Weekend Preview, NIIC Seeds, Manny to the Hall, Recommended Reads

The fall college tennis season is coming around the final turn and starting to make its way toward the finish line. The past two weekends have been loaded up with the ITA Regional Championships and the Oracle ITA Masters and while there isn't a major tournament this weekend there are several good ones to follow.

USC is hosting the 60th Southern California Intercollegiate Championships with a strong field that will be able to experiment with PlaySight's PlayFair Challenge System (this will be the first college tournament to use it). Live streaming of the event is available here and you can view all the draws, seeds, and scores at the TennisLink site.

National Indoor Intercollegiate Selections

The National Tournament Committee made the at-large selections based off fall results and ITA Preseason Ranking. 6 of the 10 women's singles at-large selections went to ITA Regional Runner-Ups while the other 4 were awarded from a pool of players that made it to at least the quarterfinals at the ITA All-Americans or ITA Regional Championships.

Florida's Belinda Woolcock and Pepperdine's Mayar Sherif Ahmed were both awarded at-large bids after making the quarterfinals at the All-Americans and their respective ITA Regionals. South Carolina's Ingrid Gamarra Martins was awarded an at-large after making the semifinals at the ITA Carolina Regional plus she came through the qualifying draw at the ITA All-Americans and won her opening round match and she recently made the finals at an ITF Pro Event in Charleston, South Carolina. Duke's Meible Chi was awarded an at-large after making the quarterfinals at the ITA Carolina Regional plus she's had some stout results this fall - Flight Singles Champion at Duke Bonk Invitational, won four matches at the ITA All-Americans (3 qualifying/1 main draw), and won a pair of matches at the Oracle ITA Masters. 

ITA Regional Updates

ITA Regional Updates:

Friday - Men/Women
Thursday - Men/Women
Saturday - Men/Women
Sunday - Men/Women
Monday - Men/Women

The site migration is still not complete so hopefully eventually everything will be where it needs to be. I'll keep posting my daily updates at dev.collegetennistoday.com so visit that link to see everything.

Men's and Women's Regionals - Week 2

I have the draws for this week's men's and women's regionals over on my new site but to view them you need to use this link. All the old links from this site are being converted to the new address but the process is probably still another day away from finishing up - thank you for your patience. 

Pro Circuit Recap

13 players with college ties won pro events last week with another 15 finishing as runner-up.

Wil Spencer (Georgia '12) won his third career Futures singles title with a straight set win over Illinois junior Aron Hiltzik at the $25K USA F31 Futures in Houston. Spencer broke Hiltzik from 15/40 to take the first set 6-4 and then after falling behind 3-1 in the second Spencer reeled off five straight games to close it out 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour and 18 minutes. Spencer is expected to rise from 730 to around 585 in next week's rankings while Hiltzik will shoot up from 1580 to around 885.

Shift To New Site

---UPDATE Tues Oct 18th--

Experiencing technical difficulties with Google. This may delay the shift to the new site for a few days. I'll follow up once we get through a few extra steps that they need to keep from losing all our old links ;)
---

Effective tomorrow (Tuesday) this blogspot domain will shift to my new domain which will have the same web address except you drop the blogspot.com part. I've owned collegetennistoday.com since I started this site but have had it forwarded to blogspot - hopefully the switch will be seamless and you'll enjoy the added information that I have in my new dropdown menus. All my content has been shifted over except for the comments part from the last few months.

You won't need to do anything to get to the new site because this site will automatically redirect you.

Until the technical issues are resolved you can view the new site at dev.collegetennistoday.com

Shibahara and Matsumura Claim Oracle Masters; Frank, Gbaguidi, Cox/Konfederak, Bogoliy/Willing Win Oracle Cup

It was a day for the 2s at the Oracle events with both No. 2 seeds winning the singles titles as the Oracle ITA Masters in Malibu and a player from a Division 2 school winning the Oracle Cup Men's Singles Championship and Women's Doubles Championship.

UCLA freshman and No. 2 seed Ena Shibahara ran her collegiate record to 15-1 with a tough three-set win over Pepperdine sophomore and top seed Luisa Stefani. The pivotal point of the match came late in the third set when Shibahara broke Stefani's 5-5 service game on the no-ad (40/40) point. Shibahara then held from 40/15 to close it out 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

Oracle ITA Masters & Oracle Cup Saturday Results

Oracle ITA Masters Singles - you can view doubles and consolation bracket results on the tournament's home page. 

