Coaching Updates, Davis Cup, Pac-12 Network/Twitter, Pro Circuit Update

Duquesne Athletic Director Dave Harper announced the hiring of Vanessa Steiner as the Dukes new Director of Tennis (Men's/Women's Coach). Steiner, who had been the women's assistant the last two seasons, replaces Rob Gregoire who resigned on March 1st which was in the middle of his second year on the job. Steiner graduated from Boston University in 2011 but played at Duquesne in 2012 since she had a year of eligibility remaining.

Paige Madara was named as the new men's and women's head coach at Grinnell College (D3) in Grinnell, Iowa. Madara replaces Andy Hamilton who was recently promoted to Director of Athletics and Recreation after serving as the men's coach for the last 21 years and the women's coach for the last 9 years. Madara played at Wash U STL from 2009 to 2013 and was most recently the women's assistant coach at Washington and Lee.

Friday Men's Recap - LSU and Oregon Pull Off Seeding Upsets

The opening day of the NCAA Tournament is in the books and as you can see from the scores below there were a few surprises. All the top seeds cruised with only Illinois yielding a point while a pair of 33-48 seeds pulled off mild upsets.

Friday Finals:
[3] UCLA def. Weber State 4-0
[4] TCU def. Jackson State 4-0
[6] Wake Forest def. Coastal Carolina 4-0
[10] USC def. UNLV 4-0
[11] Oklahoma def. UT Arlington 4-0
[12] Texas A&M def. George Washington 4-0
[15] Illinois def. Western Michigan 4-1
[17-32] Texas def. Lamar 4-0
[17-32] San Diego def. Vanderbilt 4-0
[17-32] Michigan def. East Tennessee State 4-3
[17-32] Georgia Tech def. UC Santa Barbara 4-1
[17-32] Mississippi State def. Memphis 4-1
[33-48] LSU def. Rice 4-3
[33-48] Oregon def. Tulsa 4-1

NCAA First/Second Round Previews: TCU & Cal Regionals

TCU Regional
Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center - Fort Worth, TX

[4] TCU Horned Frogs (24-3) vs. [49-64] Jackson State Tigers (6-18) - Friday 1pm CT - The only similarity between these two is that they both earned their leagues automatic berth with TCU defeating Texas Tech to win the Big 12 while Jackson State beat Alabama State to win the SWAC. TCU was one of the best teams in the country this year while Jackson State lost three times as many matches as they won. Jackson State won three matches in the SWAC, beat a D2 school, and beat a NAIA school twice while going 0-7 against ranked opponents. To make matters even worse Jackson State's post season roster does not include their usual No. 3 and No. 4 singles players, Miguel Martin Gomez and Stylianos Gkontsaris.  

Doubles Records: TCU 19-8, Jackson State 5-16

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: TCU 85, Jackson State 65

Thursday Conference Tournament Results

Several conference tournaments got underway on Wednesday, with an abbreviated schedule, but they really got going on Thursday with the ACC and SEC having four matches each.

All four matches at the SEC Tournament in Columbia, South Carolina, were hotly contested with South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Kentucky the day's winners.

The four matches at the ACC were quite as suspenseful with Virginia Tech rolling over Miami 4-0, Georgia Tech pulling away from Louisville 4-1, Notre Dame holding off Duke 4-1, and NC State edging Clemson 4-2.

Both of the matches in Ojai were 4-0 shutouts with Cal and Stanford overwhelming Washington and Oregon.

Sunday: TCU and OU Win Big, South Florida Trumps Tulane, LSU KO's Kentucky, Lobos Tear-Up Tulsa, UMKC Wins 6 Hour Thriller

Sunday may not have been the most scintillating day of tennis, compared to say Friday, but there were still plenty of storylines to keep us all entertained.

Two of the top teams in the American Athletic Conference tangled on Sunday in New Orleans as No. 27 Tulane hosted No. 22 South Florida. South Florida picked up a 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles while Tulane won 6-3 at No. 2. South Florida served for the match at No. 3 doubles up 5-4 but Tulane's Alex and Ian Van Cott broke and then held for 6-5. South Florida's Robert Cid and Ignacio Gonzales-Muniz held for 6-6 and then the Bulls duo broke a 4-4 tie in the breaker by winning the final 3 points to take it 7-4.

