2016 Season Preview - Texas A&M Aggies

When Texas A&M made the transition from the Big 12 to the SEC in the summer of 2012 they were coming off their first losing season since 1997 and it had been 10 years since the Aggies had won a conference or division title.  Fast forward to the summer of 2015 and in the past 3 years the Aggies have won a West Division title (2013), a Conference Tournament title (2014), and another Conference Tournament title with a share of the Regular Season title (2015) to boot. (Note: SEC discontinued divisions after the 2013 season and combined everyone into one group)

I don't know if it was the SEC branding or the incoming talent (latter) but the Aggies have quickly turned into a juggernaut in the SEC with no opposing team wanting to go to College Station on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.  Texas A&M is 32-3 at home over the last 2 years and a perfect 15-0 against the SEC with windy conditions and rowdy crowds the norm for incoming opposition.

Steve Denton's teams have made the NCAA tournament each of the past 9 years but they've yet to make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Round of 16 but I have to think Denton likes his chances this year.  Last year's run to the Elite 8 marked only the second time in school history that A&M had made it that deep with the first time coming back in 2001.

2016 Season Preview - Georgia Bulldogs

When you talk about the greatest college tennis programs in the land, Georgia is always going to be in the conversation.  Georgia boasts 6 NCAA National Titles (85, 87, 99, 01, 07, 08) with current head coach Manny Diaz, who is now in his 28th year as head coach of the Bulldogs, the architect of the last 4. The last time Tulsa hosted the NCAAs (2008) Georgia won it all so Manny Diaz is probably hoping that lighting strikes again this year.

Diaz returns 5 singles starters from last year's team which finished ranked #8 after falling to then #1 Oklahoma 4-2 in the NCAA quarterfinals. Georgia and Texas A&M shared the SEC regular season title after both went 11-1 (UGA won regular season match in Athens 4-1) however Texas A&M won the conference tournament when they beat Georgia 4-2 in the finals in a match that was held in College Station.

The one singles starter that Diaz has to replace is Nathan Pasha who went 16-5 last season in dual-match play including 14-3 at #3 singles. Pasha's frequent doubles partner Eric Diaz also graduated so there will be 2 openings in doubles. Pasha and Diaz struggled a bit last season going 4-9 at #2 doubles before Diaz had to take a month off to recover from an appendectomy. Diaz returned in time for the NCAAs and went 3-1 with Paul Oosterbaan at #3 doubles.

2016 Season Preview - Stanford Cardinal

Optimism is in the air on The Farm as year two of the Paul Goldstein era has many of the Cardinal faithful believing that a return to prominence is much closer than originally anticipated.
   
Stanford was the undisputed king of men's college tennis from 1977 to 2000 winning an astonishing 15 National Championships but since 2000 the Cardinal have only made it past the quarterfinals once (2003) and have only advanced to the Final 16 site 8 times. The last time Stanford made it to the Round of 16 was 2012 so the current 3-year drought is the program's longest since the dual-match format was instituted in 1977.

If you look at the TRN's recruiting rankings you'll notice that the Cardinal almost always has a top 5 recruiting class (#1 in 2014) but the player development was sliding towards the end of John Whitlinger's 10-year stint. The 3-man class of 2013 has only started 9 dual-matches in the past 2 years and only 2 of 4 guys from the class of 2012 were contributors last season.  

2016 Season Preview - UCLA Bruins

No team has been more consistent over the years than UCLA with the Bruins the only team to make the NCAA Round of 16 every year since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1999. UCLA head coach Billy Martin enters his 23rd year at the helm with 1 National Title (2005) and 4 National Runner-Ups (96/99/04/13) in his previous 22 years.

Martin only loses 1 player from last year's Round of 16 team though that 1 guy was a valuable one with Dennis Mkrtchian going 15-5 in dual-match play with the majority of his matches coming at #2 singles.