D1 - Women's Semifinals 

[1] Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine 12.26) def. [5] Hayley Carter (North Carolina 11.93) 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-3

[2] Ena Shibahara (UCLA 12.07) def. [3] Sara Daavettila (N Carolina 11.96) 6-3, 6-3

Championship (Sunday 12:30 p.m. PT)

[1] Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine 12.26) vs. [2] Ena Shibahara (UCLA 12.07)

D1 ITA Regional Championships - Week 1

Qualifying for November's National Indoor Intercollegiates in New York City is underway at 8 different sites across the country. There are 12 ITA Regions on both the men's and women's sides with the winner at each location earning a spot in the main draw at the last big event on the fall college tennis schedule. The other 16 regionals (8 men/8 women) will take place next week.

Down at the bottom of this post I have a list of those that have already qualified for the NIICs so I wouldn't expect to see any of them participating at an ITA Regional (unless they are trying to qualify for doubles). Players must at least make the quarterfinals to be eligible for an at-large entry into the NIICs.

Below are the top 8 seeds at each of the 8 regional along with a link to streaming video (if available).

Oracle ITA Masters & Oracle Cup Friday Results

Oracle ITA Masters Singles - you can view doubles and consolation bracket results on the tournament's home page. 

D1 - Women's Round of 16

[1] Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine 12.26) def. [16] Ksenia Laskutova (Tulsa 10.87) 6-3, 6-1

[9] Blair Shankle (Baylor 11.48) def. [8] Viktoriya Lushkova (Okla St 11.63) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

[4] Ashley Lahey (Pepperdine 12.06) def. [20] Kana Daniel (Penn 10.68) 6-1, 7-5

[5] Hayley Carter (North Carolina 11.93) def. [12] Laura Gulbe (Pepperdine 11.22) 6-2, 1-6, 7-5

Oracle ITA Masters & Oracle Cup Thursday Results

The Oracle ITA Masters got underway on Thursday morning in Malibu with mixed doubles and progressed through the singles draws as the day went on. 12 of the 16 men's singles matches were won by the higher seed with Columbia's Shawn Hadavi, Old Dominion's Adam Moundir, Denver's Diogo Rocha, and Valparaiso's Jeffrey Schorsch the four lower seeds to prevail.  On the women's side the higher seed won 15 of 16 matches on Thursday with the lone seeded upset coming when Penn's Kana Daniel, seeded No. 20, defeated Rice's Katherine Ip, seeded No. 13, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

You can view doubles and consolation bracket results on the tournament's home page. 

D1 - Men's 

[1] Yuya Ito (Texas 14.56) def. [32] Kei Ezaka (Quinnipiac 12.06) 6-4, 6-2

[16] Jack Findel-Hawkins (North Florida 13.80) def. [17] Lautaro Pane (Pepperdine 13.78) 6-4, 6-2

[8] Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.22) def. [25] Jaime Barajas (Utah State 13.10) 7-6(3), 6-2

[9] David Biosca East Tennessee St 14.20) def. [24] Michael Feucht (Lamar 13.27) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

[4] Ryan Peniston (Memphis 14.35) def. [29] Michael Nguyen (Army 12.45) 6-2, 6-4

ITA Oracle Cup - D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO

The ITA Oracle Cup (formerly Small College Nationals) gets underway today in Sunrise, Arizona, with the top players from D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO competing for a chance to win the Oracle Cup. The participants earned their spots after winning an ITA Regional Championship in September with a few at-large selections awarded at the NAIA and JUCO level due to their being less than eight ITA regions.

There were nine qualifiers at D3 level due to their being nine ITA regions so a play-in match was held between the winners of the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

Oracle ITA Masters News and Notes

The draws are out for the second Oracle ITA Masters in Malibu with this year's format differing a good bit from last year. Last year the singles field was limited to 16 players with the field selected based on preseason ITA rankings; this year the field has been expanded to 32 players with the goal to have one player per conference. The other change relates to doubles - last year there was a men's and women's doubles draw but this year those have been scrapped in favor of a mixed doubles draw.

The seeding is completely based on Universal Tennis Rating using a UTR from a few days ago. Texas freshman Yuya Ito is the top seed in the men's draw while Pepperdine sophomore Luisa Stefani is tops in the women's draw.

