Who Let the Heels Out - UNC Takes Out UVA Again & UGA TKOs aTm

When North Carolina defeated Virginia to win the National Team Indoors back in February many thought that win wiped out all the streaks that Virginia had over North Carolina. It turns out there was another streak that was still intact going into today's match and that was the fact that Virginia had won the doubles point over North Carolina in 18 straight matches dating all the way back to April 3, 2004. Well that streak was broken today when North Carolina found a way to pull out the point in dramatic fashion.

Virginia's Collin Altamirano and JC Aragone didn't waste any time at No. 3 as they ran all over Ronnie Schneider and Andrew Gores 6-0.

North Carolina's No. 2 team of Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray took their first lead of the match when they broke to go up 4-3 and then Murray held for 5-3. Virginia's Mac Styslinger and Thai-Son Kwaitkowski would hold for 4-5, break Schnur for 5-5, and then hold for 6-5. Murray held to send it to a tiebreak and in the tiebreak the UNC pair jumped out to a 5-2* lead. UNC served up 6-4 but UVA got the mini-break back only to see UNC take the next point to win it 7-6(5).

Weekend Preview (4/1-4/3)

Friday is going to be a blockbuster day with five matches between top 25 opponents. The big one in the ACC is the rematch from this the National Team Indoor finals as No. 1 North Carolina hosts No. 3 Virginia. The big one in the SEC is in College Station between the conference's highest ranked teams as No. 10 Texas A&M hosts No. 7 Georgia.

#3 Virginia (16-2) at #1 North Carolina (20-1) - 3pm ET - North Carolina snapped a 15-match losing streak to Virginia and in the process snapped Virginia's 140-match ACC winning streak when the Tar Heels upset Virginia back on February 15 (box score below). The big story in this one will be if Brayden Schnur is healthy enough to play in singles after missing seven of the last eleven matches. The other story will be whether the match is played inside or outside. The temperature is projected to be in the mid-70s but there's a 40 percent chance of rain. If they play indoors streaming video will be available but if they stay outside then no streaming.

ITA HQ On The Move; Road To Tulsa, Thursday Surprises

The ITA announced this morning that it has formed a new strategic alliance with Arizona State University and is in the process of moving its headquarters from Princeton, New Jersey, to Tempe, Arizona. The full release is down below and hopefully this will clear the way for the return of the Arizona State men's team which was dropped back in 2008.

3/29 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 7 Profiles

California stays at No. 1 for the fourth week in a row with its margin over No. 2 Ohio State decreasing slightly from 8.81 to 7.72.  North Carolina and Georgia swapped spots yet again at No. 3 and No. 4 while Vanderbilt holds at No. 5 although the Commodores are nipping at the heels of Georgia.

Florida comes up one spot to No. 6, Miami falls one spot to No. 7, South Carolina holds at No. 8 despite its loss to Florida, Pepperdine rises two spots to No. 9 and Duke holds firm at No. 10.

3/29 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 7 Profiles

North Carolina retained its top spot but TCU and Virginia swapped spots at No. 2 and No. 3. If TCU's win over Texas A&M would have counted in these rankings the Horned Frogs would have been the new No. 1. Ohio State is still at No. 4 while UCLA moves up to No. 5 after the previous No. 5 Oklahoma State was upset by SMU.

Wake Forest moved up seven spots to No. 6 after picking up a road win at Florida State while Georgia moved up four spots to No. 7 after beating Kentucky. Oklahoma State dropped three spots to No. 8 after losing to SMU while USC dropped one spot to No. 9 after losing at Washington. Texas A&M falls three spots to No. 10 after losing at Vanderbilt.

This set of rankings used each team's seven best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's eight best wins.

Monday Recap: TCU Wins a 4-3 Thriller of Texas A&M

What a match it was tonight in College Station between No. 3 TCU and No. 7 Texas A&M. These two former Big 12 rivals went toe-to-toe for three hours and fifteen minutes and in the end the match was decided in a third-set tiebreak at No. 5 singles.

TCU Celebrates (Photo by Sarah Lane/Texas A&M Athletics)

3/29 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections

North Carolina stays at No. 1 for the second week in a row but TCU leapfrogs past Virginia for No. 2 after its win over Northwestern on Tuesday. This week's rankings used each teams seven best wins with UNC's six top-20 wins still by far the best. Below my rankings chart I also did a top 10 that is sorted by each team's seven best wins with losses not in the equation.

Ohio State stays at No. 4 after picking up a road win at Michigan State and a nice home win over Michigan. UCLA moves back up to No. 5 after picking up road wins at Oregon and Washington in conjunction with last week's No. 5 Oklahoma State losing to SMU which dropped the Cowboys down to No. 8. Wake Forest jumps up from No. 13 to No. 6 after its road win at Florida State plus a few of its other top wins moved up a few spots last week. Georgia rises from No. 11 to No. 7 after a win over Kentucky while USC falls one spots from No. 8 to No. 9 after a win at Oregon and a loss at Washington. Texas A&M falls from No. 7 to No. 10 after its Friday loss at Vanderbilt.

