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.

Kentucky Upsets #13 Duke, Washington Too Much for #12 Texas, Northwestern Rolls

Well that didn't take long - on the first weekend of the season a pair of Top 15 teams got upset as unranked Kentucky went into Durham and beat #13 Duke 4-3 and #62 Washington rebounded from a Friday loss to UCSB and knocked off #12 Texas by a 4-3 score. As I mentioned when the preseason rankings came out a week ago, the rankings didn't really take into account the number of starters that some teams lost and thus ranked a few of them way too high. Both Texas and Duke fell into that category because each team had to replace 4 starters and most of the replacements were freshman.

Anyway back to the day's events starting first in Durham. Duke and Kentucky battled it out in doubles with all 3 matches going back and forth. Kentucky went up an early double break at #1 and led 3-0 but Duke would claw back and end up taking it in a tiebreak. Duke had the break lead at #2 but lost it only to break late and take it 7-5. Duke also had the early break lead at #3 but Kentucky came back to forth a tiebreak which Duke ultimately won.

Tulsa Stuns Cal, UCSB Sparkles In The Emerald City, Louisville Too Tough For Troy, Sherwood Cup

The 2016 season is officially underway and it didn't take long to get our first upset as #29 Tulsa came storming back from 3-1 down to stun #21 Cal 4-3. Tulsa made 3 roster additions this week and all 3 newcomers played tonight but it was the experienced veterans that came through with the match on the line.

Tulsa got things started on the right foot by taking the doubles point with 6-4 wins at #1 and #3 but Cal still had to feel fairly confident going into singles with 5 of its 6 starters ranked in the ITA Top 90. Each team picked up three first sets and while Cal's Filip Bergevi, Billy Griffith, and Oskar Wikberg finished in straight sets only one of Tulsa's guys was able to do the same. Tulsa's Or Ram-Harel served for the match at #1 singles leading #3 Andre Goransson 7-6, 5-4 but he fell behind 30-40 after Goransson punished a second serve with a forehand winner. Goransson would get another look at a second serve but this time all he could do was float a backhand return long which brought up the deciding point at 40-all (no-ad). Ram-Harel stayed in control on the next point and closed out Goransson which gave Tulsa its first singles point and second of the match to cut Cal's lead to 3-2. 

The Madness Has BEGUN!!

The 1st round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament is in the books and while there were plenty of 4-0 blowouts (20) there were several nail-biters with 5 matches finishing with a 4-3 score and 2 of those 5 finishing in a 3rd set tiebreak.  The weather played a big role on Day 1 with several regionals experiencing delays and some having to move indoors.

Quick Summary:

• #1 seeds went 16-0 versus #4 seeds with 15 of 16 being a 4-0 final.  Va Tech/ETSU 4-1 was the exception.
• #2 seeds were 13-3 versus #3 seeds 
• Drake, Pepperdine, and San Diego State were the #3 seeds to crash the party. 
• 20 matches finished with a 4-0 final
• 4 matches finished with a 4-1 final
• 3 matches finished with a 4-2 final
• 5 matches finished with a 4-3 finals (2 were 7-6 in 3rd)  
• Teams winning the doubles point went 24-7
• San Diego State, Pepperdine, Stanford, Minnesota, Columbia, Northwestern, and Drake were the 7 teams to lose the doubles point but yet win the match.  
• Regionals delayed by weather: USC, UCLA, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Illinois, Oklahoma

NCAA 1st Round Previews: North Carolina & Illinois Regionals

North Carolina Regional
Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center - Chapel Hill, NC

[13] North Carolina (21-10) vs. [49-64] William & Mary (16-12) - Friday 1pm - William & Mary got the automatic bid by beating the College of Charleston 4-1 in the Colonial Championship while North Carolina got an at-large bid after falling to #3 Virginia 4-0 in the ACC semifinals. William & Mary went 0-7 against ranked opponents with the closest loss being 4-3 to Old Dominion.

The UTR Power 6 is the combined UTRs of the starting 6 (rounded to a whole #).  An individual win/loss to anyone with a UTR difference of 1.0 or greater would be considered an upset.   

Doubles Records: UNC 22-9, W&M 20-8

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: UNC 84, W&M 75

Friday Recap: Mississippi State Upsets #6 Georgia, Hokies Gut Out A Win, + More Results

The big upset of the day came in Starkville as the Bulldogs from Mississippi State upset the Bulldogs from Georgia 4-2.  Mississippi State took the doubles point for the 16th time this year and is now 11-0 in doubles at home.  State fell a break behind at both #1 and #3 but managed to turn both courts around and would clinch the point with a win at #1 over the #1 ranked team in the country.

