Texas A&M won the conference tournament when they beat Georgia 4-2 in the finals in a match that was held in College Station.

The one singles starter that Diaz has to replace is Nathan Pasha who went 16-5 last season in dual-match play including 14-3 at #3 singles. Pasha's frequent doubles partner Eric Diaz also graduated so there will be 2 openings in doubles. Pasha and Diaz struggled a bit last season going 4-9 at #2 doubles before Diaz had to take a month off to recover from an appendectomy. Diaz returned in time for the NCAAs and went 3-1 with Paul Oosterbaan at #3 doubles.

2016 Season Preview - Stanford Cardinal

Optimism is in the air on The Farm as year two of the Paul Goldstein era has many of the Cardinal faithful believing that a return to prominence is much closer than originally anticipated.
   
Stanford was the undisputed king of men's college tennis from 1977 to 2000 winning an astonishing 15 National Championships but since 2000 the Cardinal have only made it past the quarterfinals once (2003) and have only advanced to the Final 16 site 8 times. The last time Stanford made it to the Round of 16 was 2012 so the current 3-year drought is the program's longest since the dual-match format was instituted in 1977.

If you look at the TRN's recruiting rankings you'll notice that the Cardinal almost always has a top 5 recruiting class (#1 in 2014) but the player development was sliding towards the end of John Whitlinger's 10-year stint. The 3-man class of 2013 has only started 9 dual-matches in the past 2 years and only 2 of 4 guys from the class of 2012 were contributors last season.  

2016 Season Preview - UCLA Bruins

No team has been more consistent over the years than UCLA with the Bruins the only team to make the NCAA Round of 16 every year since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999. UCLA head coach Billy Martin enters his 23rd year at the helm with 1 National Title (2005) and 4 National Runner-Ups (96/99/04/13) in his previous 22 years.

Martin only loses 1 player from last year's Round of 16 team though that 1 guy was a valuable one with Dennis Mkrtchian going 15-5 in dual-match play with the majority of his matches coming at #2 singles.

UCLA returns everyone else with Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki expected to anchor the singles and doubles lineup. McDonald went 15-1 in dual-match play last year with all his matches coming at #1 while Redlicki went 17-3 with most of his matches coming at #2 and #3. The pair combined to go 12-5 at #1 doubles and they also performed well over the summer winning the Costa Mesa Futures and making the semifinals at the Claremont Futures. McDonald is the only current college player with an ATP ranking inside the top 600 and he's well inside it at 372.

2016 Season Preview - USC Trojans

During USC's stretch of dominance, which saw them win 4 National Titles in 5 years, one of the biggest things that contributed to USC's success (aside from Steve Johnson) was the lack of turnover among its starters. The last time USC had to replace more than 2 starters was all the back in 2008 (Van't Hof, Sacks, Piotrowski) but this season they have to replace 4 with Yannick Hanfmann, Roberto Quiroz, Eric Johnson, and Jonny Wang all moving on after 4 spectacular seasons.

Hanfmann, Quiroz, Johnson, and Wang accounted for 59% of USC's dual-match singles wins last season though the 2 returning starters, Max de Vroome (Sr) and Nick Crystal (Jr), each won 18 dual-matches which tied them for 2nd on the team.

Peter Smith welcomes back several quality depth players with a few of them likely to start this season. If healthy, I think that both Connor Farren (Jr) and Rob Bellamy (Jr) will be in the starting 6 with Thibault Forget (Guy Forget's son) and Tanner Smith (Peter Smith's son) just on the outside looking in.

2016 Season Preview - Ohio State Buckeyes

Many wouldn't consider a 27-9 season a disappointment but it is if you are accustomed to winning conference championships and making deep runs at the NCAAs. When Ohio State lost 4-3 to Texas A&M in the Round of 16 it marked the first time since 2005 that the Buckeyes hadn't at least made the NCAA Quarterfinals.  Ohio State had won the Big Ten conference tournament 8 of the previous 9 seasons but Illinois shut them out twice in Champaign last season with the second occurrence coming in the Big Ten finals.

Ohio State's strength last season was the bottom of the lineup with the 4 through 6 spots going 69-16 (.81) while the top half of the lineup was good 49-28 (.64) but came up short too many times against tougher competition. In Ohio State's 9 losses the top half of the lineup went just 6-18 (.25) including 0-3 in the season ending loss to Texas A&M.

Ohio State has to replace 2 starters, Hunter Callahan and Kevin Metka, that both excelled in singles and doubles with the pair combining to go 41-12 in dual-match singles play and 42-17 in dual-match doubles play.

Best Teams Not To Win A Natty In The Last 10 Years: 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes

They started playing tennis in Columbus all the way back in 1912 but they didn't "really" start playing until Ty Tucker took over the program in 1999. From 1912 to 1999 (87 years) the Buckeyes had a record of 733-613-10 (.541) and won just 3 Big 10 Championships but from 2000 to the present they're 455-74 (.860) and have won 10 regular season Big 10 Championships and another 10 Big 10 Tournament Championships. Prior to Tucker's arrival Ohio State had never played in the NCAA Tournament but since his arrival they've made it all 16 times (note: field was expanded to 64 starting in spring of 1999). In those 16 appearances Ohio State has been a top 5 national seed 8 times with those 8 coming in consecutive years starting in 2007 and ending in 2014. The only team to string together a longer streak is Virginia who has been a top 5 seed each of the last 9 years (10 times total since 2005).

