Thursday Recap: Buckeyes Top The Bulls, Columbia Wins at SMU, & Action Gets Underway in San Diego

After a calm Wednesday the pace picked up on Thursday with Ohio State taking on South Florida while the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic got underway with four close matches at two different sites.

No. 4 Ohio State made its outdoors debut in Tampa and despite getting tested the Buckeyes still had enough in the tank to get past No. 16 South Florida 4-3.  Ohio State's Chris Diaz didn't play in doubles (reasons unknown) but the Buckeyes still managed to win at No. 1 and No. 2. Diaz's normal partner, Hugo Di Feo, and Matt Mendez led 5-3 at No. 3 when the point was clinched.

Tuesday Recap: Pepperdine Upsets No. 26 Memphis, TCU Holds Off Tulsa, Nebraska Tops Lamar, Texas Tech Over IU

Tuesday was a good day for Marcelo Ferreira's guys with the Waves re-entering the rankings earlier in the day at No. 71 and then later in the day they took care of business and upset No. 26 Memphis 4-2.

Pepperdine won the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3 and then the teams split first sets in singles. Pepperdine junior Stefan Menichella was off the court quickly with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 4 but Memphis countered with a 6-3, 6-2 win by sophomore Kai Lemke at No. 3.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 5 Profiles

California is at No. 1 for the second week in a row with Bears holding off No. 2 Ohio State by .37 points. North Carolina and Georgia swapped spots at No. 3 and No. 4 while Pepperdine rode the wave that was created by several of its best wins rising in the rankings.

South Carolina moved into the top 10 for the first time since 1983 after picking up wins last week over Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Georgia Tech came up 15 spots from No. 34 to No. 19 after beating Wake Forest and Syracuse last week. Clemson was also a big riser coming up 21 spots from No. 42 to No. 21 after beating Syracuse and Florida State.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 5 Profiles

The new rankings are out and as expected we have a new No. 1 with Virginia sliding ahead of North Carolina. TCU holds firm at No. 3, Ohio State slides down to No. 4 and UCLA comes up to No. 5 just a .03 ahead of Oklahoma State. Further down below I have a more in depth breakdown of the top 5 and how the points were calculated.

Northwestern moved back into the top 10 at No. 7 after its first win over Illinois since 1997 while Texas Tech, who was idle, slid up No. 10 to No. 8. Texas A&M dropped from No. 7 to No. 9 after losing at Arkansas while Wake Forest dropped one spot from No. 9 to No. 10 despite a 7-0 win over Notre Dame.

3/15 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections - New Men's #1

There have only been two men's teams to hold down the No. 1 spot this season, North Carolina and Virginia. The Cavaliers held the top spot up until the National Team Indoors then the Tar Heels took over after winning the event in Charlottesville. After this happenings of this past weekend, which saw North Carolina get upset by Florida State while Virginia beat Oklahoma, Virginia has taken the top spot back by the slimmest of margins with UNC falling to No. 2

TCU, which was idle last week, holds firm at No. 3 while last week's No. 2, Ohio State, who was also idle drops down to No. 4. UCLA and Oklahoma State swap spots at No. 5 and No. 6 with just a .03 separating them.

This week's rankings took into account each team's five best wins though starting next week things really start to ramp up with the six best wins used and then following week it goes to the seven best wins.

Kentucky Holds Off Bama, FSU Slides Past Duke, Wisconsin Wins In Des Moines, Georgia Tech Tops NC State

Friday and Saturday brought us a ton of upsets but things leveled out on Sunday with most higher ranked teams holding court and getting the win.

Florida State capped off a nice weekend by defeating No. 66 Duke 5-2. The Seminoles claimed the doubles point by sweeping all three courts and then it took four opening sets in singles.

Friday night's hero, Marco Nunez, was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Vincent Lin at No. 2 and his teammate Jose Gracia would put the Noles up 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Ryan Dickerson at No. 5.

