NCAA Singles/Doubles Semifinals - McDonald Makes Singles & Doubles Final

It'll be an All-American and All-ACC NCAA Women's Singles Final as both of the top seeds, North Carolina's Hayley Carter and Virginia's Danielle Collins, pulled out victories in their semifinal matches.

Hayley Carter (Photo by Bill Kallenberg CapturedInAction.Com)

John Roddick Leaves Oklahoma for.........Central Florida!!

In a stunning development it was announced this evening that John Roddick is stepping down as head coach at University Oklahoma to take over as Director of Tennis and head men's coach at the University of Central Florida. Roddick just finished up his seventh year in Norman after guiding OU to its third consecutive national runner-up finish. Prior to Roddick's arrival in Norman, OU had never made it past the NCAA Round of 16 so the job he did in those seven years was nothing short of phenomenal. If Roddick had stayed at OU for an eighth season he would have most likely had to replace his top two players with Axel Alvarez graduating and Andrew Harris possibly turning pro.

Colette Lewis also conducted an interview with Roddick that talked about his decision to make the move so make sure you check that out at this link.

Central Florida started playing tennis in 1972 at the Division II level and moved up to Division I in the early 80s. UCF has only made it to the NCAA Tournament on three occasions though I expect that to change in the near future.

NCAA Singles/Doubles Semifinals

Women's Semifinals (Noon CT) - Live Scoring/Video

#1 [1] Hayley Carter (North Carolina) vs. #8 [8] Sinead Lohan (Miami (FL)
#2 [2] Danielle Collins (Virginia) vs. #6 [7] Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine)

Men's Semifinals (2 p.m. CT) - Live Scoring/Video

#1 [1] Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St.) vs. #5 [5] Cameron Norrie (TCU) 

#6 [6] Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA) vs. #14 [9-16] Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech)

Women's Doubles Semifinals (4 p.m. CT) - Live Scoring/Video

#2 [1] Hayley Carter-Whitney Kay (North Carolina) vs. #4 [4] Maegan Manasse-Denise Starr (California)
#3 [3] Brooke Austin-Kourtney Keegan (Florida) vs. #7 [5-8] Catherine Harrison-Kyle McPhillips (UCLA)

Men's Doubles Semifinals (6 p.m. CT) - Live Scoring/Video

#8 Arthur Rinderknech-Jackson Withrow (Texas A&M) vs. #63 David Biosca-Rogerio Ribeiro (ETSU)
#2 [2] Mackenzie McDonald-Martin Redlicki (UCLA) vs. #15 Alex Lawson-Quentin Monaghan (Notre Dame)

NCAA Singles/Doubles Quarterfinals

Ohio State sophomore, and ITA No. 1, Mikael Torpegaard became the first Buckeye since Blaz Rola in 2013 to advance to the NCAA semifinals. Torpegaard booked his spot with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Wake Forest freshman Petros Chrysochos. 

Post-Match Comments from Torp:

On what it’s like to move on to the semifinals as the No. 1 seed...
“It’s a relief. Playing with a target on my back its nice to come out to this match really feeling that I am playing the game I want to. I am taking the initiative in the points, and playing the points in my premises and that’s a great feeling to leave the court with today.” 

On what he takes most from today moving on to semifinals... 

“Right now I have the wind in my back. I started out this tournament struggling a little bit with my serve, but I feel like every match it has just got better and better. I can only hope for the match tomorrow to be even better, because I really need to play my best level of tennis to beat these guys.” 

NCAA Singles/Doubles Round of 16 Results

Mikael Torpegaard, Skander Mansouri, Mackenzie McDonald, and Dominik Koepfer were the guys still playing in both the singles and doubles draw coming into today while Hayley Carter, Danielle Collins, Breunna Addison, Luisa Stefani, and Maegan Manasse were the girls still in both.

Mackenzie McDonald was the only guy to advance to the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles while Hayley Carter was the only girl to do it.

According to TRN's projections Mackenzie McDonald has the highest probability (30%) of winning on the men's side followed by Mikael Torpegaard (18%) and Aleks Vukic (13%). Danielle Collins has the highest probability (30%) of winning on the women's side followed by Hayley Carter (20%).