Sunday Recap: Owls Shred #9 Texas Tech, Hogs Tops Rebs, USC Survives Oregon, Dawgs Tame the Cats

Rice was looking to win the Rice Invitational for the ninth year in a row but to achieve that feat it'd have to find a way to beat a top 10 team for the first time in 10 years. Both Rice and Texas Tech beat William & Mary and Drake on Saturday so both were playing well coming into today's finale.

Texas Tech's Felipe Soares and Hugo Dojas won 6-4 at No. 1 doubles but Rice's Jake Hansen and Emanuel Llamas came back from *1-4 down to win 7-5 at No. 3.  Rice's Jamie Malik and Adam Gustafsson trailed 6-3 in the tiebreak at No. 3 but would fight off a total of five match points to win a marathon tiebreak 14-12 to give Rice the doubles point and early 1-0 lead.

Ride Sally Ride - Mustangs Run Over The Pokes, Boise State Comes Up Big Again, Texas Takes Out Tulsa

The hits keep on coming and on today's playlists we heard the 1966 classic Mustang Sally after No. 36 SMU ran all over No. 5 Oklahoma State 4-0.

SMU jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 and then the Mustangs claimed four opening sets in singles. SMU's Nate Lammons made it 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Julian Cash at No. 1 and then Hunter Johnson put the Mustangs a point away from clinching with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Arjun Kadhe at No. 2. Redshirt junior Tony Russell would bring it home for SMU with a 7-6, 6-3 upset win over Lukas Finzelberg at No. 5.

Friday Recap: Mayhem in Music City, Nuts in the Emerald City, Gators Win In Starkville, Cal Survives, UAB, LMU, & UNLV Beat Ranked Teams

Another Friday brought us another round of stunning upsets as a pair of top 10 teams went down on the road.

Vanderbilt won its third consecutive match by a 4-3 score as it stunned No. 7 Texas A&M 4-3. The Commodores took the doubles point when Tate Allwardt and Baker Newman knocked off Max Lunkin and AJ Catanzariti 7-6(5) at No. 2.

Weekend Preview (3/25-3/28)

Most of the bigger conferences are into the middle of conference play while some of the smaller ones are still playing out of conference.

There are two top 25 matchups on Friday with No. 24 Mississippi State hosting No. 16 Florida while No. 23 Michigan welcomes in No. 25 Penn State.

In my opinion the biggest match of the day in the Big Ten isn't the Michigan/Penn State match but rather the one between Iowa and Wisconsin. Neither team is going to win the conference this year so to get into the NCAAs as an at-large these guys will need to be ranked in the low 40s and if you want to stay in the low 40s or better you have to win these types of matches. I do like Wisconsin to get the win in its own backyard.

Thursday Recap: Tulsa Wins In Waco, FSU Beats GT, & Dartmouth Salvages Its Road Trip

The hosts of this year's NCAAs met the hosts of last year's NCAAs on Thursday night and in a mild surprise it was Tulsa defeating Baylor 4-3.

Baylor played without Will Little, who normally plays at No. 1 doubles and No. 4 singles, and despite a valiant effort it couldn't get it done at home. Tulsa took the all-important doubles point with Majed Kilani and Carlos Bautista winning the decider at No. 3 doubles 7-6(2).

ITA/UTR Ranking Comparison

When the last set of ITA singles rankings came out I did a comparison between them and the UTR rankings so I thought I'd do it again this time. Below is a chart of the top 25 men and women sorted by UTR and ITA rankings. Down below the table I also tackled the team rankings using the UTR Power 6 which is the combined UTR of the top 6 singles players. I had to do some tweaking to these because there are several guys, in a team's top 6, that aren't playing for one reason or another that I had to pull out.

Wednesday Recap: Hogs Slop The Horns, Stanford Gets Past Pacific, Boise State Upsets UCSB

A great season for Arkansas got even better on Wednesday night when the Razorbacks beat Texas for the first time since 2004 and won in Austin for the first time since 1988. Arkansas took the doubles point by winning the deciding match at No. 1 in a tiebreak but Texas rebounded by taking four opening sets in singles.

Adrian Ortiz bum-rushed Santiago Munoz 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 and then Michael Riechmann put Texas ahead with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Adam Sanjurjo at No. 5. Arkansas's Giammarco Micolani tied the match at 2-all with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rodrigo Banzer at No. 4 and then Jose Salazar put the Hogs ahead with a come from behind 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Texas freshman Harrison Scott.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Women's Rankings Release - Top 6 Profiles

California stays at No. 1 for the third week in a row with the Bears lead over No. 2 Ohio State increasing from .37 to 8.81.  Georgia and North Carolina swapped spots for the second week in a row with the Bulldogs edging 2.08 ahead of North Carolina for No. 3. Vanderbilt returns to the top 5 after a one week absence while last week's No. 5, Pepperdine, fell to No. 11.