UCLA returns everyone else with Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki expected to anchor the singles and doubles lineup. McDonald went 15-1 in dual-match play last year with all his matches coming at #1 while Redlicki went 17-3 with most of his matches coming at #2 and #3. The pair combined to go 12-5 at #1 doubles and they also performed well over the summer winning the Costa Mesa Futures and making the semifinals at the Claremont Futures. McDonald is the only current college player with an ATP ranking inside the top 600 and he's well inside it at 372.

2016 Season Preview - USC Trojans

During USC's stretch of dominance, which saw them win 4 National Titles in 5 years, one of the biggest things that contributed to USC's success (aside from Steve Johnson) was the lack of turnover among its starters. The last time USC had to replace more than 2 starters was all the back in 2008 (Van't Hof, Sacks, Piotrowski) but this season they have to replace 4 with Yannick Hanfmann, Roberto Quiroz, Eric Johnson, and Jonny Wang all moving on after 4 spectacular seasons.

Hanfmann, Quiroz, Johnson, and Wang accounted for 59% of USC's dual-match singles wins last season though the 2 returning starters, Max de Vroome (Sr) and Nick Crystal (Jr), each won 18 dual-matches which tied them for 2nd on the team.

Peter Smith welcomes back several quality depth players with a few of them likely to start this season. If healthy, I think that both Connor Farren (Jr) and Rob Bellamy (Jr) will be in the starting 6 with Thibault Forget (Guy Forget's son) and Tanner Smith (Peter Smith's son) just on the outside looking in.

2016 Season Preview - Ohio State Buckeyes

Many wouldn't consider a 27-9 season a disappointment but it is if you are accustomed to winning conference championships and making deep runs at the NCAAs. When Ohio State lost 4-3 to Texas A&M in the Round of 16 it marked the first time since 2005 that the Buckeyes hadn't at least made the NCAA Quarterfinals.  Ohio State had won the Big Ten conference tournament 8 of the previous 9 seasons but Illinois shut them out twice in Champaign last season with the second occurrence coming in the Big Ten finals.

Ohio State's strength last season was the bottom of the lineup with the 4 through 6 spots going 69-16 (.81) while the top half of the lineup was good 49-28 (.64) but came up short too many times against tougher competition. In Ohio State's 9 losses the top half of the lineup went just 6-18 (.25) including 0-3 in the season ending loss to Texas A&M.

Ohio State has to replace 2 starters, Hunter Callahan and Kevin Metka, that both excelled in singles and doubles with the pair combining to go 41-12 in dual-match singles play and 42-17 in dual-match doubles play.

Best Teams Not To Win A Natty In The Last 10 Years: 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes

They started playing tennis in Columbus all the way back in 1912 but they didn't "really" start playing until Ty Tucker took over the program in 1999. From 1912 to 1999 (87 years) the Buckeyes had a record of 733-613-10 (.541) and won just 3 Big 10 Championships but from 2000 to the present they're 455-74 (.860) and have won 10 regular season Big 10 Championships and another 10 Big 10 Tournament Championships. Prior to Tucker's arrival Ohio State had never played in the NCAA Tournament but since his arrival they've made it all 16 times (note: field was expanded to 64 starting in spring of 1999). In those 16 appearances Ohio State has been a top 5 national seed 8 times with those 8 coming in consecutive years starting in 2007 and ending in 2014. The only team to string together a longer streak is Virginia who has been a top 5 seed each of the last 9 years (10 times total since 2005).

Tucker's recipe for success has traditionally been to have a balanced mixture of the top talent from the state of Ohio and the northeastern U.S. along with a few high-end Europeans. Some of Ohio State's better players over the last decade weren't the sure thing TRN Blue Chips but rather the 4 and 5 stars that Tucker was able to develop into excellent players (Kobelt, McCarthy, Callahan, Metka). The reason they were able to develop is due to Tucker's practice of getting many of his guys to take a redshirt season which allows them to adapt to college life as well hone their game at a slower pace. 8 of the 12 guys on the current roster have already taken a redshirt season or will be taking one before their eligibility runs out. If you go back to 2007, 21 of 37 guys that played for the Buckeyes will have taken a redshirt season.

