Men's National Team Indoors - Quarterfinals Preview

[3] North Carolina (7-0) vs. [6] Ohio State (9-0)  - 9am est - The opening quarterfinal of the day should be a dandy with Ohio State come off a 4-0 rout of Baylor while North Carolina overcame Texas Tech 4-1. North Carolina may be the higher ranked team but I think Ohio State is the team to beat on the bottom of the draw. Ohio State has been downright dominant in doubles over the years and this year is no different with the Buckeyes a perfect 9-0.

Overall Record: North Carolina 7-0, Ohio State 9-0

Indoors Record: North Carolina 7-0, Ohio State 9-0

Doubles Record: North Carolina 5-2, Ohio State 9-0

Trojans Rally Past the Bulls, Wake Doubles Up OU, TCU Hammers Illinois,Hoos Up Next

The second half of the day kicked off with USC playing South Florida on the stadium courts while TCU and Illinois duked it out on the back six.

South Florida knew it needed the doubles point to give itself a chance to win and it took the point with a 6-0 rout at #3 and a 6-3 win at #2.

Bruins Bounce the Bulldogs, Aggies Tame the Lions, Buckeyes Roll the Bears, UNC Gives Red Raiders the Heel

The action is heating up in Charlottesville with half of the day's Round of 16 matches already in the books. The first two matches of the day didn't have a ton of suspense as #8 Ohio State ran over #4 Baylor 4-0 and #7 North Carolina overcame the loss of the doubles point to beat #14 Texas Tech 4-1.

The second set of matches though were both thrillers with #3 Texas A&M holding off hard charging #14 Columbia 4-2 and #9 UCLA coming back from 3-2 down to beat #11 Georgia 4-3.

UCLA head coach Billy Martin wasn't exactly looking forward to another match with Georgia despite the Bruins success versus them two weeks ago, "I thought there were a couple of teams we might face in the opening round but Georgia wasn't one of them and I wasn't necessarily looking forward to seeing them again. I knew Manny would have them ready for us and knew it'd be a tough match and it was."

Men's National Team Indoors - Round of 16 Previews

The draws are out and the lineups are set for the 2016 ITA Men's National Team Indoor Championships with play getting started on Friday at the Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. Play gets started each day at 9am eastern and finishes each night around 9 to 10pm.

I'm going to preview each round of 16 match using the master lineups that each team submitted and I'll make my predictions as well. With this being an indoor event I'll also take into account which teams are comfortable playing indoors while others only play indoors a handful of times each season.

There will be live scoring on all 12 courts but only point-by-point scoring on courts 7-12. The same goes for streaming video in that it will only be available on courts 7-12 too.

2/10 Women's Rankings Released Along With Men's Singles/Doubles

The post NTI women's rankings are out and as expected Cal is the new #1 after winning its first-ever team national championship. The previous #1, Vanderbilt, fell 4 spots to #5 after suffering a quarterfinals loss to Ohio State with the Buckeyes themselves rising 10 spots from #16 to #6.

The individual rankings for both the women and men were released as well with several guys and gals entering for the first time with many previously unranked due to not playing in the fall.

Tulane's Dominik Koepfer and Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski stayed at #1 and #2 in the men's singles rankings while Stanford's Tom Fawcett rose from #9 to #3 after picking up wins over #6 Cameron Norrie (TCU), #13 Joao Monteiro (VT), #69 Freddy Gelbrich (SDSU), and #81 Alec Adamson (UCD).

Men's National Indoor Draws & Lineups Are Out + Virginia Rolls Over UCLA 6-1

The draws have been released for this year's Men's National Team Indoors and while most of the teams were slotted where I expected there were a few surprises.

I expected Ohio State and UCLA to pass USC based off each picking up top 20 wins last week but the committee kept USC in front despite its best win this year being against #22 Florida.

I thought a two loss Baylor, with a best win over #42 Oregon, would fall behind a one loss Illinois with the Illini having wins over #21, #25, #36 (2X) and the one loss coming to #3 North Carolina - I'd love to hear the logic on keeping Baylor that high.

I thought South Florida may drop one spot after losing to Texas A&M but they held firm at #13 - can't argue too much with this one because it was a 4-3 loss to a #3 team.

Tuesday Preview - #9 UCLA vs. #1 Virginia

There's going to be a ton of good tennis this weekend in Charlottesville with Virginia hosting the National Team Indoors but I think the best matchup of the week might be tonight with Virginia hosting #9 UCLA. I have these teams as #1 and #2 in my rankings and I expect that this will be a very, very good match with plenty of courts going three sets.

