Saturday Preview - Oklahoma St/South Florida, UCLA/Stanford, Virginia/Illinois

#9 Oklahoma State (10-1) vs. #14 South Florida (7-3) (Montgomery, AL) - 1:30pm est/12:30pm cst - Live Scoring - These teams were originally slotted in opposite ends of the draw at the Blue Gray but a last minute change was made and they'll end up facing each other in the semis. Oklahoma State is coming off a 4-0 win over Alabama in a match that could have finished 4-3 because the Tide led on each of the three remaining courts. South Florida was challenged by Boise State on Friday but still won it 4-0 and it probably would have finished 7-0 had it been played out.

South Florida loves playing outdoors while Oklahoma State is probably a little better indoors so I think that may help determine the outcome. Both teams have played great doubles this season so that should be a tightly contested point.

SC Stomps Stanford, Michigan Tops Washington, Texas Tech Beats the Pack, & More

The featured match of the day took place in Palo Alto with Stanford hosting USC in a non conference matchup. Stanford had dropped the doubles point in three consecutive matches and it didn't get off to the best start after USC's Rob Bellamy and Jake DeVine picked up a quick 6-2 win at #3. However a short while later Stanford's Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would win 6-3 at #2 and then Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz sealed the doubles point with a 6-4 win at #1.

USC quickly turned things around in singles by taking five opening sets and Nick Crystal needed just over an hour to finish off David Wilczynski 6-3, 6-1 at #2. Stanford would end up being just as dominant in the second set as USC was in the first because the Cardinal took four second sets while USC's Jack Jaede forced a split at #5.

Weekend Preview (2/26-28)

I highlighted some of the top matches of the weekend in a post I did on the ITA's site and below I'll go over all the rest.

The featured match of the day on Friday takes place in Palo Alto between last season's Pac-12 co-champions #29 Stanford and #13 USC. This is a non-conference match, with the official conference match coming on April 2 in LA, though it's a match both teams want and a match that Stanford really needs. Stanford has dropped the doubles point three matches in a row and if they lose it again today I think it's looking at a fourth straight loss. If Stanford takes the doubles point I think it picks up its first win since beating Santa Clara back on February 2nd.

UNCW Clips #25 NC State & Memphis Holds Off SMU

North Carolina State returned to the top 25 this week and had four matches scheduled for the weekend with two of them ranked opponents. However the Pack may have been caught looking ahead to Friday's showdown with #6 Texas Tech because this afternoon it was upset by unranked UNC Wilmington 4-3.

Despite being an upset in terms of ranking, it wasn't a surprise in terms of recent history because this was actually the third time in the last four meetings that the Seahawks have clipped the Wolfpack.

UNCW won a tightly contested doubles point with both #1 and #3 going to tiebreaks. UNCW won 6-2 at #2 and when Xander Veys/Javier Restrepo and pulled it out 7-6(4) at #1 the Seahawks had the crucial doubles point.

Blue Gray NTC, BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge, & National Alumni Championships

I wanted to make a mention of a couple of events that are coming up over the next few months with one of them getting started tomorrow (Friday).

Six men's and six women's teams will converge on Montgomery, Alabama for the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. The Classic stated all the way back in 1949 and has evolved over the years from an individual event to a team event. One of the things that makes this such a unique event are the host families that take in the teams every year. The players and coaches love coming to Montgomery which is why several teams have been participating in this event for years and will likely keep coming back. There are a slew of positives testimonials that you can read over which talk about all the finer points of the weekend experience.

Catherine Isip's Lucky Gamble Pays Off

Catherine Isip graduated from Saint Mary's College in 2013 with a degree in Sports Management

by Joey Dillon

Catherine Isip had a junior tennis career most would dream of. She was named a Top 10-blue chip recruit out of Southern California and was on the radar for a number of top schools. A twist of fate

2/23 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release

Cal stays at #1 in the first computer rankings of the year while Ohio State came up three spots to #2 and Michigan came up five spots to #3.

As a reminder these rankings are based off last week's rankings, which were done by the rankings committee, so I'd expect to see a lot more shifting next week too. This week the computer used each team's 4 best wins but for the next 3 weeks it'll use each team's 5 best wins.