More From The Convention

The 175 or so coaches that made the trip down to Naples for the 2015 ITA Coaches Convention got treated to a slew of terrific speakers and demonstrators who gave them tips on everything from developing a championship team to learning how to add 10 miles per hour to their player's serve.

While Sunday was loaded full of strategy sessions and round table meetings, Monday and Tuesday was a lot more loose with a number of high profile guest speakers with many of them providing on court demonstrations.

The first half of Monday had 4 different coaches forums with each 45 minute forum talking about a different topic.  Pomona-Pitzer's Ann Lebedeff, who would also be awarded the 2015 ITA Meritorious Service Award at the banquet, talked about the history of coaching and some of the perceptions that student-athletes have about men's and women's coaches.

2015 ITA Coaches Convention

Last month the ITA's new COO, Erica Perkins Jasper, invited me to attend the ITA Coaches Convention as a guest of the ITA so I took her up on the offer and sat in on a lively day of discussion today in Naples at the lovely Naples Grande Beach Resort. The convention is open to all college coaches including assistants and I thought the turnout was pretty good for mid-December.

The charismatic and lively Tim Russell, ITA's new CEO, opened up the day with a few personal stories and then talked about a number of topics but said his main goal is to not only preserve college tennis but to strengthen, grow, and transform it. There are some other notes from Tim's opening speech further down below.

The keynote address was delivered by 1993 Michigan State graduate Molly Fletcher who might I add is a tremendous speaker. She brought a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and inspiration to the room which was a good thing because there was a lengthy strategic planning session that followed. 

2016 Season Preview - TCU Horned Frogs

TCU has plenty of history when it comes to men's tennis but prior to last year most of it was distant history. TCU had made just 3 trips to the NCAA Round of 16 in the previous 16 years, with the most recent being in 2004, and hadn't made the Round of 16 as a seed since 2000.  TCU head coach David Roditi updated the record books last year when he guided his senior laden team to the NCAA semifinals and had them a whisker away from a spot in the finals.

I thought this would be a rebuilding year after losing 5 seniors (Nick Chappell, Facundo Lugones, Arnau Dachs, Will Stein, Blake Wiggins) that accounted for 55% of TCU's dual-match wins but Roditi has restocked the shelves nicely and it's possible that TCU may actually be better this coming season.

Team USA Wins Master'U; Pro Success From Former College Players

Team USA won the Master'U BNP Paribas for the 5th year in a row and the 6th time in the last 7 years after Florida's Brooke Austin and Cal's Maegan Manasse sealed the title with a 7-5, 6-1 win over France's Clemence Fayol and Alice Bacquie. Virginia's Danielle Collins won her singles match 6-4, 6-3, Stanford's Tom Fawcett won 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, and UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald won 7-6, 6-1. Cal's Manasse lost 6-2, 6-2 while Georgia's Austin Smith was set to play in doubles but the remaining matches were called off due to the clinch.

In the 10 years of the event the USA has won it 6 times (2009, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15), France 3 times (2006, 07, 10), and Russia won it once in 2008.

The team was coached by Boise State men's head coach Greg Patton and Cal women's coach Amanda Augustus.

USA National Collegiate team wins 6th Master U BNP Paribas team championship. 4-1 over France. Wmn dubs clinch. pic.twitter.com/4RGQWutTcF

— Greg Patton (@GregPatton2) December 6, 2015

2016 Season Preview - Virginia Cavaliers

The defending national champions will be shooting for their third title in the last four years and even though they lost one of the all-time greats in Mitchell Frank they'll still have a pretty stacked roster that's loaded with talent and experience. Virginia has a rugged top 3 with Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski each likely to split time in the top 3 spots while there will be 5 guys (Ritschard, Aragone, Wiersholm, Styslinger, Corinteli) that are more than capable of filling the bottom 3 spots.