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.

Friday Recap: Drake Raps Past Iowa, SEC & ACC Play Underway, Lobos Top BYU

While conference play got underway in the SEC and ACC there was a non-conference battle brewing in Des Moines between #36 Drake and #33 Iowa. The two schools, separated by just 115 miles, are the only two schools in the state of Iowa that play Division 1 men's tennis so bragging rights were at stake Friday night. A boisterous crowd of close to 200, with a decent amount of black and gold, was on hand to see if Drake could make it five in a row over the Hawkeyes.

Drake got off to a good start at #3 doubles when Ben Stride and Calum MacGeoch jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Iowa's Robin Haden and Nils Hallestrand. Drake would hold on the deciding point to stretch the lead to 4-1 and then break again for 5-1. MacGeoch would serve it out from 40-30 to give Drake the 6-1 win in 24 minutes.

Tulane Beats LSU For First Time Since '04 + See Who Is Playing Davis Cup

It had been 12 years since Tulane last defeated LSU but the Green Wave were able to get it done on Wednesday afternoon with a 4-2 win.

LSU took the doubles point with wins at #1 and #2 but Tulane rebounded in singles by picking up five first sets. Tulane's Constantin Schmitz rolled over Justin Butsch 6-0, 6-2 at #2 but LSU went back ahead when Gabor Csonka beat Alex Van Cott 6-2, 6-0 at #4. Tulane's Chi-Shan Jao evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Simon Freund at #5.

SC Stomps Stanford, Michigan Tops Washington, Texas Tech Beats the Pack, & More

The featured match of the day took place in Palo Alto with Stanford hosting USC in a non conference matchup. Stanford had dropped the doubles point in three consecutive matches and it didn't get off to the best start after USC's Rob Bellamy and Jake DeVine picked up a quick 6-2 win at #3. However a short while later Stanford's Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would win 6-3 at #2 and then Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz sealed the doubles point with a 6-4 win at #1.

USC quickly turned things around in singles by taking five opening sets and Nick Crystal needed just over an hour to finish off David Wilczynski 6-3, 6-1 at #2. Stanford would end up being just as dominant in the second set as USC was in the first because the Cardinal took four second sets while USC's Jack Jaede forced a split at #5.

Friday Recap: Ohio St Hammers A&M, Nwestern Overwhelms NCST, OKST survies GAST

Sometimes rematches result in different outcomes and sometimes they don't - tonight's Ohio State/Texas A&M match in Columbus turned out to be the latter. These teams met just five days ago in the National Indoors consolation rounds with Ohio State pulling out a 4-3 squeaker but this evening it was all Buckeyes.

Last week Texas A&M won the doubles point, though Herkko Pollanen didn't play, but tonight with Pollanen playing at #1 with Mikael Torpegaard they and the team cruised past A&M.

Ohio State swapped Martin Joyce and Ralf Steinbach at #5 and #6 and Hugo Di Feo and Chris Diaz at #2 and #3. Texas A&M swapped Jordi Arconada and Shane Vinsant at #2 and #3 which meant both of those matchups stayed the same from the previous meeting. Harrison Adams also returned to the lineup tonight after sitting out on Sunday. (box score from last week is below tonight's box score)

Women's NTI Day 1: Top 4 Seeds Blank Out Opponents

I'll gladly take a solid 6/8 correct on Day 1 with one match going 4-3 and the other a match I thought would be as tight as it could get.

I think the story of the day was how competitive doubles was for nearly every match. Three of the eight doubles points were decided by a tiebreaker (Vanderbilt/Duke, Ohio State/Fresno State and Virginia/Texas A&M). With the 6-game, no-ad scoring format, does doubles have the same psychological effect on teams after a close point? Jonathan Kelley from On The Rise is covering the event for ZooTennis and you can read his recap with quotes here.