2/23 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release

The first computer rankings of the year are out with the ACC occupying three of the top five spots. North Carolina is sitting pretty comfortably at #1 with a nine point lead over #2 Virginia though Virginia has an almost eleven point lead over Ohio State.

As a reminder these rankings are based off last week's rankings, which were done by the rankings committee, so I'd expect to see a lot more shifting next week too. This week the computer used each team's 4 best wins but for the next 3 weeks it'll use each team's 5 best wins.

2/23 Rankings Projection

When the new ITA rankings come out tomorrow it'll be the first computer poll of the season after the ranking committee voted on all the polls up until this point. Usually there are some pretty big changes after the computers take over because teams are now ranked on what they've actually done as opposed to being ranked on its reputation.

Anyone with enough free time can calculate the rankings using the ITA's formula though I don't recommend it because it is highly timely consuming.  There's always a chance I made a calculation error somewhere but by and large they are usually pretty close. These 2/23 rankings utilize each team's 4 best wins (with best being determined by who gives you the most ranking points).  Road wins are given a 10% bonus so beating the 65th ranked team on the road would get your more points than beating the 64th ranked team at home.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Wins At Illinois, Ohio State Outlasts Florida, Memphis Wins in Oxford, & More

Texas A&M had been on the road for the last week and a half, and had lost its last three, but it managed to come from behind today to beat Illinois 4-2 despite playing without one of its top starters. Texas A&M senior Shane Vinsant missed today's match against Illinois due to a blister on his foot but the Aggies managed to stay focused in his absence and the team performed much better in singles than it did in doubles. The weather was right around 50 degrees outside but they played it indoors anyway. I was a little surprised at the lighter turnout of around 175 because I've been to Atkins in the past for some big matches and have seen well over 500 on hand.

Sunday Preview - Texas A&M at Illinois

#7 Texas A&M (10-3) at #12 Illinois (6-3) - 1pm est/12pm cst - Texas A&M comes into this one having dropped three in a row after starting 10-0 while Illinois has split its last four though it dropped two of three during the National Indoors. As has been the case all season, Illinois has been relying on the top of its lineup to get it done with the bottom struggling to come through. The doubles point is going to be essential for the Illini because without it I really don't see them winning.

Doubles record: Illinois 5-4 (4-0 at home), Texas A&M 11-2 (1-1 away)
Indoor record: Illinois 6-3 (4-0 at home), Texas A&M 2-3 (1-1 away)

Saturday Recap: Cal Wins The Big Slam; Penn State Still Unbeaten, Mississippi State Rides the Wave

It was Big Slam Saturday at The Farm and as expected Cal and Stanford gave us another 4-3 classic. Last season each team won at the other's place and this year is starting off the same after Cal gutted out a 4-3 win in a match that took 3 hours and 59 minutes.

The 52-minute doubles point was extremely tight with breaks hard to come by at both #1 and #3. Cal's #2 team of Andre Goransson and Billy Griffith jumped out to a 5-2 lead but Stanford's Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would come back and take five straight to win it 7-5.

The match at #1 stayed on serve until Stanford's Maciek Romanowicz double faulted on match point at 30-40 to give Cal's Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat the 7-5 win.

Big Slam Preview - Cal at Stanford

The big match of the day on Saturday takes place in Palo Alto as #22 Stanford hosts #18 Cal in the "Big Slam" Part 1. This will be a non-conference matchup with the official conference matchup taking place in Berkeley on April 16. Last season the teams met three times with Stanford taking two of the three by winning at Cal and in Ojai in the Pac-12 semis.

The first meeting in Berkeley was a wild 4-3 win by Stanford that saw Maciek Romanowicz come back from 5-2 down in the third to beat JT Nishimura 7-5 in the deciding match. Cal took the second meeting 4-3 when Billy Griffith held off Nolan Paige 6-4 in the third in the deciding match. Stanford won the rubber match 4-1 at the Pac-12 Tournament in a match that was extremely tight.

Cal is coming off a tremendous pair of wins over #3 TCU and #24 Texas while Stanford is coming off gut wrenching losses to those same two teams.