Coaching Updates, PlayFair Challenge System, & Pro Circuit Recap

It took about a month but Monmouth Athletic Director Marilyn McNeil announced the hiring of Alex Kasarov as the Hawks new men's head coach. Kasarov was the men's assistant coach at Davidson for the last two season and replaces Kyle Bailey who departed after a few months to become the new men's assistant at South Carolina.

Hofstra Director of Atheltics Jeffrey Hathaway announced the hiring of Jason Pasion as the Pride's new men's and women's head coach. Pasion had a successful two-year stint at D2's NYIT where he won over 70 percent of his matches and led both the men's and women's program to deep runs at the NCAA Tournament. Pasion replaced Jeffrey Menaker who departed after one season for unknown reasons.

Petros Chrysochos Takes Tulsa, Bergevi/Lakat Tame North Florida, Holt Halts Schneider in Consol Final

Wake Forest sophomore Petros Chrysochos is your 2016 Saint Francis Health System Men's All-American Champion after overpowering Ohio State junior Hugo Di Feo.

Chrysochos entered the match as the higher ranked player but it was Di Feo that got off to the quick start after breaking from 30/40 to take an early 2-1 lead. Chrysochos immediately broke back, from 15/40, and then held at love to go ahead 3-2. Di Feo held from 40/15 and then went up 0/30 on Chrysochos's serve but the Demon Deacon took the next four points to hold for 4-3. After a pair of holds, Di Feo went up 30/0 on his 4-5 service game but Chrysochos won the next three points to take a 30/40 lead. Di Feo got it to the deciding no-ad (40/40) point after Chrysochos broke his string on the service return (which didn't make it back over the net) but Chrysochos got the break and the first set after hitting a forehand winner.

Di Lorenzo Wins Women's All-American; Chrysochos and Di Feo To Meet in Men's Finals

Ohio State sophomore Francesca Di Lorenzo just started her second year of collegiate tennis but she's already claimed two Grand Slams after winning the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships. Di Lorenzo was playing her fifth match of the week while her opponent, UCLA freshman Ena Shibahara, was taking the court the 11th time since beginning the pre-qualifying rounds nine days earlier.

Shibahara started the match off with a hold and break but Di Lorenzo broke back and held to even it at 2-2. It stayed on serve until Di Lorenzo broke to go up 5-4 and then she served it out from 40/30 to take the opening set 6-4. There were four straight holds to start the second set until Di Lorenzo broke from 15/40 to go ahead 3-2. Di Lorenzo fell behind 30/40 on her next service game before coming back to hold on the no-ad point to extend her lead to 4-2. After a love hold by Shibahara, Di Lorenzo faced a big point at 30-all on her 4-3 service game.  Di Lorenzo hit a service winner to go up 40/30 and then she hit another service winner to hold for 5-3. Shibahara was now serving to stay in the match but she quickly went down 15/40. Di Lorenzo didn't waste any time and closed it out on the next point after using her wheels to track down a Shibahara drop shot.

Day of Upsets in Tulsa; Di Lorenzo and Shibahara Will Meet in Women's Final

Six of the top eight seeds began the day in Tulsa but by mid-afternoon Wake Forest sophomore Petros Chrysochos would be the only one left with a number beside his name.

Chrysochos and Arkansas senior Jose Salazar slugged it out for 2 hours and 40 minutes in their Round of 16 match. Chrysochos was broke serving for the first set at 5-4 and 6-5 before rolling 7-1 in the tiebreak. Chrysochos led 3-1 in the second set but Salazar won four straight games to go ahead 5-3 and would eventually serve the second set out to take it 6-4. Chrysochos jumped out to a single break 4-1 lead in the third set but Salazar got it back on serve and forced a third set tiebreak. Chrysochos would take the third set tiebreak 7-4 to move on to the quarterfinals against the top seed Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard.

Kwiatkowski Survives; Wake Trio Triumphs, Texas Freshmen Too Tough; Shibahara Shines

While the men's top seed Mikael Torpegaard cruised into the Round of 16 the second seed and defending champion Thai-Son Kwiatkowski got all he wanted and more from UCLA junior Martin Redlicki. The Bruin lefty used his big serve and forehand to keep Kwiatkowski at arms length but the Cavalier senior hung around long enough to turn it around.