Men’s Round of 16

#1 [1] Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St.) def. #39 Gustav Hansson (Ole Miss) 6-4, 6-4

#27 Petros Chrysochos (Wake Forest) def. #16 Jared Hiltzik (Illinois) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 

#9 [9-16] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia) def. #3 [3] Dominik Koepfer (Tulane) 6-2, 6-1

#5 [5] Cameron Norrie (TCU) def. #47 Dominic Cotrone (South Florida) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2

#14 [9-16] Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech) def. #8 [8] Ryan Shane (Virginia) 1-6, 7-5, 6-2

#4 [4] Aleks Vukic (Illinois) def. #28 Ronnie Schneider (North Carolina) 6-4, 6-1

#6 [6] Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA) def. #13 [9-16] Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest) 6-1, 6-2

#2 [2] Roberto Cid (South Florida) def. #65 Uros Petronijevic (San Diego) 6-4, 6-3

NCAA Singles/Doubles - Day 2 Results

Men's seeds faired well on Day 2 by going 10-2 with Stanford's Tom Fawcett and Florida State's Benjamin Lock the two seeded losers.

Women's seeds took care of business too by going 9-3 with Georgia's Ellen Perez, Cal's Klara Fabikova, and Michigan's Ronit Yurovsky bowing out.

Men’s Singles Second Round

#1 [1] Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio St.) def. #29 William Bushamuka (Kentucky) 7-6, 6-3

#39 Gustav Hansson (Ole Miss) def. #15 [9-16] Tom Fawcett (Stanford) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4

#16 Jared Hiltzik (Illinois) def. #52 Shane Vinsant (Texas A&M) 6-4, 6-2

#27 Petros Chrysochos (Wake Forest) def. #53 Alfredo Perez (Florida) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(3)

NCAA Singles Championships - Day 1 Results

Tuesday was a pretty good day for the top 16 seeds with 12 of 16 on the men's side advancing to the second round while 14 of 16 on the women's side pulled through.

The biggest men's upset was Georgia Tech's Chris Eubanks, the No. 7 seed, going down to Texas A&M's Shane Vinsant 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

The biggest women's upset was Florida's Brooke Austin, the No. 4 seed, getting beat by Rice's Katherine Ip who had an ITA ranking of No. 104.

Singles will continue today with second round action while doubles gets started today with first round matches.

Guess Hoo Won It Again

The Virginia dynasty picked up another passenger today as the Cavaliers repeated as the NCAA Men's Tennis National Champions with a 4-1 win over No. 10 Oklahoma.

Taylor Davidson Clinches Stanford's 18th National Championship

Stanford junior Taylor Davidson clinched national title No. 18 for the Cardinal with a dramatic win over Vladica Babic in the deciding match at No. 2 singles. There was a huge orange-clad crowd of over 1600 on hand cheering every point but it wasn't enough to push Oklahoma State over the top.

The Clincher (Photo By Bill Kallenberg - CapturedInAction.com)

NCAA Championship Preview - Virginia/Oklahoma

[1] Virginia Cavaliers (29-4) vs. [11] Oklahoma Sooners (20-10) - Tuesday 6pm CT - Well here we are again with the same matchup as last year though for most of the regular season it didn't look like it would end up that way. Virginia had some ups and downs and had its ACC regular season and postseason winning streaks get snapped while Oklahoma lost 10, yes 10, matches and went out in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament. Both teams have hit their peak this week with the return of a pair of starters that missed most of the year with regular season injuries. Andrew Harris (knee/groin) is anchoring the OU lineup which has let everyone else slide down a spot while Alex Ritschard (shoulder) has helped strengthen the middle of the UVA lineup. 

These two actually met just a little over two months ago on these same courts in Tulsa with Virginia winning 4-3 though the match wasn't as close as the score. Aragone clinched at 4-1 but they played the remaining matches out with OU winning both. All six singles matches will be different this time due to Harris and Ritschard re-entering the lineup. 

Virginia won last year's final 4-1 in a match where Virginia was in control just about the entire time. There will be one rematch from that one with J.C. Aragone and Florin Bragusi matched up at No. 5 this year after playing at No. 6 last year. 

Rematch Time - Virginia/Oklahoma To Meet Once Again For The National Championship

It was an interesting day at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa with rain forcing one of the two semifinal matches indoors. Virginia had little trouble dispatching Cal in the indoor semifinal while Oklahoma won a 4-3 thriller in the nightcap which was played outdoors.

Sooners Win (Photo By Ty Russell - SoonerSports)

The Oklahoma/Georgia match was originally scheduled to start at 4 p.m. central time but due to periodic showers it was put on hold while Virginia and Cal went indoors with a 5:25 p.m. central start. The reason Virginia and Cal couldn't start until 5:25 was because the second women's semifinal didn't finish until 4:20 and neither Virginia or Cal had been able to hit since the morning so they needed an hour to get warmed up. Since Virginia was the highest remaining seed they were given the earlier start time which meant Oklahoma and Georgia had the chance to go outdoors if it dried up. The official starting time of 7 p.m. wasn't announced until close to 6 p.m. so a lot of the local OU fans probably didn't get the memo because the crowds weren't anywhere near what I thought they would be. Coincidentally the paid attendance of 1197 was actually the best this week but many of those fans came for the Oklahoma State women's match at 10 a.m. and were long gone by the time the men's matches started.