Brian Boland has lined up a tough non-conference schedule that has the Hoos facing Kentucky and UCLA at home and Illinois, Tulsa, Oklahoma (@ Tulsa), and Florida on the road. Virginia hosts this year's National Team Indoors in February which will have them facing another 3 or 4 top 15 teams and of course Virginia plays a full ACC schedule with Wake Forest coming to Cville and the Hoos going to Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke.  The full schedule is further down the page.

Fall Phenoms

The 2015 fall season is in the books so let's take a look back at the guys that were a head above the rest. Of course you've got to start out with the guys that claimed the 3 fall majors which were the Oracle ITA Masters, the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American, and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. After that I look at the guys that made strong runs in majors as well as several other tournaments.

Player (School/Year/UTR as of 12/1) - records listed are just in college events.

Dominik Koepfer (Tulane Sr/14.31) - What a tremendous fall for the senior from Furtwangen, Germany with a Championship, Runner-Up, and a Semifinal appearance at the 3 fall slams. Koepfer beat 10 ranked opponents with 8 of them being ranked inside the top 50.

Upcoming Month

Probably won't have a ton of posts over the next month but I'll have a fall wrap-up coming up in the next week or so and then I'll have my pre-season rankings out no later than January 1st. 

The majority of teams have released their schedules for the upcoming season so if you want to see them all in one spreadsheet you can check out my google doc which is in my Team Schedules tab. Right now it just has men's schedules but I plan on adding women's in the next month. 

It looks like the coaching carousel is done spinning for the year with all but 2 jobs filled. Here is a list of who left and who came in.

Koepfer & Di Lorenzo Rise To The Top, Takeda Takes the Jack Kramer, Andrews Shakes Hands With Dickie V, Fennell The Top Dog in Athens, Michnev Bags #1

It was Championship Sunday at the National Indoor Intercollegiates and Tulane senior Dominik Koepfer and Ohio State freshman Francesca Di Lorenzo would claim the singles championships while Texas Tech's Hugo Dojas and Felipe Soares and North Carolina's Hayley Carter and Whitney Kay would win the doubles championships.

Below are the final scores from all championship matches along with photos of the winners of the main draw events courtesy of the ITA. Here is the ITA's recap of the day's events and here is Colette Lewis's recap on Zoo Tennis which has more insight in the singles matches.

Dominik Koepfer makes history as he becomes first @GreenWaveMTenn player to win #NIIC national title! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/ByG7MmBHOq

— ITA Tennis (@ITATennis) November 15, 2015

NIIC Day 3: Goransson Gets Past Eubanks; Koepfer Overpowers Monteiro

The singles finals are set at the National Indoor Intercollegiates and it'll be Cal's Andre Goransson taking on Tulane's Dominik Koepfer on the men's side and Clemson's Joana Eidukonyte meeting Ohio State's Francesca Di Lorenzo on the women's side.

Cal's Andre Goransson got the only break of the opening set when he broke Chris Eubanks's 5-5 service game and then he served it out to take the set 7-5.  Below is a clip of Goransson's break (FYI, I recorded all the clips off ESPN3 so some are better than others but at least it's something)

The Georgia Tech sophomore would bounce back in the second set by breaking Goransson twice and he quickly took a 6-1 set to force a third.

Eubanks broke Goransson to start the third set by unloading on a forehand on the deciding point however Goransson would return the favor and break back from 15-40 to even it at 1-1. After a couple of quick holds it looked like Eubanks was going to get the break when he went up 0-40 on Goransson's 3-3 service game. Goransson quickly got it back to the 40-40 deciding point and then he used his forehand to pull Eubanks off the court and followed that up with a volley that Eubanks couldn't steer into play. Goransson had fought off each of the 4 break points and now led 4-3 and in fact he wouldn't lose another point on his serve the rest of the way.