Friday Recap: Ohio St Hammers A&M, Nwestern Overwhelms NCST, OKST survies GAST

Sometimes rematches result in different outcomes and sometimes they don't - tonight's Ohio State/Texas A&M match in Columbus turned out to be the latter. These teams met just five days ago in the National Indoors consolation rounds with Ohio State pulling out a 4-3 squeaker but this evening it was all Buckeyes.

Last week Texas A&M won the doubles point, though Herkko Pollanen didn't play, but tonight with Pollanen playing at #1 with Mikael Torpegaard they and the team cruised past A&M.

Ohio State swapped Martin Joyce and Ralf Steinbach at #5 and #6 and Hugo Di Feo and Chris Diaz at #2 and #3. Texas A&M swapped Jordi Arconada and Shane Vinsant at #2 and #3 which meant both of those matchups stayed the same from the previous meeting. Harrison Adams also returned to the lineup tonight after sitting out on Sunday. (box score from last week is below tonight's box score)

Weekend Preview (2/19-21)

It's the first weekend after the National Indoors but there is no time for slowing down. Texas A&M is back on the road and is in Columbus tonight for a rematch against Ohio State (Buckeyes won 4-3 last Sunday) and then on Sunday it'll be in Champaign to face Illinois (I might make it to this one).

There are 7 ranked versus ranked matches on Friday highlighted by #7 A&M and #6 Ohio State but that #50 Indiana/#37 Oregon match has a lot of potential too.

#55 South Carolina and #17 San Diego will be in Tampa this weekend to play each other and #14 South Florida. San Diego and South Florida just played last Sunday in a NTI consolation match with USF winning 4-2.

My Top 25 - Week of 2/15 + My NTI Recap

We are three days removed from North Carolina's stunning win over Virginia but I went back and recapped the whole weekend in an article that I did for the Tennis Recruiting Network. If you haven't already seen it give this link a click.

Here are is my top 25 based off what I've seen so far - I have notable wins and all losses listed for reference. The number inside [ ] is where I had them last week.

1. North Carolina (10-0) [5] - won at Virginia, UCLA, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Illinois. Tar Heels won the National Team Indoors in unbelievable fashion beating Virginia in Charlottesville. Next decent sized matchup comes on March 11th when UNC goes to Tallahassee to play Florida State.

2/17 ITA Rankings Release

The post NTI Oracle ITA men's rankings are out and North Carolina is sitting pretty at #1 after winning the title. Since there weren't any published rankings last week we saw a good bit of movement throughout the Top 75 and also a lot of movement within the Top 10.

Both UCLA and Wake Forest came up five spots to #4 and #5 while Texas A&M dropped four spots to #7. Oklahoma and USC each dropped three spots to #8 and #9 while Texas Tech entered the top 10 at #10.

#56 Wisconsin made the biggest jump by coming up 18 spots from #74 after winning at then #23 Minnesota.

2016 National Team Indoors All Tournament Team

After a tremendous weekend of tennis in Charlottesville it is time to hand out some more hardware. Below is my College Tennis Today National Team Indoors All-Tournament Team along with guys that earned honorable mention. Now just to be clear, this isn't the official ITA NTI All-Tournament team (which will probably be released on Wednesday/Thursday) although I expect the coaches to agree with what I have listed.

The All-Tournament MVP and three of the six singles selections came from North Carolina while Virginia had two guys and UCLA had one. I also listed guys that earned honorable mention but I couldn't find anyone at #3 singles to fit the bill because it seemed like everyone had at least one loss or not enough finished matches.

North Carolina Comeback Stuns Virginia

North Carolina has done it - they've snapped Virginia's 140-match ACC winning streak and they did it in Charlottesville in the finals of the National Team Indoors. It what will go down as one of the all-time classics, North Carolina came back from dropping the doubles point and four first sets to defeat #1 Virginia 4-2.

(Picture Courtesy of North Carolina)

Men's National Team Indoor Championship Preview - Virginia vs. North Carolina

When Virginia and North Carolina step on the court at 11am it'll be the first time ever that a pair of ACC schools will play for the Men's National Team Indoor Championship. It's North Carolina first appearance in the finals while Virginia will be making its sixth final in the last eight years and seventh overall.