Orange Power - Oklahoma State Stuns #1 Cal 4-3

What has already been a great story has now morphed into something on a mythical level after the local favorite Oklahoma State Cowgirls stunned top ranked California 4-3. The Cowgirls started the match off the same way they have started all but one of them off and that was with the doubles point in their back pocket. OSU won the doubles point for the 31st time in 32 matches after picking up a 6-0 win at No. 3 and a 6-2 win at No. 2.

NCAA Semifinal Preview - Virginia/Cal & Georgia/Oklahoma

[1] Virginia Cavaliers (28-4) vs. [13] Cal Bears (21-6) - Monday 4pm CT - Virginia advanced to its seventh straight NCAA semifinals with a 4-0 shellacking of Florida while Cal advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 1991 after winning a 4-3 thriller over Ohio State. These teams last met in the quarterfinals of the 2014 National Team Indoors in Houston though only a handful of guys were on those teams. Cal has been the cinderella story on the men's side after taking out the No. 4 and No. 5 while Virginia played its best tennis yesterday in its match against Florida. If Virginia plays like it did in that match there isn't anyone that's going to beat them in these next two days.  

Cal and Oklahoma Win Thrillers While Virginia and Georgia Roll

Sunday was unbelievable day to be in Tulsa with two heart-pounding 4-3 thrillers with the Cal and Ohio State match coming down to a third set tiebreak to decide the winner. The crowds were a little light around noon central but by 1 p.m. the stands were filling up and by the time the Cal/Ohio State match came to a conclusion it was standing room only. The actual paid attendance was just over 1100 but by the time you added in coaches, players, volunteers, and media you probably had close to 1400 people crammed in there which made for a great environment.

NCAA Quarterfinals Preview - Virginia/Florida, Ohio State/Cal, UNC/UGA, Oklahoma/UCLA

[1] Virginia Cavaliers (27-4) vs. [9] Florida Gators (21-6) - Noon CT - Virginia moved into the quarterfinals after pulling out a hard fought 4-2 win over Oklahoma State while Florida's bottom of the lineup help propel them to a 4-0 win over SMU. Virginia won the regular season meeting in Gainesville 5-2 and it looks like the top three spots in the lineup will all be rematches. Virginia is trying to make it back to the NCAA semifinals for the seventh year in a row while Florida last made the semis in 2005. Florida has won its last nine matches while Virginia has won its last three. 

Doubles Records: Virginia 27-4, Florida 22-5

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 86, Florida 84

Cowboys Prod The Buckeyes & Cal Rides Out The Wave

The Cinderella team of this year's NCAA Tournament kept its magic going on Saturday as the local team, Oklahoma State, stunned No. 4 Ohio State 4-2 in front of a large pro-Cowboys crowd in Tulsa. 

Vanderbilt Vanquishes Virginia & Stanford Out Muscles Michigan

One half of the women's semifinals are set after both Vanderbilt and Stanford came through their respective quarterfinal matches against Virginia and Michigan.

While the scores of the two matches look fairly similar in reality they didn't have much in common. Vanderbilt absolutely crushed Virginia in doubles winning at both No. 2 and No. 3 by 6-0 scores. The match at No. 2 finished in 24 minutes while the match at No. 3 took 26 minutes.

Georgia Rallies Past USC, Oklahoma Whips Wake, UCLA Tops Stanford, Florida and North Carolina Roll

After a great first half of the day in Tulsa we were treated to a gem in the evening as Georgia and USC went toe-to-toe for the better part of three hours. USC came into the round of 16 with the worst doubles winning percentage (.409) out of the teams still left in the field but that didn't stop them from getting off to a quick start against Georgia.

USC's No. 1 team of Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven opened the match by holding on the deciding point to take a 1-0 lead and then they'd break Austin Smith to go up 2-0. Crystal held for 3-0 before Ben Wagland finally put Georgia on the board with a hold for 1-3. Verboven held on the deciding point for 4-1 and then USC broke Austin Smith on the deciding point to go up 5-1. Crystal went up 40-15 on his next service game but had to hit a service winner on the deciding point to win it 6-1.