Both guys would hold fairly easily up until Eubanks's 5-6 service game.  Eubanks went up 30-0 but on the next point Goransson came in and hit a backhand volley that landed right on the line and with Eubanks standing almost on top of the ball he got handcuffed and sent his return deep to make it 30-15. Eubanks then pushed a forehand wide to make it 30-30 and then Goransson smacked a nice deep service return that Eubanks put into the net and with that Goransson had 2 match points. Eubanks hit a forehand winner to fight off the first match point but on the second MP Goransson got a nice return on Eubanks's second serve and a few points later he'd steer a backhand up the line that Eubanks would then put into the net and that was all she wrote - Goransson 7-5, 1-6, 7-5.

Jack Kramer, Dickie V, Bulldog Scramble, CCB Bama Scoring Updates

The seeds have held their own so far at the Dick Vitale Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic with all 4 men's seeds and 3 of the top 4 on the women's side into the quarterfinals.

The seeds haven't faired as well at the Jake Kramer Tennis Classic in Rolling Hills, California with only 2 of the top 8 making it to the quarterfinals and only 1 of those 2 making the semifinals. USC junior Connor Farren will meet his teammate sophomore Thiabault Forget (son of Guy Forget) in the one semifinal while the #1 seed Arizona senior Naoki Takeda will face Stanford senior Maciek Romanowicz in the other.

Georgia's Nick Wood and Walker Duncan, Notre Dame's Daniel Rayl, South Carolina's Alex Fennell, and Harvard's Chris Morrow each went 2-0 on Day 1 of the Bulldog Scramble. Wood, Duncan, and Morrow each picked an additional doubles win as well.

Day 1 of the CCB Collegiate Invitational in Birmingham didn't produce any noteworthy upsets with South Alabama's Tuki Jacobs, Alabama's Danny Kerznerman, Tulane's Chi-Shan Jao, and Middle Tennessee's State's Gian Issa among the winners in the Crimson singles draw.

NIIC Day 2: Monteiro Upsets #1 Seed Kwiatkowski, Koepfer Only Seed Left

A day after the #1 seed on the women's side went down the men's #1 followed suit as Virginia Tech senior Joao Monteiro upset Virginia junior Thai-Son Kwiatkowski 6-1, 7-6(4) in the NIIC quarterfinals. Kwiatkowski had beat Monteiro 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 back on September 20th in the finals of the UVA Ranked 1+1 but Monteiro was able to turn the tide today.

Stanford sophomore Tom Fawcett upset the #2 seed TCU sophomore Cameron Norrie 6-4, 7-6(8) so that means we'll be guaranteed to have a first time major winner on Sunday. Norrie of course won the Oracle Masters back in September while Kwiatkowski won the All-Americans in October.

Cal's Andre Goransson came back from a set down to win his Round of 16 match over Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard then in his quarterfinal match he saw a 6-2, 5-1 lead evaporate as Texas A&M's Arthur Rinderknech won 4 straight games to even it at 5-5. Goransson managed to break on the deciding point to go up 6-5 and then he quickly served it out quickly to close out the 6-2, 7-5 win.

Tulane's Dominik Koepfer rolled over Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri 6-2, 6-2 in the Round of 16 then he followed that up with a gritty 7-6(6), 7-5 win over Illinois's Jared Hiltzik. Hiltzik had a set point in the first set tiebreak on his serve but Koepfer managed to win the last 3 points to take the set. In the second set Hiltzik led 5-3 but Koepfer battled back and took the next 4 games to close out the win.

Georgia Tech sophomore Chris Eubanks won both his matches in straight sets. He took out Ohio State junior Herkko Pollanen 7-5, 6-2 in the opening match and then got past Stanford's Tom Fawcett in the quarters by almost the same score of 6-2, 7-5. Fawcett led 5-2 in the second before Eubanks reeled off 5 straight to close it out.

As a reminder ESPN3's coverage will start on Saturday morning at 9am as they'll broadcast both the men's and women's singles and doubles semifinals. Here is the Saturday order of play with all 4 singles semis (2 men/2 women) being played on court 9 starting with the women.