This will be Virginia's first real test of the season while UCLA has been tested a few times but this will be the first time that the Bruins have played indoors. The doubles point will be more crucial for UCLA because it's going to be hard enough to win three singles matches over Virginia let alone four.

Here is an article from the Daily Bruin talking about the match from a Bruin standpoint and here is one from the Daily Progress coming from the Virginia standpoint. Virginia will also be down one usual starter with last season's #5 Alexander Ritschard recovering from a shoulder injury.

Let's dive into the numbers and see what they say.

Cal Claims 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Title

Defending champion North Carolina threw everything it had at Cal but the Golden Bears captured its first-ever team National title at the 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championships. The tournament came down to No.5 singles with Olivia Hauger outlasting Marika Akkerman, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.

Cal holding the ITA NTI trophy, its first in program history © ITA

2/10 ITA Top 20 Projections + My Top 20 + Computer Top 20 + UTR Top 20

Since it's the week of the National Team Indoors the ITA doesn't publish its rankings so I'll give you a couple of different versions to mull over while we wait for the NTI draw to come out on Tuesday night.

First I'll start off with what I think the ITA Top 20 will look like based off last week's rankings and taking into account any results from last week. Secondly, I'll have my own personal top 20 based off what I've seen so far. Then, I'll have what the computer top 20 would look like if each team's best 2 wins were used (first computer rankings in 2 weeks will use the best 4 wins). Lastly I'll show you what the UTR Top 20 looks like.

Cal Stuns TCU, UNC Takes Out OU, Texas Hooks Stanford, Bucks Blank Hokies

Some days things go your way and some days they don't - for TCU, Oklahoma, and Stanford it was the latter while Cal, North Carolina, and Texas walked away with big smiles on its faces.

Cal got punched in the gut when it couldn't participate in the Kick-Off Weekend due to weather but they made up for it this weekend in spades with wins over #26 Texas and #2 TCU.

Both Cal and TCU played physical matches on Saturday with each getting pushed by its opponents but while Cal bounced back TCU wasn't able to keep up the Bears.

TCU pulled out the doubles point for the second day in a row with wins at #2 and #3 but Cal got humming in singles and took opening sets at #2, #3, #4, and #6.

ITA Women's NTI Championship Set: California vs. North Carolina

The 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championship is set with #6 California taking on the defending champions, #5 North Carolina. Both teams escaped close wins and tomorrow's final should be a real enticing encounter. Doubles will be a big point for either team and Cal will be focused on its first-strike tennis to gather momentum. North Carolina has been in this situation before and I think they''ll use their experience to wear down and overwhelm the Bears. Any player on both teams can take the match and I'm not the most confident in my predictions. The matchup is essentially a coin flip.

Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise be recapping with his thoughts and quotes at ZooTennis later tonight and will be covering tomorrow's final as well.

Sunday Preview - Cal/TCU, Ohio State/Va Tech, UNC/OU, Texas A&M/South Florida

#5 Oklahoma (3-1) at #7 North Carolina (5-0) - 1pm est - Live Scoring & Video - Oklahoma is coming off a 5-2 win at #63 Alabama on Friday while North Carolina last played a week ago when it shutout #12 Illinois 4-0. The Sooners really have missed the presence of its #2 Andrew Harris (14.76) who has been sidelined for a while with knee tendinitis and without him they've had to make adjustments to both the singles and doubles lineups. Axel Alvarez comes into this match having lost two straight and the team has dropped the doubles point in two straight matches. North Carolina has been battling some injuries as well though both Brayden Schnur (tendinitis) and Ronnie Schneider (ankle) have continued to play but their results have been just so-so (2-3). 

Gustav The Great Saves Ole Miss, TCU Wins Battle Over Stanford, Cal Fights Off Texas

Saturday was a day for some great tennis in the state of Texas with Ole Miss winning a thriller over Baylor in Waco while TCU and Cal won battles over Stanford and Texas in Austin.

Ole Miss came into the match having only played 3 times all season while Baylor was playing its 5th match in the last 8 days. Baylor got off to a hot start in doubles and at one point led 5-1 at #1, 3-0 at #2, and 4-2 at #3 but unbelievably they'd only get 1 more game between the 3 courts combined. Julian Lenz and Will Little got that 1 game and finished off the match at #1 winning 6-2 but Ole Miss started chipping away at the deficit everywhere else. The Rebel's #3 team of Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton won 4 straight game to close out Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck 6-4. The biggest momentum shift in that one came when Ole Miss was serving at 4-4, 15-40 and they managed to come back and get the hold. Moments later Stefan Lindmark and Ricardo Jorge completed their comeback by winning the final 6 games at #2 to win 6-3.