This set of rankings used each team's six best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's seven best wins.

Tuesday Recap: TCU Slides Past Northwestern, Kentucky Stuns Illinois, Drake Beats Oregon, Tulsa Tops Dartmouth

Usually Tuesdays are reserved for the the release of the rankings, but today should have been renamed 4-3day with one match after another going down to the wire.

TCU and Northwestern were originally supposed to meet a few weeks ago in Evanston but due to bad weather TCU's flight was cancelled so they made up the match up today in Fort Worth. Today in Fort Worth there were high winds anticipated so play was moved indoors though evidently it never got as windy as forecasted.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Men's Rankings Release - Top 6 Profiles

The new rankings are out and for the second week in a row we have a new No. 1 with North Carolina overtaking Virginia by almost 9 points. TCU stays at No. 3, Ohio State stays at No. 4 and Oklahoma State moves back ahead of UCLA at No. 5 with the Bruins at No. 6. Further down below I have a more in-depth breakdown of the top 6 and how the points were calculated.

This set of rankings used each team's six best wins and all losses while next week's rankings will use each's seven best wins.

3/22 Oracle/ITA Ranking Projections - New Men's #1

Virginia's stay at No. 1 was a short one with North Carolina surging back ahead this week. This week's rankings used each teams six best wins and UNC had six top-15 wins while Virginia had four top-15 wins. UNC also benefited when Florida State jumped in the rankings because that meant the loss to the Seminoles didn't hurt as much plus when UVA went to No. 1 last week that means the Heels road win over them counted that much more.

TCU, which won matches last week over Tulsa, Dartmouth, and Columbia, stays at No. 3 while Ohio State stays at No. 4 after winning at South Florida before falling to Georgia. Oklahoma State and UCLA swap spots for the second week in a row with the Cowboys moving back up to No. 5 after winning at Pepperdine last week while the Bruins were idle.

Sunday recap: Georgia Knocks off Ohio State, Virginia Scalps Florida State, Oklahoma Beats Cal, Florida Blasts Ole Miss

There were several close matches on Sunday but there was only one that saw a top-five team go down. Georgia, ranked No. 19, was hosting No. 4 Ohio State on a mild and breezy day in Athens. After a week of sunny skies and temperatures in the high-70s, the conditions in Athens weren't as favorable with cloudy skies, an increasing breeze, and temperature hovering in the mid-50s. Despite the conditions a crowd of just over 1000 filled into the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and they were treated to a stellar performance by the home-standing Bulldogs.

Georgia Wins!! (Photo Courtesy of Bill Kallenberg)

I personally thought Ohio State would roll in doubles, but Georgia seemed determined to not let that happen.

Saturday Recap: Pac-12 Goes 2-0 In Indian Wells, Texas Tech Wins the HMVC, TCU Over Columbia, Utah State Makes History

It was a good day for the Pac-12 at the BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge as both No. 14 Cal and No. 12 USC picked up wins over Big 12 opponents.

In the first match of the day it was the Battle of the Bears as Cal took on No. 21 Baylor. BU's Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski picked up a 6-2 win at No. 2 but Cal's Mads Engsted and J.T. Nishimura countered with a 6-3 win at No. 3. Cal's No. 1 team of Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat served for the match up 5-3 but BU's Julian Lenz and Will Little broke and then Lenz held for 5-5. Cal held for 6-5 then Bergevi and Lakat broke the Little serve from 30-40 to win it 7-5.

Friday Recap: Noles Rally Past Hokies, Upsets Galore In the SEC, Tulane Outlasts San Diego, UNF Upsets Georgia St

Friday was a wild day of tennis with several teams coming from behind to pull out thrilling wins. The biggest comeback of the day took place in Blacksburg as No. 23 Florida State appeared to be down and out against No. 40 Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Florida State turned it around in singles and took first sets at one through four.

FSU's Benjamin Lock cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Joao Monteiro at No. 1 but Virginia Tech answered with a 7-6, 6-3 win from Aaron Gomez at No. 6.

Weekend Preview (3/18-3/20)

It's Friday and that means another weekend of action packed college tennis action. There are three top-25 matchups on the docket for Friday with two of them getting underway early in the day.

Ninth-ranked Texas A&M (15-4) and No. 25 Mississippi State (11-3) were originally supposed to play on Friday evening but due to the potential for rain the match was moved up to noon central. Last weekend Texas A&M split road matches with a loss to Arkansas and a win over Ole Miss while Mississippi State swept its matches against Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas A&M hasn't lost a conference match at the Mitchell Tennis Center in over three years (3/15/13 - LSU) and I don't see them losing today either.

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.