Redlicki took the opening set 6-3 after picking up the lone break to go up 4-2. Kwiatkowski broke Redlicki to go up 3-1 in the second but Redlicki broke back and held to even it at 3-3. Redlicki came back from 15/40 down to send the set to a tiebreak but Kwiatkowski rolled 7-3 to force a deciding third set. Redlicki held to start the third set and kept the pressure on but Kwiatkowski was awfully tough on his own serve. Kwiatkowski held from 40/30 to even it at 5-5 and then he got the pivotal break to go up 6-5. Redlicki was up 40/30 in his 5-5 service game but a Kwiatkowski forehand winner brought up the no-ad point and when Redlicki netted a forehand Kwiatkowski had the break. Kwiatkowski hit back-to-back service winners from 30-all to close out the 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 win.

Cowgirls and Tar Heels Roll Through The Riviera First Round While Several Seeds Hit The Rocks

Three of the five seeds were knocked out of the main draw on Thursday with North Carolina's Hayley Carter and Ohio State's Francesca Di Lorenzo the lone survivors. Florida's Kourtney Keegan knocked off the second seed Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani, Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma defeated the fourth seed Miami's Sinead Lohan, and Oklahoma State's Vladica Babic held off the fifth seed Mississippi State's Jasmine Lee.

Three of the top four seeds lost in doubles with Florida's Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, the No. 2 seeds and defending NCAA Champions, the only ones to move on to the quarterfinals.

Oklahoma State went a perfect 3-0 in singles with Babic, Katarina Adamovic, and Viktoriya Lushkova posting Ws while North Carolina went 2-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles thanks to Hayley Carter (dubs), Sara Daavettila, and Jessie Aney (dubs)

Torp and Thai-Son Move On To Round 2 & Let's Up The Flo

Each of the top seven seeds picked up wins on a hot, humid, and windy day in Tulsa with straight set matches the norm. 25 of 32 first round matches finished in straight sets though several of those were tightly contested.

The top seeded Mikael Torpegaard cruised to a 6-2 first set against Virginia senior J.C. Aragone but the hard hitting Cavalier fought back in the second set. Aragone broke Torpegaard on a disputed line call on the no-ad point to take a 4-2 lead but a fired up Torpegaard broke back from 15/40 and then held for 4-4 after Aragone netted a forehand on the no-ad point. Torpegaard broke for 6-5 when Aragone netted another forehand on the no-ad point and then the Buckeye junior held from 40/30 to close it out 6-2, 7-5.

Women's AA Wraps Up Qualies - Main Draw Begins Thursday

Players from the Power 5 conferences claimed 7 of the 8 qualifying spots in California with Pepperdine's Mayar Sherif Ahmed being the lone exception. UCLA freshman Ena Shibahara was the only player from the pre-qualifying draw to make it all the way to the main draw after the Bruin won all six matches in straight sets.

Men's All-American Main Draw Breakdown

It's time for the main event in Tulsa with all 64 competitors known after the conclusion of the qualifying rounds. The main draw is out and there are going to be some juicy opening round matches. I thought I would take a look at the composition of the men's field and show you where the 64 players came from and how they made the field.

40 players made the main draw based off the ITA's preseason ranking with the last acceptance being USC's Logan Smith who was ranked No. 48.

Men's AA Qualies Wrap Up While the Women Start Back Up

The men's pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds in Tulsa have come to a close as the 16 qualifiers will get a day off before the main draw begins on Thursday.

South Florida junior Peter Bertran, Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard, and Columbia freshman Alex Keyser each qualified for the main draw after starting play back on Saturday in pre-qualies. Four freshman qualified for the main draw, three schools had multiple qualifiers, and 11 of the 16 qualifiers came from schools in Power 5 conference.

Pro Circuit Recap & College ATP Rankings

12 players with collegiate ties won pro titles last week with 10 of those titles coming within the United States.

Jarmere Jenkins (Virginia '13) won his first singles title of the year, seventh of his career, with a 6-1, 7-5 win over #292 Marc Polmans in the final of the $25K Australia F6 Futures in Brisbane. Interesting to note that five of Jenkins's seven career titles have come in Australia. Here was article on the match from Tennis Australia.

Bechard and Jacobs Pull Off Qualifying Day 1 Upsets in Tulsa

The opening day of the singles qualifying draw is in the books with four of the top 10 seeds, including the top seed, making an early exit. There was one Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) upset with South Alabama's Tuki Jacobs (13.23) knocking off the No. 4 seed Memphis's Ryan Peniston (14.36) in straight sets.

Qualifiers from the pre-qualifying draw went a stout 10-6 while both lucky losers were defeated for the second match in a row. Freshmen went 11-5 on the day with 4 of the winners coming through pre-qualies which meant they've now won 5 matches in the last 3 days.