Women's NTI Semifinals Set: Ohio State Stuns Vanderbilt

Saturday's action is complete at the 2016 ITA Women's National Team Indoors and the semifinals are set with #16 Ohio State playing #6 Cal and #5 North Carolina facing off against #2 Georgia. Ohio State had the stunner of the year taking out the reigning NCAA champions Vanderbilt, while the rest of the remaining teams lived up to their seeding.

Again, I'd like to thank Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise for his tweets and coverage at the NTI. You will be able to check out his thoughts and quotes at ZooTennis later tonight.

Saturday Preview - Stanford/TCU & Ole Miss/Baylor

#18 Stanford (5-1) vs. #2 TCU (2-0) - (Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge - Austin) - 12pm est/11am cst - Live Scoring - Stanford is coming off back-to-back shutouts of Santa Clara and San Diego State while TCU hasn't played since squeaking out a 4-3 win over Oklahoma State during the Kick-Off Weekend two weeks ago. Stanford missed out qualifying for the National Indoors since it lost to Columbia 4-3 so this weekend is a chance for the Cardinal to pick up a couple of ranked wins. TCU is looking to use this weekend to toughen up some more before going to Charlottesville for the NTIs.

Doubles Records: Stanford 6-0, TCU 1-1

Women's NTI Day 1: Top 4 Seeds Blank Out Opponents

I'll gladly take a solid 6/8 correct on Day 1 with one match going 4-3 and the other a match I thought would be as tight as it could get.

I think the story of the day was how competitive doubles was for nearly every match. Three of the eight doubles points were decided by a tiebreaker (Vanderbilt/Duke, Ohio State/Fresno State and Virginia/Texas A&M). With the 6-game, no-ad scoring format, does doubles have the same psychological effect on teams after a close point? Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise is covering the event for ZooTennis and you can read his recap with quotes here.

Someone in the comments pointed out how Florida, Stanford, USC and Baylor elected to skip the NTI to schedule their own tough matches and prepare differently for the off-season. Should teams who skip be penalized come NCAA seeding time and does it put an asterisk next to the champion's name? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

Texas A&M Survives, UCLA Wins Big, Duke Gets A Road W, Memphis Wins Again

It's been a busy week so far for Texas A&M after the Aggies knocked off #4 Baylor just two nights ago and with another big match on the horizon on Sunday against #13 South Florida it's possible they got caught looking ahead. #28 Florida State came to College Station on Friday night and gave A&M all it wanted before "Artillery" Arthur Rinderknech saved the day with a big win at #1 singles.

Texas A&M captured the doubles point with 6-3 wins at #2 and #3 and then each team picked up three first sets in singles. Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti and Max Lunkin put the Aggies up 3-0 after they each picked up a straight set win over one of the Whitehurst brothers at #5 and #6 singles. Florida State answered with straight sets wins from Michael Rinaldi and Aziz Dougaz at #3 and #4 and then Marco Nunez tied it up at 3-3 with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 upset win over Shane Vinsant at #2.

Thursday Recap: Go Tigers Go, Stangs Top the Islanders

Going into last night's match Memphis had dropped 14 of its last 15 against Vanderbilt with its last win over Vandy coming back in 2012. Now they can say they've taken split the last four meetings after coming away with a 5-2 win on Thursday night.

Memphis took the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 and then took three opening sets in singles with five singles matches in progress at the five court indoor facility. Ryan Peniston was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #2 and then Kai Lemke made it 3-0 Tigers with a 6-2, 7-6 win at #4. Vandy's Daniel Valent put the Commodores on the board with a 7-6, 6-1 win at #1 but a short while later Felix Rauch clinched it with a 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at #5.

What's Coming Up

There's a lot of quality matches on the schedule this weekend with eight top 25 matchups taking place plus there's another half dozen or so that will be very intriguing.

Below I've listed the ones that I'll especially be keeping a close eye on because while most of the higher ranked teams should win there are a couple of 4-3 ones in the bunch.

#13 South Florida leaves the state for the first time this season as it goes to #23 Minnesota to play indoors then heads to College Station on Sunday to play #3 Texas A&M outdoors. South Florida is a good bit better than Minnesota but the Bulls don't play indoors often so it'll be interesting to see if the Gophers can put the home court advantage to work. Tennis Atlantic's Jeff McMillan will be on site so keep an eye on his twitter account for the occasional video clip.