More Upsets - Northwestern Beats #8 Illinois For First Time Since '97, Mississippi State Blanks #12 Kentucky & More

The weekend of upsets continued on Saturday with three higher ranked team going down on top of the seven that were upset yesterday. The biggest upset in terms of ranking took place in Starkville but I'll start off in Evanston where Northwestern was looking to snap a 27-match, 19 year, losing streak to in-state rival Illinois.

Even though Northwestern was shutout by the Illini earlier this season it had to be optimistic with a big home crowd on hand. Northwestern got things started off on the right foot by claiming the doubles point for the 12th time in 14 tries with a 6-4 win at No. 2 and a 6-3 win at No. 3.

Noles Shock #1 UNC, Razorbacks Upset #7 Texas A&M, Clemson beats #38 Notre Dame

Friday was a day of upsets with the biggest shocker coming in Tallahassee as No. 51 Florida State stunned No. 1 and previously unbeaten North Carolina 4-3.  Florida State was coming off a tough 4-3 loss to Miami last Sunday so the thought of them beating the No. 1 team in the country had to be a long shot at best coming in.

FSU's Aziz Dougaz and Michael Rinaldi were first off the court at No. 2 doubles as they defeated UNC's Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray 6-1. UNC's Andrew Gores and Ronnie Schneider won 6-3 at No. 3 over Jose Gracia and Terrance Whitehurst but FSU took the doubles point when Benjamin Lock and Marco Nunez defeated Brett Clark and Robert Kelly 6-4 at No. 1.

Thursday Recap + Weekend Preview (3/11-3/13)

There were actually four ranked versus ranked matches on Thursday with the higher ranked team winning three of the four.

No. 4 Virginia went to Tulsa, the site of this year's NCAA Championships, and rolled over No. 26 Tulsa 6-1. Virginia won a pretty tight doubles point by breaking Tulsa's 5-6 service game at No. 3 to claim the point.  Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, Mac Styslinger, and Henrik Wiersholm won in straight sets for Virginia at 1, 2, 5, and 6 while Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won a three-set battle over Dylan McCloskey at 3. Tulsa's Juan Matias Gonzalez earned the lone point for the Golden Hurricane with a straight set win at No. 4.

News and Notes - UTR vs. ITA, Davis Cup, Attendance Race, Miami Streaming, Me in Des Moines

The first thing I wanted to mention is that I wrote an article for the Tennis Recruiting Network that ran today with the topic being the Road to Tulsa. It talks about the teams that I think are contenders for the national championship along with the others that have some work to do so make sure you give it a read.

After the release of the latest Oracle/ITA rankings,  I wanted to do a comparison between those and the most recent Universal Tennis Ratings. Below is a chart of the top 25 men and women sorted by UTR and ITA rankings.

Ohio State Women Marking Their Own Territory

By Joey Dillon

March 1st may have been just a normal day for the ITA rankings to be released, but for the Ohio State women’s team, it meant another step in the journey to becoming a powerhouse. The Buckeye ladies rose to No.1 in the country for the first time in program history, as well as having the No.1 singles player and No.4 doubles team in the country, also program-bests. I spoke with head coach Melissa Schaub, as well as current and former members of the Buckeye program, who before last season had never moved past No.17.

3/8 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release

For the second week in a row there is a new No. 1 as Cal retakes the top spot from Ohio State. Cal's five best wins weren't as good as Ohio State's but the difference this week was Ohio State having the one loss to Cal while is undefeated.

Georgia moves up from No. 7 to No. 3 after beating both Ole Miss and Mississippi State on the roast last weekend. North Carolina drops one spot from No. 3 to No. 4 while Vanderbilt moves up 3 spots from No. 8 to No. 5 after defeating Kentucky last weekend.

This week's rankings used each team's five best wins as will next week's rankings.

3/8 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release

The third computer rankings of the year are out and while there was still a good bit of movement it wasn't as drastic as in the past two weeks.

North Carolina remains at #1 while Ohio State rises up from #4 to #2 after getting the big road win at Oklahoma. TCU stays at #3 while Virginia drops from #2 to #4 with Oklahoma State staying at #5.