Tucker's recipe for success has traditionally been to have a balanced mixture of the top talent from the state of Ohio and the northeastern U.S. along with a few high-end Europeans. Some of Ohio State's better players over the last decade weren't the sure thing TRN Blue Chips but rather the 4 and 5 stars that Tucker was able to develop into excellent players (Kobelt, McCarthy, Callahan, Metka). The reason they were able to develop is due to Tucker's practice of getting many of his guys to take a redshirt season which allows them to adapt to college life as well hone their game at a slower pace. 8 of the 12 guys on the current roster have already taken a redshirt season or will be taking one before their eligibility runs out. If you go back to 2007, 21 of 37 guys that played for the Buckeyes will have taken a redshirt season.

More From The Convention

The 175 or so coaches that made the trip down to Naples for the 2015 ITA Coaches Convention got treated to a slew of terrific speakers and demonstrators who gave them tips on everything from developing a championship team to learning how to add 10 miles per hour to their player's serve.

While Sunday was loaded full of strategy sessions and round table meetings, Monday and Tuesday was a lot more loose with a number of high profile guest speakers with many of them providing on court demonstrations.

The first half of Monday had 4 different coaches forums with each 45 minute forum talking about a different topic.  Pomona-Pitzer's Ann Lebedeff, who would also be awarded the 2015 ITA Meritorious Service Award at the banquet, talked about the history of coaching and some of the perceptions that student-athletes have about men's and women's coaches.

2015 ITA Coaches Convention

Last month the ITA's new COO, Erica Perkins Jasper, invited me to attend the ITA Coaches Convention as a guest of the ITA so I took her up on the offer and sat in on a lively day of discussion today in Naples at the lovely Naples Grande Beach Resort. The convention is open to all college coaches including assistants and I thought the turnout was pretty good for mid-December.

The charismatic and lively Tim Russell, ITA's new CEO, opened up the day with a few personal stories and then talked about a number of topics but said his main goal is to not only preserve college tennis but to strengthen, grow, and transform it. There are some other notes from Tim's opening speech further down below.

The keynote address was delivered by 1993 Michigan State graduate Molly Fletcher who might I add is a tremendous speaker. She brought a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and inspiration to the room which was a good thing because there was a lengthy strategic planning session that followed. 

2016 Season Preview - TCU Horned Frogs

TCU has plenty of history when it comes to men's tennis but prior to last year most of it was distant history. TCU had made just 3 trips to the NCAA Round of 16 in the previous 16 years, with the most recent being in 2004, and hadn't made the Round of 16 as a seed since 2000.  TCU head coach David Roditi updated the record books last year when he guided his senior laden team to the NCAA semifinals and had them a whisker away from a spot in the finals.

I thought this would be a rebuilding year after losing 5 seniors (Nick Chappell, Facundo Lugones, Arnau Dachs, Will Stein, Blake Wiggins) that accounted for 55% of TCU's dual-match wins but Roditi has restocked the shelves nicely and it's possible that TCU may actually be better this coming season.

Team USA Wins Master'U; Pro Success From Former College Players

Team USA won the Master'U BNP Paribas for the 5th year in a row and the 6th time in the last 7 years after Florida's Brooke Austin and Cal's Maegan Manasse sealed the title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over France's Clemence Fayol and Alice Bacquie. Virginia's Danielle Collins won her singles match 6-4, 6-3, Stanford's Tom Fawcett won 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, and UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald won 7-6, 6-1. Cal's Manasse lost 6-2, 6-2 while Georgia's Austin Smith was set to play in doubles but the remaining matches were called off due to the clinch.

In the 10 years of the event the USA has won it 6 times (2009, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15), France 3 times (2006, 07, 10), and Russia won it once in 2008.

The team was coached by Boise State men's head coach Greg Patton and Cal women's coach Amanda Augustus.

USA National Collegiate team wins 6th Master U BNP Paribas team championship. 4-1 over France. Wmn dubs clinch. pic.twitter.com/4RGQWutTcF

— Greg Patton (@GregPatton2) December 6, 2015

2016 Season Preview - Virginia Cavaliers

The defending national champions will be shooting for their third title in the last four years and even though they lost one of the all-time greats in Mitchell Frank they'll still have a pretty stacked roster that's loaded with talent and experience. Virginia has a rugged top 3 with Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski each likely to split time in the top 3 spots while there will be 5 guys (Ritschard, Aragone, Wiersholm, Styslinger, Corinteli) that are more than capable of filling the bottom 3 spots.

Brian Boland has lined up a tough non-conference schedule that has the Hoos facing Kentucky and UCLA at home and Illinois, Tulsa, Oklahoma (@ Tulsa), and Florida on the road. Virginia hosts this year's National Team Indoors in February which will have them facing another 3 or 4 top 15 teams and of course Virginia plays a full ACC schedule with Wake Forest coming to Cville and the Hoos going to Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke.  The full schedule is further down the page.