Someone in the comments pointed out how Florida, Stanford, USC and Baylor elected to skip the NTI to schedule their own tough matches and prepare differently for the off-season. Should teams who skip be penalized come NCAA seeding time and does it put an asterisk next to the champion's name? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

ITA Women's National Team Indoor Preview

The second-largest team tournament in collegiate tennis behind the NCAAs is the ITA National Team Indoor event. 15 schools advanced in Kick-Off Regionals to join host Wisconsin in Madison in the prestigious event that lasts from Friday through Monday. Last year, North Carolina dropped only 2 points in its 4 matches to clinch its 2nd title in 3 years. Lots of questions come into the tournament - can UNC match its title run after two of its three stars left? Can Vanderbilt show the world that its NCAA title isn't a fluke? Will UGA turn its consistency into a national title? Will a new team emerge from Madison as a top-tier team?

Wake Rocks OU, Boilers Stun Tulsa, Rice Claws LSU, Nwstern Too Good For Duke, Dartmouth Out Greens The Wave

While the final day of the Pac-12/SEC Showdown in Los Angeles was a washout, it was warm and dry at the indoor facilities in Norman and Tulsa.

Wake Forest was coming off a tough loss on Friday to #25 Oklahoma State but the Demon Deacons made up for it today by taking out #2 Oklahoma. Wake played a solid doubles point as its #2 team of Petros Chrysochos and Jon Ho ran away with a quick 6-1 win at #2. Wake's #1 team of Christian Seraphim and Skander Mansouri broke the Axel Alvarez serve to go up 2-0 but Alvarez and Spencer Papa broke back to make it 2-1. It stayed on serve until Wake broke Spencer Papa's 5-6 service game on the deciding point to take the match 7-5 and give Wake the usually all-important doubles point. The match at #3 was on serve when Wake got the clincher at #1.

Oklahoma was playing without its #2 singles starter, Andrew Harris, since he's still recovering from knee tendonitis so everyone except Axel Alvarez had to shift up a spot in the lineup. OU had to do the same thing last week so it wasn't a surprise to any of the guys.

Men's Kick-Off Weekend Regional Previews

There will be 15 men's regionals taking place this weekend with 2 of the 15 getting started on Friday. I'll start off by previewing the USC and Illinois Regionals since they both start on Friday and I'll work my through all 15 of them by Friday evening. Keep checking back for updates since I'll just be adding on to this post. FYI, the numbers beside the school name are each player's current Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) as of 1/20/16. 

USC Regional (Fri/Sat) - Marks Stadium (no live scoring due to construction)

#57 UC Davis [4] at #8 USC [1] – 4pm est/1pm pst – USC Twitter - This will be the dual-match opener for USC with the Trojans expected to start at least 3 freshmen while UC Davis kicked off its season on Wednesday with a 4-0 loss at #18 Stanford. The Aggies return all 6 starters from last year's team including its top player #38 Alec Adamson who had a tremendous fall winning four matches over ranked opponents. I don't foresee UC Davis getting on the board in this one with USC just too strong top to bottom. Prediction: USC 4-0 (Result: USC 7-0)

Sunday Recap: Kentucky Finishes Strong, Sarkissian Wins Again, Futures Action Continues in CA & FL

The final day of the FGCU Invitational was cut short a little with LSU and Memphis leaving after doubles due to a 6-hour rain delay. Kentucky waited out the delay and played singles with the host Florida Gulf Coast with Kentucky winning 4 of 6 matches. Kentucky ended up the big winner during the 3-day tournament winning 15 of 21 singles matches and 6 of 10 doubles matches. Kentucky's Jake Stefanik, Gus Benson, and Kevin Lai each went 3-0 in singles while Ryotaro Matsamura went 2-0. Memphis's Ryan Peniston, Andrew Watson, Kai Lemke each went 2-0 as did LSU's Gabor Csonka.