3/8 Ranking Projections - Cal Women #1

North Carolina stays at No. 1 for another week while Ohio State jumps up from No. 4 to No. 2 after a nice road win over Oklahoma on Sunday. TCU stays at No. 3 while Virginia falls from No. 2 to No. 4 due to a few of its best wins falling the previous week.

This week's rankings take into account each teams five best wins just as last week's ranking did and just as next week's rankings will.

Kentucky was the big mover inside the top 20 with the Wildcats expected to rise from No. 22 to No. 12 after picking up wins over Arkansas and Ole Miss.  Tulane will move up from No. 35 to No. 22 after picking up nice ranked wins over Memphis and LSU. NC State's road win over No. 7 Wake Forest will be enough to propel the Wolfpack back inside the top 30 after dropping down to No. 40 last week.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Holds Off Florida, NC State Upsets Wake, Ohio State Wins At OU & More

In what had to be the match of the day it was No. 8 Texas A&M outlasting No. 30 Florida 4-3 in 3 hours and 51 minutes. Florida jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Texas A&M came out ready to go in singles and took five opening sets.

Jordi Arconada was off the court first with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Chase Perez-Blanco at No. 3 but Florida's Gordon Watson answered with a 6-4, 6-4 win over AJ Catanzariti at No. 5.

Texas A&M senior Jackson Withrow evened the match at 2-2 with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Florida freshman McClain Kessler at No. 6 but Florida retook the lead when freshman Alfredo Perez rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Texas A&M senior Harrison Adams.

Sunday Preview - Florida/Texas A&M & Ohio State/Oklahoma

A couple of good ones on the docket for today. Texas A&M and Florida were voted #2 and #3 in the preseason SEC coaches poll while Oklahoma and Ohio State were in everyone's preseason top 10.

#30 Florida (6-3) at #8 Texas A&M (12-3) - 1pm est/12pm cst - Live Scoring & Video - Florida is coming off a 4-3 road win at LSU in a match where Florida dropped the doubles point but won the first four completed singles matches. Texas A&M is coming off a comfortable 6-1 road win at Auburn. Texas A&M is very, very tough to beat at home so Florida will have to bring its A+ game to come away with a win.

TCU Too Good for South Florida & Princeton Punches Penn State

The featured match of the day took place in Tampa as No. 3 TCU rolled into town to face No. 17 South Florida. South Florida got the win at No. 1 doubles but TCU came back and won at No. 2 and No. 3 with Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder clinching the point 7-6(1) at No. 2.

Each team picked up three first sets in singles but South Florida struck first when Justin Roberts closed out Eduardo Nava 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4. TCU freshman Alex Rybakov put the Horned Frogs back ahead 2-1 when he ran through Dominic Cotrone 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 and a short while later Jerry Lopez would make it 3-1 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Peter Bertran at No. 5.

Friday Recap: Drake Raps Past Iowa, SEC & ACC Play Underway, Lobos Top BYU

While conference play got underway in the SEC and ACC there was a non-conference battle brewing in Des Moines between #36 Drake and #33 Iowa. The two schools, separated by just 115 miles, are the only two schools in the state of Iowa that play Division 1 men's tennis so bragging rights were at stake Friday night. A boisterous crowd of close to 200, with a decent amount of black and gold, was on hand to see if Drake could make it five in a row over the Hawkeyes.

Drake got off to a good start at #3 doubles when Ben Stride and Calum MacGeoch jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Iowa's Robin Haden and Nils Hallestrand. Drake would hold on the deciding point to stretch the lead to 4-1 and then break again for 5-1. MacGeoch would serve it out from 40-30 to give Drake the 6-1 win in 24 minutes.

Weekend Preview (3/4-3/6)

The weekend is here and while there aren't as many high profile matches as in past weeks there is still plenty of quality tennis to be played.

SEC conference play gets underway this weekend with a big match taking place on Sunday in College Station between #8 Texas A&M and #30 Florida. These two teams were selected as the preseason #2 and #3 by the SEC coaches so it'll be a chance for one of them to get a leg up on the other. Of course before Florida gets a crack at A&M it'll have to take care of business in Baton Rouge on Friday night against #32 LSU. The Bayou Bengals have been known to give higher ranked teams some trouble at home so we'll see if that's the case tonight. Texas A&M actually opens up its weekend on the road at #66 Auburn though I'm not expecting that one to be too close.