ITA Women's National Team Indoor Preview

The second-largest team tournament in collegiate tennis behind the NCAAs is the ITA National Team Indoor event. 15 schools advanced in Kick-Off Regionals to join host Wisconsin in Madison in the prestigious event that lasts from Friday through Monday. Last year, North Carolina dropped only 2 points in its 4 matches to clinch its 2nd title in 3 years. Lots of questions come into the tournament - can UNC match its title run after two of its three stars left? Can Vanderbilt show the world that its NCAA title isn't a fluke? Will UGA turn its consistency into a national title? Will a new team emerge from Madison as a top-tier team?

Aggies Win in Waco & MTSU Mashes The 'Ville

In a battle of top 5 teams (according to the ITA rankings) it was #3 Texas A&M rolling over #4 Baylor on Wednesday night in Waco. Baylor was 20-1 inside the Hawkins Indoor Center coming into this one but now drops to 20-2 after Texas A&M pulled away and won 4-2.

Baylor's Julian Lenz and Will Little cruised to a 6-2 win at #1 doubles but Texas A&M took the point with a 6-1 win at #2 and a 6-4 win at #3. Texas A&M's Max Lunkin and Jordi Arconada had a 4-2 lead at #3 but Baylor's Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck held and then broke on the deciding point to even it at 4-4. Bendeck went up 40-30 on his serve but Lunkin hit a volley winner and then Rios watch a screamer go past him that landed well inside the line to make it 5-4 A&M. Lunkin then held from 40-15 to seal the doubles point for Texas A&M.

2/3 ITA Rankings Release

The newest rankings were released today with 8 of the top 10 teams getting shuffled around. The two teams not to move were Virginia who stayed at #1 and Ohio State who stayed at #8. TCU came up from #3 to #2 after Oklahoma lost to Wake Forest on Sunday. Oklahoma dropped from #2 to #5 after the loss which meant that both Texas A&M and Baylor slid up one spot each to #3 and #4. USC is up two spots from #8 to #6 after beating Florida, North Carolina came up three spots from #10 to #7 after beating Illinois, UCLA came up three spots from #12 to #9 after beating Georgia, and Wake Forest came up one spot after beating Oklahoma and losing to Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma State made the biggest jump inside the top 50 by coming up 8 spots from #25 to #17 after convincingly beating both Wake Forest and Minnesota last weekend.

Michigan was the biggest riser overall by coming from unranked all the way up to #54 after beating both Princeton and Cornell during the Big Ten/Ivy League Challenge last weekend at the USTA National Tennis Center.

Wednesday Preview - #4 Texas A&M at #5 Baylor

There's a big top 5 showdown taking place tonight in Waco as #5 Baylor hosts in-state and former Big 12 rival #4 Texas A&M with first serve going up at 6pm central. Neither team has faced a top 25 opponent yet though Baylor was tested during the Kick-Off Weekend by Oregon.

#4 Texas A&M (4-0) at #5 Baylor (5-0) - 7pm est/6pm cst – Live Scoring/Live Blog/Live Video (Indoors) - This will be Texas A&M's first match since its Kick-Off Weekend wins over Fresno State and Boise State while Baylor is coming off wins over Midwestern State (D2), Prairie View A&M (SWAC), and Incarnate Word (Southland). This will be the first meeting between the two since they played in the Round of 16 at the 2014 National Team Indoors in Houston. Baylor won that meeting 4-3 but Julian Lenz is the only current member that was part of that team while Harrison Adams, Shane Vinsant, and Jackson Withrow were the only current Aggies on the team back then. 

My Top 25 - Week of 2/2

We're now a couple of weeks into the dual-match season but we're still another 3 weeks away from the first computer rankings. Since the voters don't vary much from the previous week I thought I'd rank them based off what I've seen so far. The teams with some injuries are lower than they would be if playing at full strength (Oklahoma, Georgia, Stanford).

I also listed notable wins/losses up until this point.

1. Virginia (2-0) - win over Kentucky - the defending NCAA Champions will stay at #1 until they get beat. Ryan Shane didn't exactly have a great opening weekend with loses in singles versus Kentucky and doubles versus Eastern Kentucky but the rest of the team rolled.

Women: Wild Weekend Led By Upsets

Five Top 15 teams from the latest ITA Rankings - USC, Virginia, Stanford, Texas A&M and Michigan, fell this weekend in losses. USC was the highest ranked team to fall this weekend, facing SoCal rival Pepperdine. A huge factor in the Virginia match was the suspension of five players due to a snowball fight during a winter storm. Virginia and Stanford fell in tight 4-3 losses, while Ohio State upset Michigan for the first time since 2003 and Texas A&M lost to UNC in a Top 10 battle before the ITA Indoors kicks off this weekend.