Sunday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 4-2/2-0
Memphis 0-0/2-1
LSU 0-0/1-2
FGCU 2-4/1-2

Kentucky & Memphis Dominate, Sarkissian Qualifies In Sydney, Huskies Sweep Seattle

Kentucky and Memphis were the big winners on Day 2 of the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational. Kentucky went 9-2 overall including 6-1 in singles with freshman Ryotaro Matsamura rolling for a second day in both singles and doubles. Memphis's Ryan Peniston knocked off  LSU's #78 Justin Butch in 2 close sets and Memphis freshman Chris Patzanovsky picked up a win over LSU's Tam Trinh. Sunday wraps up the tournament with each starting dual-match play in the coming weeks. Below the scores are quotes from 3 of the 4 coaches.

Saturday Results Singles/Doubles
Kentucky 6-1/3-1
Memphis 5-2/2-1
LSU 2-5/1-2
FGCU 1-6/1-3

LSU Shines in Florida, BYU Wins Opener, Vukic/Norrie/Sarkissian Win Down Under, Futures Action

LSU's guys were the top performers in Day 1 of the FGCU Invitational as they went 5-2 in singles and 2-1 in doubles. Kentucky had 2 freshmen make their debuts as Ryotaro Matsumura (14.08) won in straight sets over Memphis's Felix Rauch (12.63) while Enzo Wallart (13.17) lost a tough 3-setter to Memphis's Kai Lemke (13.38).

Friday Results Singles/Doubles
LSU 5-2/2-1
Kentucky 5-3/1-3
Memphis 3-4/2-1
FGCU 2-6/2-2

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

Thursday Recap: UNC Tops Duke, Ole Miss Fights Back, aTm Rings Up Another Win, Dawgs over Hogs

North Carolina won the big match of the day as they knocked off cross town rival #6 Duke 4-2.   The Tar Heels started off by taking the doubles point as its #3 team of Esben Hess-Olesen and Andrew Gores provided the clincher winning 8-5.  The senior duo had never played an official doubles match before today but were thrown together after fellow senior Oystein Steiro had to sit out with an injury.

Duke quickly tied the match at 1 with Chris Mengel picking up a win when Esben Hess-Olesen was retired with an injury when trailing 5-2 in the 1st.   Just a few minutes later UNC would retake the lead when Robert Kelly laid out TJ Pura 6-0, 6-1 at #6 singles.  I thought Kelly would win going in but I didn't think it'd be like that.  

Brayden Schnur would extend the UNC lead to 3-1 as the Tar Heel sophomore picked up his most impressive win of the year when he knocked off #11 Nicolas Alvarez 6-3, 6-4 at #1 singles.  Raphael Hemmeler would get Duke to within 3-2 after he scored a 7-5, 6-3 win at #3 singles over Brett Clark. 

Duke needed both of the final matches but UNC wouldn't even give them 1 as Ronnie Schneider came back from a set down to beat Jason Tahir at #2 and just moments later Jack Murray would finish off Bruno Semenzato at #4.  

Thursday Preview: Duke/UNC, LSU/aTm, Ole Miss/S Carolina, UGA/ARK

Pretty decent schedule of matches for a Thursday with Duke making the 10 mile trip to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina plus at least 2 of the matches in the SEC should be competitive.  I have the live scoring links below so follow along when they get underway.

#6 Duke (19-3) at #16 North Carolina (16-8) - 3pm est - Live Scoring - North Carolina leads the overall series by a wide margin (89-38) but Duke has won 4 of the last 5 so for North Carolina's sake it's a good thing that Brayden Schnur came back last week.   The Tar Heels went 4-3 in Schnur's absense but upon his return they were able to beat both Boston College and Notre Dame last weekend.  Duke also beat BC and Notre Dame last weekend so both teams are currently riding 2 match winning streaks.

Duke is 16-6 in doubles however they just recently changed doubles pairings after dropping 3 in a row.  Duke switched up its #1 and #2 teams by pairing Nicolas Alvarez with Jason Tahir and Josh Levine with Raphael Hemmeler.  Previously Alvarez and Hemmeler have been teamed up as had Tahir and Levine.   North Carolina is 18-6 in doubles and they've won the point the last 3 times out.