Mississippi State kept the momentum going during singles play and jumped out to early break leads on 5 of 6 courts.

Mississippi State's Rishab Agarwal was 1st off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #5 singles over Nick Wood in a match that was pretty lopsided the entire time.  Georgia's Wayne Montgomery would cut the deficit to 2-1 with a 7-6, 6-2 at #2 singles over Juan Cruz Estevarena.  Montgomery fell behind 5-3 in the 1st set but would break Estevarena at 4-5 and 5-6 to force the breaker then after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the TB he took it 7-4.

Friday Preview: Virginia Tech/Louisville, Georgia/Mississippi State + Other Storylines

There aren't any top 10 match-ups on Friday but there are several in the top 40 that will be playing each other.  Below are my previews of the 2 biggest ones along with a few other storylines.

#13 Virginia Tech (14-2) at #23 Louisville (19-4) - 2:30pm est - The Cards have won 5 in a row and 7 of 8 with 4 of those being ranked wins while the Hokies have won 2 straight and 11 of 12 with 6 of those being over ranked teams.  Louisville is 18-5 in doubles while Virginia Tech is 9-7.

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of April 2nd.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #45 Andreas Bjerrehus (VT 13.79) vs. #5 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer (UL 14.65)
2. #63 Amerigo Contini (VT 14.25) vs. #94 Albert Wagner (UL 13.61)
3. #109 Joao Monteiro (VT 13.75) vs. #123 Alex Gornet (UL 13.60)
4. Hunter Koontz (VT 13.66) vs. Chris Simich (UL 13.37)
5. Edoardo Tessaro (VT 13.28) vs. Michael Lippens (UL 12.96)
6. Jai Corbett (VT 12.86) vs. Van Damrongsri (UL 12.36)

Friday Recap: Oklahoma Holds Off TCU, Virginia Too Good For UNC, UGA Over Vandy, Ohio State Too Much for NW

Oklahoma got pushed by TCU in singles but ultimately the Sooners had too much depth and outlasted TCU 4-1.  After OU took the doubles point they picked up 4 1st sets and ended up getting wins from Andrew Harris, Alex Ghilea, and Spencer Papa at 1, 4, and 5.  TCU's lone point came from freshman Guillermo Nunez as he hammered Dane Webb 6-3, 6-2 at #3.  The 2 remaining matches were abandoned with each early in the 3rd set.  

Oklahoma recap

“It was a good match,” head coach John Roddick said. “TCU played very well and they played hard.  We got a pretty good lead on them and they forced us into third sets. Our guys competed well. Doubles was a lot better. We are really coming around there. All in all it’s a good day.”

Head Coach John Roddick

“Spencer did a great job getting off the court in straight sets like that,” Roddick said. “I won’t say that it was easy but he did a great job of taking care of business and getting us a 2-1 lead. That really put us in a good spot because we had other first sets. That gives them very little wiggle room and that was probably the biggest key to winning today.”

“I think we were in good position on two courts and I’ll never doubt Axel until he loses the last point,” Roddick said. “We have been good at putting teams in position where they have very little margin for error. When you do that you will come out on top more often than not. We don’t have a clock so you have to close them out and our guys did that.”

Friday Recap: Wake Too Good for VT, USC Gets Its Revenge, The Ville Rocks UNC, Several 4-3 Nailbiters

Friday brought us several close ones as 6 matches finished with a 4-3 final score though of course there were several that weren't as close most notably 3 of the 4 in Indian Wells.  

The big upset of the day came in Louisville as the #29 Cardinals stunned #10 North Carolina 5-2.  It looked like #7 Texas A&M might get picked off too however the Aggies rallied late and held off #35 Mississippi State 4-1.  #33 Drake came back from 3-0 down to stun #22 Harvard 4-3 and #23 LSU pulled out a tight 4-3 win on the road at #60 Alabama.

In the biggest match of the day #12 Wake Forest ran its winning streak to 4 with a 5-2 win over #16 Virginia Tech.  The Demon Deacons cruised past Va Tech in doubles and then Noah Rubin made it 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 beat down of Amerigo Contini at #1 singles.  Jon Ho would extend the lead to 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win at #4 singles over Hunter Koontz before Virginia Tech's Edoardo Tessaro would put the Hokies on the board with a come from behind 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Christian Seraphim at #5 singles. Romain Bogaerts would clinch the win for Wake Forest with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win at #2 singles over Andreas Bjerrehus and then the teams would split the 2 remaining matches after the clinch.  