All main draws results are below:

NIIC Day 1 - Top Men's Singles Seeds Roll, #1 Dubs Ousted

6 of the top 8 seeds on the men's side won their opening round matches while 7 of the top 8 on the women's side did though the 1 that lost on the women's side was the #1 seed Virginia's Danielle Collins.

The men's doubles #1 seed Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger were upset in the 2nd round by Texas Tech's Hugo Dojas and Felipe Soares 7-6(5), 6-4.

Links to bookmark:

ITA host page
Live Scoring
Live Scoring (Mobile)
Live Blog
RadioTennis - Live Tennis Chat
ESPN3
NIIC Facts 

NIIC - Men's 1st Round:
[1] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (UVA) def. Benjamin Lock (FSU) 6-2, 6-4
Konrad Zieba (NU) def. Max Hinnisdaels (AUB) 6-4, 6-2
[5] Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. Kevin Konfederak (GG) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3
Joao Monteiro (VT) def. Diego Hidalgo (UF) 7-6(6), 6-3
[3] Dominik Koepfer (TUL) def. Chris Diaz (OSU) 6-1, 6-4
Skander Mansouri (WF) def. Guillermo Nunez (TCU) 6-3, 7-5
[8] Jared Hiltzik (ILL) def. Uros Petronijevic (SD) 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2
David Wilczynski (ST) def. Shawn Hadavi (CU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Andre Goransson (CAL) def. Diogo Rocha (DU) 6-1, 6-2
Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) def. [6] Roberto Cid (USF) 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4
Austin Smith (UGA) def. Martin Redlicki (UCLA) 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2
[4] Arthur Rinderknech (aTm) def. Dovydas Sakinis (DRT) 6-3, 6-4
Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Sam Monette (IU) 6-4, 6-4
Chris Eubanks (GT) def. [7] Nicolas Alvarez (Duke) 6-4, 6-2
Tom Fawcett (ST) def. Quentin Monaghan (ND) 6-2, 6-4
[2] Cameron Norrie (TCU) def. Alex Ghilea (OU) 6-0, 6-3

Jack Kramer Classic, Lakewood Ranch Dickie V, Bulldog Scramble, Georgia Signs Ponwith

Over the next 4 days the big headline grabber will be the National Indoor Intercollegiates in New York but there are a few other events taking place that are I'll keep an eye on too.

The Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Rolling Hills Estates, California will host the Jack Kramer Classic with 12 mainly west coast teams sending players to compete. Those 12 schools are USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Cal Poly, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine UC Irvine, and SMU.  The tournament site is here and it has a list of competitors with draws likely to be released on Thursday. Some of the bigger names competing are UCLA's Gage Brymer, USC's Robbie Bellamy and Jack DeVine, Arizona's Naoki Takeda, Washington's Jake Douglas and Enzo Sommer, Oregon's Daan Maasland, Pepperdine's Stefan Menichella, SMU's Samm Butler and Hunter Johnson. 

National Indoor Intercollegiate Draws

The draws are out and we are less than 24 hours away from first serve of the 2015 National Indoor Intercollegiates in the NYC. The tournament starts on Thursday morning and finishes on Sunday. ESPN3 will have streaming video of the semifinals and finals on Saturday and Sunday. Ken Thomas of RadioTennis.com will broadcast all weekend, the USTA has a live blog that will run, and Columbia will provide live scoring so as a fan you should be covered from all angles.

Links to bookmark:

ITA host page
Live Scoring
Live Scoring (Mobile)
Live Blog
RadioTennis
ESPN3
NIIC Facts 

Below are the all the draws and my google doc has the men's draw sorted by preseason ITA ranking, seed, UTR, school, and country. I'll have the women's draw sorted by those same things shortly.