Virginia has owned North Carolina over the last 10 years winning the last 15 matches with North Carolina's last win coming back on April 14th, 2006 (4-3 at UNC). Of course to be fair I have to mention that Virginia has won 140 straight matches against ACC schools with its last loss coming to Duke at the ACC Tournament in April of 2006. 

North Carolina To Meet Virginia For All The ACC Marbles

In the first semifinal of the day North Carolina advanced to its first-ever final at the National Team Indoors after coming from behind to beat UCLA 4-2.

North Carolina didn't take the easy way though after dropping the doubles point for the second time in three matches this weekend. UCLA's new #3 team of Maxime Cressy and Karue Sell knocked off Blaine Boyden and Ronnie Schneider 6-3. Cressy/Sell broke UNC on the deciding point to go up 3-1 then held for 4-1. The teams exchanged holds until UCLA held from 40-15 to win 6-3.

North Carolina answered by winning at #2 doubles as Jack Murray and Brayden Schnur defeated Gage Brymer and Austin Rapp 6-4. Murray/Schnur broke UCLA to go up 2-1 and later on Schnur hit a clutch ace on the deciding point to extend the lead to 4-2. Each team held the rest of the way with Schnur serving it out to win 6-4.

Men's National Team Indoors - Semifinals Preview

[3] North Carolina (8-0) vs. [7] UCLA (7-1) - 12pm est - North Carolina is coming off a pretty thorough 4-2 win over Ohio State while UCLA rode the wave of momentum to get past Texas A&M 4-2. It'll be interesting to see if either team makes a change at the bottom of the singles lineup after each team's #6 took it on the chin yesterday. I think UNC probably sticks with Kodali since he had a pretty convincing win the previous day while I look for Billy Martin to give Austin Rapp another try at #6 after Joey Di Giulio came up well short yesterday against Lunkin.

Overall Record: North Carolina 8-0, UCLA 7-1

Indoors Record: North Carolina 8-0, UCLA 2-1

Doubles Record: North Carolina 6-2, UCLA 7-1

Women: #6 Ohio State Outlasts #5 Vanderbilt

I was fortunate enough to return to the Varsity Tennis Center to watch The Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in an all-Top 6 matchup.

The Buckeyes, coming off of their stellar ITA Indoor debut, hosted a rematch against reigning NCAA champions Vanderbilt. OSU, then-#16, upset the top-ranked Commodores 4-3 in the NTI quarterfinals with Miho Kowase defeating Courtney Colton 6-4 in the third set. The Buckeyes moved to another program-high (No.6) ranking this week, while VU dropped to No.5. Another tight encounter was expected and the match was a 3.5 hour battle between two teams that could vie for the NCAA title.

Virginia and TCU Survive To Fight Another Day

It was definitely a day of thrillers as both Virginia and TCU each won 4-3 matches that came down to a close third set to decide the match.

Virginia came into its match against ACC foe Wake Forest riding an incredible 139-match conference winning streak but the streak would come oh so close to ending.

Wake Forest came out and claimed the doubles point by winning both #1 and #3 doubles in a tiebreak. Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim posted a 7-0 shutout in the tiebreak at #1 while Romain Bogaerts and Dennis Uspensky won the deciding tiebreak at #3 by taking it 7-3. Both Bogaerts and Uspensky really went after JC Aragone in the tiebreak as the Virginia junior dropped four straight points to put UVA in a 5-2 hole.

UNC & UCLA Move On To the Semifinals

We now know what one of the semifinals will be at the 2016 Men's National Team Indoor Championships after #7 North Carolina overpowered #8 Ohio State 4-2 and #9 UCLA took control late to beat #2 Texas A&M 4-2.

In the opening match of the day North Carolina jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by doing something that no other team had been able to do to Ohio State this season - take the doubles point.  Ohio State came into the match with a perfect 9-0 record in doubles but North Carolina took the point fairly comfortably with a 6-2 win at #1 and a 6-4 win at #2.