NCAA First/Second Round Previews: Virginia & Oklahoma State Regionals

Virginia Regional
Snyder Tennis Center - Charlottesville, VA

[1] Virginia (24-4) vs. [49-64] Monmouth (11-9) - Saturday Noon ET - Virginia is the No. 1 overall seed though it got in as an at-large after losing to Wake Forest in the finals of the ACC Championship. Monmouth earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth after coming back from 3-0 down to beat Quinnipiac in the finals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). 

Doubles Records: Virginia 24-4, Monmouth 11-8

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 86, Monmouth 72

More Conference Tournaments: South Florida Too Good For Tulsa, Charleston Beats UNCW, UT Arlington Rules The Sunbelt, & More

A good crowd of around 100 gathered in Memphis for the finals of the American Conference Championship where South Florida was looking to win the title for the third consecutive year. South Florida and Tulsa met just nine days prior with USF winning 7-0 though Tulsa sat its top singles player Or Ram-Harel so this one figured to be much closer.

The top seeded Bulls got off to a good start at No. 1 doubles while Tulsa went up an early break at No. 2.  USF's Vadym Kalyuzhnyy and Sasha Gozun broke on the no-ad point when Gozun cleaned it up the net to make it 4-2

NCAA 1st Round Previews: Virginia Tech & Baylor Regionals

Virginia Tech Regional
Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center - Blacksburg, VA

[15] Virginia Tech (19-4) vs. [49-64] East Tennessee State (17-7) - Friday 2pm - #15 Virginia Tech got an at-large bid after getting upset 4-3 in the ACC quarterfinals by #42 Georgia Tech while ETSU punched its ticket for the 9th year in a row after shutting out Furman in the Southern Conference Championship. ETSU went 2-6 against ranked opponents with the wins over #56 Texas A&M Corpus Christi and #73 UNC Wilmington. ETSU finished the season by winning 13 in a row and 16 of its last 17 with the Bucs only yielding 11 points in the 16 wins. 

Doubles Records: Virginia Tech 13-10, ETSU 17-7

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia Tech 83, ETSU 79

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Weathers The Storm & Drake Rises Out Of The Valley

Championship Sunday (Part 1) lived up to the advance billing with the SEC and Missouri Valley delivering heart pounding thrillers.

When #1 and #2 play you expect to see a great match and that's what Georgia and Texas A&M delivered on Sunday afternoon in College Station.  Texas A&M got off to a fast start in doubles by going up early breaks at 2 and 3 and once A&M had the lead on those courts they would not relinquish it the rest of the way.  The A&M #3 duo of AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech finished first winning 6-3 then just as Georgia's #1 team of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland were 6-3 winners A&M's #2 team of Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo would clinch the point with a 6-3 win themselves.  

Texas A&M carried the momentum from doubles over to singles as they jumped out to early break leads at #1, #5 and #6 singles while Georgia got the early break lead at #4. Texas A&M's AJ Catanzariti would take the first set at #5 and Shane Vinsant and "Artillery" Arthur Rinderknech would get late breaks to take the opening set 6-4 at #2 and #3.  Georgia's Ben Wagland cruised to a 6-2 opening set at #4 and both Austin Smith and Paul Oosterbaan would come back from a break down to claim the opening sets at #1 and #6.  Smith was down 4-2 before rallying to win the set 7-6(5) while Oosterbaan came back from 5-2 down to take the set 7-5.