Davis Crocker Wins The Big 10 Indoors Singles Title, NIIC's 3 Days Away, Ybarra Wins Top Flight Of UTR Texas Open

Michigan redshirt sophomore Davis Crocker won the Big 10 Indoor Championship by knocking off Northwestern freshman Ben Vandixhorn 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals then he beat Nebraska freshman Toby Boyer 6-3, 6-2 in the finals. All said and done Crocker went 6-0 on the week in singles play and only dropped 1 set. Boyer earned his spot in the finals by defeating Indiana's Matt McCoy 6-4, 6-3

Congrats to @DJCTennis for winning the singles title at the Big Ten Indoor Tourney! 〽️🏆🎾 #goblue pic.twitter.com/8BsASshdeU

— Michigan Tennis (@umichtennis) November 9, 2015

Friedrich Wins in Orlando + Several Guys Have Pro Success

South Carolina's Gabriel Friedrich knocked off teammate Harrison O'Keefe 6-3, 6-7(0), 6-4 in a live streamed match on ESPN3 to win the top singles flight at the USTA Clay Court Invitational in Orlando.

Comments from SC recap:
“What a way to end the tournament,” South Carolina head coach Josh Goffi said. “I couldn’t be more proud of Gabriel and Harrison. Both kept raising their level to trump the other’s momentum gains and, consequently, we ended up with a very high-level match at the end. They were respectful, yet extremely competitive, and that’s one of the hardest things to do when you’re playing your teammate. It’s disappointing that there had to be a loser today because both of them played great and got better throughout the match. In the end, the Gamecocks won, and it’s a great day for our program.”

Recap: Friedrich Tops O’Keefe in Three Sets for USTA Clay Court Title https://t.co/PB5TA3dum3 #Gamecocks pic.twitter.com/wpUEugNMxq

— Gamecock M. Tennis (@GamecockMTennis) November 8, 2015

All-Gamecock Men's & All-ACC Women's Final in Orlando

The champion of the USTA Clay Court Invitational Gold draw is guaranteed to be a South Carolina Gamecock after sophomores Gabriel Friedrick and Harrison O'Keefe each won twice on Saturday.

Friedrich (13.68) opened up with a 6-3, 6-2 quarterfinal win over Troy's Giovani Samaha (12.94) and then beat Pepperdine's Guilherme Hadlich (13.68) 6-3, 6-4 in the semis while O'Keefe (13.49) beat Baylor's Jimmy Bendeck (13.22) 6-2, 7-6(4) in the quarters and Pepperdine's Pedro Iamachkine (13.09) 6-4, 6-4 in the semis.  

In the Garnet draw final it'll be Pepperdine's Lautaro Pane (12.83) taking on Penn State's Tomas Hanzlik (13.21) after Pane knocked off Central Florida's Jose Sangroniz (12.50) 6-1, 6-3 and Hanzlik beat Georgia Tech's Andrew Li (12.97) 6-3, 6-2.

In the women's Gold draw it'll be NC State's Martina Frantova (10.42) versus Virginia Tech's Ilinca Stoica (10.50). Frantova hasn't dropped a set all weekend and dispatched the #1 seed Florida's Josie Kuhlman (11.33) 6-3, 6-4 in the semis. Stoica has only dropped 1 set in her 4 matches after getting past Florida's Brianna Morgan (11.10) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Both finals will be broadcast on ESPN3 with coverage starting at 9am est on Sunday - don't forget to tune in!!

Friday Tournament Results

Pepperdine, Baylor, and South Carolina each have 2 guys still remaining in the Gold Draw of the USTA Clay Court Invitational while Georgia Tech and Troy have the others.

The Nebraska brother duo of Dusty and Toby Boyer won the Big 10 Indoors doubles championship with a 6-3 win in the final over Penn State's David Kohan and Christian Lutschaunig.  Singles play begins on Saturday and finished on Monday.

It hasn't been the best fall so far for Wake Forest's Romain Bogaerts (14.29) as he fell to 0-5 after getting upset by Navy's Austin Jones (12.36) 7-6(4), 6-3 at the Wake Forest Fall Invitational.