Wake Forest now sets its sights on #6 Duke with Wake making the short trip to Durham on Sunday.

Friday Recap - Aggies Over Short-Handed Vandy, Wake Hammers FSU, Louisville Get A Big Road W

Well the big match of the day was actually a good bit closer than I thought it would be after noticing that Vanderbilt was without its #1 singles player #10 Gonzales Austin who also makes up the #1 doubles team in the country with Rhys Johnson.  I still haven't seen anything official from anyone on why AJ didn't play but if I had to guess I'd say he was under the weather which I can relate to.

The one thing I don't get is how neither of the school's press releases bothered to even mention the fact that Austin didn't play.  I mean if the starting quarterback on the football team didn't play it'd have to be addressed by somebody, right?  If you are the person conducting the post match interviews wouldn't question #1 be "How do you think the absence of Vandy's #1 effected the match?" It sure would be my first question.   

Back to the match itself it was admirable that Vanderbilt was able to take the doubles point despite moving its #2 team up to #1 and putting together a make-shift team at #2 with both of those teams winning. 

In singles play, Texas A&M took 5 of 6 1st sets with AJ Catanzariti, Arthur Rinderknech, and Jeremy Efferding able to close them out in straights at 6, 4, and 1. On the 2 remaining courts Vandy had just got a split at #2 and was up a set and on serve at #3.  

Friday Preview

Friday will be a fairly light day of activity with just 8 teams in the Top 20 in action and with the only matchup between top 20 teams taking place in College Station as #9 Texas A&M hosts #11 Vanderbilt.

Before I preview that one here are a few others to keep an eye on today:

#31 San Diego (8-3) at #34 Texas Tech (12-4) - 1pm est - Live Scoring - San Diego is coming off a hard fought loss against USC and has wins on the year over South Carolina and South Florida while Texas Tech has only played 1 match in the last 3 weeks though has wins this year over Auburn and Mississippi State.  

#24 Florida State (10-4) at #19 Wake Forest (9-4) - 4pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming - FSU is coming off a weekend where the Noles beat Louisville and gave North Carolina all it wanted despite FSU playing without its #1 Benjamin Lock who was playing in the Davis Cup.  Wake has played its last 3 matches without its #1 Noah Rubin (wrist) going 1-2 in that stretch with respectable losses to Texas and Virginia and a win over TCU.  This should be a very competitive match that probably finishes 4-3 on way or the other.  

Hokies Rock #2 Duke, Deacs Hold Off TCU, Aggies Hold Off Feisty Gamecocks

The upsets keep on coming and today it was #2 Duke's turn as the Blue Devils got stunned by #44 Virginia Tech 6-1.  What made the Hokies win that much more impressive was the fact that Virginia Tech played singles without its #1 player Amerigo Contini which meant everybody else had to slide up 1 spot in the lineup.  Duke was also without its #5 singles player Chris Mengel.

Duke started off fine by taking the doubles point with wins at 1 and 2 but Virginia Tech would pick off Duke 1 by 1 in singles.  Florian Nicoud started things off by blowing out Josh Levine at #5 singles 6-1, 6-3 then Aaron Gomez gave Tech its first lead when he finished off TJ Pura 7-6(5), 6-0 at #6 singles.  Andreas Bjerrehus would put Virginia Tech up 3-1 when he broke Nicolas Alvarez to take the match at #1 singles 7-6(7), 6-4. With all remaining matches in the 3rd set it looked like VT's Hunter Koontz was going to be the one to clinch because he led 4-2 in the 3rd at #3 while Duke's Bruno Semenzato led 5-3 in the 3rd on #4 and Duke's Jason Tahir led 4-3 in the 3rd on #2. However Semenzato would be unable to serve it out up 5-4 then Edoardo Tessaro would consolidate the break with a hold to go up 6-5.  With Koontz nearing the finish line at 3, Tessaro decided he wanted to close it out himself and he broke Semenzato again to take the match and give Virginia Tech the stunning win.  Koontz would also win his match at #3 as would Joao Monteiro at #2 to make the final score 6-1 VT.

Note: ACC conference matches play a pro-set to 8 in doubles and utilize regular ad scoring similar to what will be used during the NCAA Championships.  The Big 10 is the only other major conference to use the same format while everyone else is playing no-ad.