Ohio State Outlasts Texas & Virginia Holds Off Oklahoma State

I think we now know that nothing is going to be easy for anyone in this year's NCAA Tournament as evidenced by yesterday's women's matches and today's first three men's matches.

Ohio State and Texas were supposed to start at 9 a.m. this morning but due to the wet courts outside they got put on hold and stayed on hold for a while. It seemed like the plan was to have them play indoors after the conclusion of the TCU/Cal match but the decision was made to move them outdoors so at 12:12 p.m. central time doubles finally begin under grey skies.

Cal Wins A 4-3 Thriller To Kick Off Friday's Schedule

Well that didn't take long - we already have our first upset of the day as No. 13 California withstood a late rally by TCU to hold on for a 4-3 win. The match was supposed to be played outdoors but it had to be played indoors since the courts were still wet from yesterday's rain plus there was still a light mist in the air up until about 10:30 a.m.

Cal dropped the doubles point in the regular season meeting but then took over in singles and won 4-2; today Cal got off to the quick start in doubles by going up early breaks on a few courts but closing them out wouldn't be easy.

Women's Round of 16 - Upsets Rule The Day

Projected Lineups

Round of 16 Schedule - Tulsa, OK - Thursday
[3] North Carolina vs. [14] Virginia - 10am ET/9am CT - UVA 4-2
[6] Vanderbilt vs. [11] Auburn  - 10am ET/9am CT - Vanderbilt 4-0
[7] Miami vs. [10] Michigan - 1pm ET/Noon CT - Michigan 4-3
[2] Florida vs. [15] Stanford - 1pm ET/Noon CT - Stanford 4-3
[1] California vs. [16] Texas Tech - 5pm ET/4pm CT - Cal 4-0
[8] Pepperdine vs. [17-32] Texas - 5pm ET/4pm CT - Pepperdine 4-0
[5] Georgia vs. [12] Oklahoma State - 8pm ET/7pm CT - Oklahoma State 4-0
[4] Ohio State vs. [17-32] Georgia Tech - 8pm ET/7pm CT - Live Scoring - Ohio State 4-2

Links to Note:
Host Site
Live Scoring/Video
Live Scoring/Video (Stillwater)

NCAA Round of 16 Previews - UCLA/Stanford, Wake/Oklahoma, Georgia/USC, UNC/Miss St

[3] UCLA Bruins (24-2) vs. [17-32] Stanford Cardinal (15-10)  - Friday 8pm ET - UCLA booked its spot in the Sweet 16 after shutting out both Weber State and San Diego while Stanford knocked off Notre Dame 4-1 and Northwestern 4-3. UCLA is the only team to make the Sweet 16 every year since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1999 while Stanford is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012. This will be the fourth meeting of the year with UCLA taking the previous three. 

Interesting notes: Stanford won the doubles point in each of those three previous matches yet UCLA came back and won each time. UCLA will have played the exact same singles lineup in all four matches while Tom Fawcett is the only Stanford player to have stayed in the same spot all year. Michael Genender started the year at #6 singles but has worked his way up to #2. 

NCAA Round of 16 Previews - Virginia/Oklahoma State, Florida/SMU, Ohio State/Texas, TCU/Cal

[1] Virginia Cavaliers (26-4) vs. [16] Oklahoma State Cowboys (20-7) - 1pm ET - Virginia advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 4-0 win over Monmouth and a 4-1 win over Penn State while Oklahoma State beat Bryant and Arkansas 4-0. Oklahoma State will only be playing 75 miles from its Stillwater campus so it should have a good amount of fan support but it'll take a Herculean effort to get past Virginia. 

Doubles Records: Virginia 26-4, Oklahoma State 18-8

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 86, Oklahoma State 82

FloSports and ITA Partnership, Tulsa Weather, Michigan Appeal Denied, Who Plays Good Doubles

This morning it was announced that FloSports and the ITA have entered into a five-year agreement where FloSports will provide live streaming for up to 15 ITA events per year including all ITA National Championships (Men's and Women's All-American, Men's and Women's D1 and D3 National Team Indoors) in a paid subscription model.  This is going to be nice for all the events where streaming wasn't available but it'll be interesting to see what changes on the events where streaming was provided for free. Here is the full release from the ITA that you can read at your convenience.

NCAA Women's Round of 16 - By The Numbers

Yesterday I gave you all the men's numbers now today let's go through the women's numbers.

I have them broken down by team, player, winning percentage, Universal Tennis Rating, ITA Ranking, country, and then broken down by individual position. It'll probably be easier to view them on the google doc at this link.