Cowboys Poke the Bears Plus Other Thursday Results

In an under the radar top 20 clash out in La Jolla it was #5 Oklahoma State edging #18 Cal 4-3. Oklahoma State took the doubles pint with 6-3 wins at #1 and #3 but Cal came back strong in singles and took four opening sets.

Oklahoma State only took two first sets in singles but both Julian Cash and Lukas Finzelberg managed to finish in straight sets. Cash upset the ITA #7 Andre Goransson 6-3, 6-2 at #1 while Finzelberg got the best of J.T. Nishimura 6-4, 6-3 at #6. Oklahoma State's lead was now 3-0 but it'd be a while before they could find its fourth point because Cal was in control on each of the remaining four courts.

Tulane Beats LSU For First Time Since '04 + See Who Is Playing Davis Cup

It had been 12 years since Tulane last defeated LSU but the Green Wave were able to get it done on Wednesday afternoon with a 4-2 win.

LSU took the doubles point with wins at #1 and #2 but Tulane rebounded in singles by picking up five first sets. Tulane's Constantin Schmitz rolled over Justin Butsch 6-0, 6-2 at #2 but LSU went back ahead when Gabor Csonka beat Alex Van Cott 6-2, 6-0 at #4. Tulane's Chi-Shan Jao evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Simon Freund at #5.

UCLA Outduels USC & San Diego Burns the Rice

Last season USC won all three meetings against UCLA, but so far this season it's Bruins 1 and Trojans 0. UCLA claimed this year's first edition of the Battle for LA by taking out #12 USC 5-2.

UCLA took the doubles point for the 10th time in 12 tries but it didn't do it with a win at #1. USC's Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven surprised the ITA #3 team of Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki 6-4. Crystal/Verboven jumped out to a 4-1 lead before McDonald/Redlick won three straight to even it at 4-4. Crystal/Verboven held for 5-4 and then broke to win it 6-4.

3/1 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release

Ladies and gentlemen we have a new #1 and it is The Ohio State University.  The Buckeyes took over the top spot from undefeated Cal due to having four top 10 wins, one of which was a road win over then # Michigan, and a total of five wins over top 24 opponents. Cal has three top 10 wins and a total of five top 20 wins.

This week's rankings used each team's five best wins as will the next two rankings after this week.

3/1 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release

The second computer rankings of the year are out and as expected there was a lot of movement throughout the top 75. As I mentioned in the past it usually takes at least 3 weeks of computer rankings before things start to level out some but they really will come into better focus later in March when the number of countable wins climbs past five.

The top two stayed the same with North Carolina at #1 and Virginia at #2 while TCU jumped up to #3 off the strength of its ranked road wins over Illinois and Wisconsin. Oklahoma State came up from #9 to #5 due to its strong win over South Florida and Northwestern enters the top 10 at #9 due to it having five wins over ranked opponents.

The next two rankings will also use each team's five best wins so I expect my predictions to become more accurate with each passing week.

UCLA/USC Preview

It's once again time for the battle for LA as #6 UCLA hosts #12 USC. Both schools are coming off wins at Stanford with UCLA squeezing out a 4-3 win while USC was a little more impressive in its 5-2 win. Both will be heading to La Jolla for the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships later in the week so this will be a chance to get some momentum before the guys play in that individual tournament.

USC swept all three meetings last season with the Trojans winning 4-1 at home, 4-2 in Westwood, and 4-1 at the Pac 12 Tournament in Ojai though Max de Vroome and Nick Crystal are the only 2 returning starters from those USC teams. This will be USC's second dual-match this season at the LA Tennis Center after it defeated #30 Florida 4-3 during the Pac-12/SEC Challenge.

#12 USC (7-2) at #6 UCLA (9-2) - 5:30pm est/2:30pm pst - Live Scoring